by Julius Szakacs
Congratulation to everyone for the succesfull Mt. Lassen Star party.
Sunday and Monday night,from my back yard,(it's all most like Lassen peak (-:) first time had a chance to see Uranus. It is located in the constellation Capricornus,above two of it's bright stars, Deneb Algeide and Nashire, forming a triangle with other,lesser bright stars. I had my Mac Alter 603 set-up. The planet is mag 5.8 and had to use 250x magnification or so, when it showed as a small greenish ball. Very nice, but no details. It's like looking at Mars at low power. I tried it with my 3" f/15 refractor, but not enough aperture to impress me.
Neptune is tougher at mag 7.8, by the time I set-up, went behind the tree each night.
Had anybody have better luck with these distant planets, with a larger aperture telescope? Must be cold out there. rrrrr