staff@slashgear.com (Adam Doud)
2024-04-07 12:58:53
www.slashgear.com
Finally, there are planets that you can try to view — emphasis on “try”. For some reason that is unknown to me, the same feature that helps you aim at deep sky objects is not present for planets. When you select a planet to view, it will tell you the elevation and direction, but the indicators that are there for deep space are not there for planets.
It’s true, you can use apps like Stellarium (my personal choice) on iPhone or Android, but you’ll need a second device to aim, which is easy for someone like me, but maybe not for you. Plus, even when you use Stallarium to locate, say, Jupiter, it’s really hard to pick out in the night sky which little bright dot you’re supposed to be looking at.
Saturn is sadly not visible this time of year, otherwise, I might perhaps have been able to capture the rings with this telescope. It’s really just too hard to tell if you’re even pointing in the right direction, and when you’re talking about objects in space that are millions of miles away, a degree in any direction can really screw things up.
What’s maddening about this is that the app will help you locate objects that you won’t be able to see, but it won’t help you locate objects you might be able to see. Why that was left out I cannot possibly imagine, except perhaps for the reason that maybe this telescope isn’t really built for looking at anything other than the moon. But is that enough of a purpose? I’m not so sure.