Finally spotted Saturn's rings with my cheap 60mm telescope

After 3 tries I actually saw the rings clear as day through my old thrift store scope around 11pm last night... was not expecting it to work that well with just a 4mm eyepiece. Has anyone else gotten good planetary views with a small scope or am I just lucky?

3 comments

3 Comments

jason5242mo ago

Nah, you just got lucky with perfect atmospheric conditions, those cheap scopes can't reliably pull that off.

barbara842mo ago

Fourteen times I've used this same $80 Celestron on my back porch, and I've gotten crisp Jupiter bands in twelve of those sessions. You must be thinking of the really cheap department store junk with plastic lenses, not the entry-level stuff that actually works. "Lucky with atmospheric conditions" - yeah, because planning around the weather forecast is just pure chance, right? I track the Jet Stream maps before I even drag the thing outside. Your argument sounds like someone who spent $600 on a name brand and now has a weird need to gatekeep the hobby (not that I blame you, but still).

diana_king9d ago

My 5 year old nephew pointed my phone at the moon last week and got a better crater shot than I ever did with my old scope. @jason524 your comment about lucky conditions got me thinking, I swear every time I bring a scope out the neighbors start a bonfire right in my line of sight.