What kind of telescope would I need to buy if I wanted to see the rings of Saturn?

Question

What are the best brands and what kind of strength do I need to see that far?

Answer 1

Hate to rain on your parade, but most people are disappointed when they see planets through ordinary telescopes.

The planets were never good objects, even with big telescopes, and explains why Lowell, who had a bigger telescope than most of us would ever own, saw what he thought were canals on Mars, and chronicled them over a long period of time.

It was only when probes did flybys and the coming of the Hubble telescope that we really got to see good planet pics.

The trouble is, the planets since they exhibit a sizeable disk under magnification, are subject greatly to atmospheric interference.

Basically you need few hundred mags to get a reasonable picture of Saturn's rings, and you won't get reliable magnification with less than 4 inch telescope.

Unless you are so fascinated by astronomy that nothing else comes close, you will probably be disappointed with anything you could afford.

For those of us who are fascinated to that level, just the personal and lonely feeling of seeing a fantastic object like Saturn is enough.

As a kid, all I had was a 40mm draw telescope, tied to a mount with my old school tie. I spent hours a night with it. Saturn rings were visible with my 40x, also Jupiter bands and moons. However, they were pretty miniscule and would only fascinate someone who is already fascinated.

Get a telescope only if astronomy is your number one thing. Otherwise you are going to waste time and money.

Answer 2

I can see the rings around Saturn clearly in my 4.5" Newtonian reflector by Celestron. Power isn't nearly important as aperture (diameter of the primary mirror or, for refractors, primary lens). In fact, high powered lenses typially yield fuzzy images because you magnify the turbulance in the atmosphere as well. I typically don't use anything beyond a 25mm with a 2x Barlow as far as power goes.

There are many different types of telescopes out there and some are good for some things while others are good for other things. You should do a lot of reading on the matter. Look up the different types of telescopes online, such as reflectors, newtonians, refractors, achromatic refractos, apochromatic refractors, dobsonians, schmidt cassegrains, and such.

The "best brands" as far as affordable telescopes go, in my opinion, are Celestron, Meade and Orion. The best brands period are probably Celestron, Meade, Orion, Astro-Physics, Takahashi, possibly Parks Optical, and a few others who build specialty scopes such as JMI or Obsession as far as giant Dobsonians go.

The worst brands are anything from a deparment store...this is typically a Tasco or Bushnell, however Bushnell does build a reflector which isn't neccisarily made from the best of parts but satisfies the occasional star gazer. I'll also add that Tasco owns Celestron but Celestron have always been excellent telescopes.

Answer 3

I have to disagree with nick s. While Galaxies are especially disappointing and Mars never lives up to the hype, Saturn never fails to impress. The Moon is also a big hit with first time viewers. As has been stated, 30 power is enough to see the rings, but they will be tiny, barely big enough to see. I find 100 power to be plenty of magnification. Most good telescopes will do that just fine. Any telescope that prominently advertises its magnification is not good, especially if it gives a high number. Try one in the source.

Answer 4

The better quality telescope you have the better you can see the rings of Saturn. If you want to actually see and take pictures I would think you would need to spend about $400 - $500 and get a 450x standard or 8 inch reflecting or better. You would have to research the makes the one I had was only 60x and was good for the moon and little else. I hope this helps checks the sites. You may be able to get a good one at a camera store. See below for lots of info.

Answer 5

The rings of Saturn are visible with almost any telescope with as low a magnification as 25x-30x.

Before you make a decision about buying a telescope you should research more about them. Don't fall for ads for small telescopes with outrageous claims of several hundred power.

Do read the following FAQs:

http://home.inreach.com/starlord/
http://www.astronomytoday.com/astronomy/tbfaq.html
http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org/buyers.htm

Answer 6

I would say you need at least a 90 mm objective lens. 125 mm is better, you can see the spaces between Saturn's rings with it. And the cloud bands of Jupiter. I can see the rings just fine with the Meade ETX 90 mm telescope. Magnification is not that important. If it's fuzzy at 25x, it'll just be bigger and fuzzier at 100x. You want good optics. The Meade ETX 90 ($700) is a Matsukov-Cassegrain ("Mak-Cass") scope with excellent optics. Of course, if your daddy is Bill Gates, I'd go for a 200++ mm apochromatic refractor for $50,000 to $150,000.

Answer 7

A telescope with a very low magnification could see the rings but if you want to get a clearer image, listen to nick s.