Universe Sandbox
General Category => Everything Else => Topic started by: tuto99 on November 06, 2012, 02:03:38 PM
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Even though I am familiar with astronomy, I never had the time to study telescopes, so I'm a huge novice(noob) at using these instruments. So I need your guys' help.
My question is, could I be able to see Venus or Mars well with my telescope? I mean a decent size picture of it, not a small dot like with weaker telescopes. A few nights ago I saw Jupiter with my telescope, and it wasn't too huge, but I was satisfied and impressed.
The lens I used to look at Jupiter that night was 25mm, and my telescope is about 2.5 feet. Do you think I'm able to view Mars or Venus?
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Current geocentric distances in AU: (distance from earth)
Venus: 1.29 (radius 6050 km)
Mars: 2.07 (radius 3400km)
Jupiter: 4.16 (radius 69910km)
http://www.planetary-aspects.com/curr_asp/curr_posns.php (http://www.planetary-aspects.com/curr_asp/curr_posns.php)
radius / distance
Venus: 4690
Mars: 1643
Jupiter: 16805
keep in mind that this changes every day.
this seems to suggest jupiter would look ten times larger than mars and venus around 3 times larger than mars and 3 times smaller than jupiter.
HOWEVER*
this does not take account into the brightness of the objects.
you might be able to see Venus and Mars, but they might be so dim you won't notice them.
We can calculate the brightness of venus, mars, and jupiters, but because they orbit the sun like we do they have different phases like the moon and distances.
brightness comparison:
Mars: magnitude +1.23
Venus: magnitude -4.01
Jupiter: magnitude -2.67
this suggests that venus is twice as bright as jupiter and mars is 30 times dimmer than jupiter.
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So that means Venus will look smaller than Jupiter, and Mars will look smaller than Venus? That'll be a shame.
I already knew that depending on the phase of a celestial object, their absolute magnitude will vary. Thanks for the answers though. :)
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my 6 SE has never been able to see mars better than a blob of red. Don't ever expect anything good. That way you won't be disappointed when the view sucks, but you'll be surprised when you actually can see something amazing.
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/me aims the hubble space telescope at mars.
/me thinks that view sucks, i cant expect anything good.
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my 6 SE has never been able to see mars better than a blob of red. Don't ever expect anything good. That way you won't be disappointed when the view sucks, but you'll be surprised when you actually can see something amazing.
I know. I was trying to say that I would be surprised if I was far from seeing Mars or Venus. But once again, I can't expect everything to be the way I wished it.
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You'll be able to see them for sure, whether you get detail or not, that depends on a lot of factors.
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k thx luv appreshiate the feedback
sorry i forgot to post this 3 years ago
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did i just start a new era of bumping back very old threads
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hopefully not