Oct 28, 2026: Practice viewing Saturn, Uranus, Neptune

Michael Richmond
Oct 29, 2026

On the night of Oct 28/29, 2026, under good conditions, I used the 12-inch telescope to view Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. Next week, we will run a public viewing event in which these outer planets will be the main attractions. Just what can one see with our equipment?

I took some pictures using my phone's camera held up to the eyepiece; I may upload some of those photos later.

Notes from the night:

• Good eyepieces to use are the 32mm Super Plossl and the 12.5mm Plossl, which can be found in the metal Meade box
• Use the thick plastic 2-inch-to-1.25-inch adapter on the back of the 12-inch telescope, followed by the 1.25-inch extension tube
• The view with an eyepiece is flipped vertically and horizontally from the usual North-up, East-left orientation; in other words, North is down, East to right. To cause Stellarium to show the same orientation, use Shift-Ctrl-V and Shift-Cntl-H.
• The integrating camera on the finder scope shows stars down to about magnitude 10 on the TV screen. Titan was visible on the TV screen.
  • There are several other stars visible in the field with Saturn at the moment
  • There are almost no other objects visible in the fields for Uranus or Neptune, unfortunately
• Our mobile-phone adapter, for holding a phone to the eyepiece for afocal photography, works pretty well. It does take time to align the camera's lens with the eyepiece properly, though, so it's probably not feasible to offer it to visitors. Using this setup,
  • Saturn's rings and two (three?) moons are visible
  • Uranus and Neptune are both small, faint, point-like sources. I'm not sure how much color is visible for either one.