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Hello

I am new to astronomy. I have my telescope last Christmas. Its a skywatcher 200p. I can find the jupiter with my 10mm eyepiece but all I see it a white ball with its white moons. How can I see the rings? I bought a celestron xcell 2.3mm thinking its strong enough but cant see a thing. Like I said I am very new. Which eyepiece would be good too see the belts. I am thinking to get a televue nagler 3.5 as cant afford ethos but would that be like my xcel 2.3mm. I dont want to waste anymore money. Thanks.

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I have a 200p Dob and the 10mm usually works okay - I also have an 8mm BST which is pushing my scope to the limit with Jupiter unless the seeing is impeccable. I did try a 5mm a while back and could see nothing to exchanged it for the 8. Would not bother with anything lower. I also have a 17mm EP and that gives some great views, although a bit small - but I can still see the planetary bands on Jupiter. I have been able to see the Great Red Spot and moon transitions as well.

The EPs you mention (I think) are probably too much for the scope and way above the maximum useful magnification. I, personally, would not buy a smaller EP than my 8mm now, regardless of the make/price. Others may disagree of course!

I think the problem is the seeing and the bands appear and disappear as you view it. I think most people would agree that you need to spend time on Jupiter (and other planets) to get the best out of them. The atmosphere you are peeking through will make the quality of the view change constantly, so you have to be watching for more than a few seconds to catch those fleeting moments when it comes into view.

Check your focus, adjust it really slowly - it is not a subtle focusser on the stock 200p and take your time with it. If you have a Bhatinov mask try using that to focus on a bright star and then slew over to Jupiter, you should be ready to go then.

Don't give up, it is fantastic when you get it right!

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Thanks for reply. Mine is eq5 mount. I guess same as yours? If you can see the rings with 10mm then what am I doing wrong? Cant even find saturn or anything else. I find moon and sun ok only lol. I bought a sun filter from flo and cant wait for the sun eclipse on march the 20th x

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I don't have an EQ mount for the 200p, it is on a dob base, but that won't make any difference to what you are seeing. I presume you remembered to put the solar filter on when viewing the sun....otherwise that might explain why you can't see anything?  :grin:

Only kidding. More seriously, are we talking about Saturn or Jupiter? Saturn has rings around it, Jupiter hands bands across its "surface". Jupiter is visible at the moment from the early evening in the East and tracks across to the west. Try viewing it when it is higher in the sky to avoid the atmospheric disturbance.

Saturn is an early morning object. 3-4am is when it is in the sky, but also quite low, so you might struggle to find it at the moment, depending on your surroundings.

Try again tonight with the 25mm EP (presuming you got one) and take time to look at the planet - I can make out the bands on Jupiter with that EP, it is just not a massive image. Take some time to get used to that and then pop in the 10mm and see how you get on.

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Lol yes solar filter is definitley on when observing sun ha ha I have no idea where to look for saturn lol. I am only using my planer finder app on my phone to guide me and all I see is stars. I only think what I found is jupiter because it had 3 moons first when I found it and then was 4 moons a while after but doesnt look more than a big star. Its on the other side of my house now. So have to move the telescope but thought no point without buying a new ep. I will move it tonight and will try again but raining here today. So I dont think there will be clear skies!

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If you have Jupiter in your sights with the 10 and/or 25mm eyepieces then it should clearly be a planet, no mistaking it for a star. If you do get a clear night, it has been appearing in the early evening when there are not too many other stars about, so that might be a good time to find it and be sure you are aiming at Jupiter. What ap are you using? I have found Stellarium to be a great help in finding stuff!

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Hi Ya Treehopper and a very warm welcome to the SGL - If I were you I would try and spend a bit of time with the Eyepieces you have - there's no rush for you to buy any more yet - just try and get used to them for a while.

Once you have Jupiter in the Eyepiece, try to adjust focus - but very gently - it sounds as you have Jupiter but your focus may be a little off.  Once in the middle of the Eyepiece, try and adjust the focus wheel in and out - but very gently - it may take a little time for your eyes to get adjusted, but you move the focus wheels in and out - try to get the edge of the Planet a nice crisp, sharp circle and look for the 2 bands which go around the Planet - you need to get these as dark colour as possible - you won't see a lot of colour to start with but the 2 bands are very distinct when you have the focus right - it may take a little time as we have to deal with an unsteady atmosphere that we have to look through - it makes everything "shimmer and shake" like when you look across a desert and you see the air "shimmering and shaking" the atmosphere is like this and when you look through the scope you are "magnifying" this effect - it gets really bad at times and makes the detail "bubble and boil" away making detail very hard to see.

If you can concentrate on the bands going around Jupiter and focus very slowly - you should be able to see the dark bands - this is when your in focus, don't worry too much about the moons as these will be only points of light like the stars - but when in focus they will be the smallest points of light you can get them - as you focus in and out using the wheel - these points will get bigger and smaller - you want them as small as possible to be in focus.

Hope that helps a little - you need to spend a great deal of time just with Jupiter in the centre of the Eyepiece observing - I spend hours at a time just looking - its all you need to do, with a little patience and time and adjusting focus - the bands will then come to "life" - you will start to see "lumps and bumps" in them - these are really big storms - the detail will be shimmering away - but you get a few seconds when the shimmering stops allowing the detail to become visible - but after a few seconds the detail goes again and the shimmering starts again - your looking for these very brief periods when the atmosphere steadies enough to allow the detail to be seen.

At first its very frustrating, but the more time you spend just looking - the more detail you will see - there is no MAGIC or BETTER scope - we all have the same equipment - the key is PATIENCE - Keep at it and let us know how you get on.

Saturn is around in a few months I think (without checking) but it will be low down in the sky - then your looking through more of the unsteady atmosphere so detail becomes much harder to see.

Paul.

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I remember when I first got my skywatcher 130 and couldn't see Jupiter, just a bright ball and its 4 moons... It was down to bad seeing conditions in my case and not focusing properly! I have a 10mm 25mm super wide and a zoom eyepiece! It took a good 2 weeks for the bands to finally pop out for me. I would think you should see it with your scope as its in a better class than mine.

I'm a newb so can only offer my experience, rather than actual help.

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Thank you Paul. Thats great help. And thanks theghetto for sharing your experience. My experience is just like your first experience. I just bought filters on amazon for £39.99. I cant help myself lol. I need to see those bands ha ha. And Marky I am using planet finder app. It shows me where all the planets are. I just downloaded the one you are using too. See if that will help tonight. Thanks again everybody.

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Hi Ya Guys - nice1 - I think TheGhetto got it about right  - great - its never the scopes that we have problems with its more than likely the seeing conditions - these can range from a rock steady image with a wealth of detail - to an image that is just barely noticeable - even the cloud bands can become "lost" in the turbulance  -so as you get out night after night you just get used to the seeing conditions and just try to make the best out of it if they're poor.

I've got a load of filters as well, but I've been using the Variable Polarising filter lately - its 2 filters which you screw together and then rotate the filters in their housing - this varies the amount of light which passes through - so you can just take the glare off the Planet - making things a little easier on the eye - and with not so much glare, you can make out the detail a little better - there's no hard and fast rule - some people use the coloured filters and some don't - it just depends on what works best for you - you can tailor your observing to the conditions - some nights I really struggle trying to see the detail there - so I just try some deep sky objects, or if the Moon is up - I do a little Lunar - there's always something to see.

Nice 1 Guys.

Paul.

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assuming a focal length of 1200mm, the 2.3mm eyepiece gives 520x magnification which is far too much assuming a cooled and collimated scope. 

you might used 150-250x most nights.

a 15mm plossl plus a 2x barlow would cost maybe £40 used and provide very nice views at 160x.

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However, I think a 2.3mm EP would be pushing it as would a 3.5mm Nagler (except on the moon!).

The 200p on an Eq5 has a FL of 1000mm, so the EPs people have been talking about with regards to the 200p Skyliner (dob) will give different magnifications in your slightly shorter 'scope.

A 10mm EP in your 'scope will deliver a magnification of 100x (1000/10=100), that's not a huge amount on Jupiter.

I mostly use my 8mm (150x), 7mm (171x) and 6mm (200x) on Jupiter, so the nearest equivalent on your 'scope would be 7mm (143x), 6mm (167x) and 5mm (200x) EPs.

Having said that, as others have already mentioned, the seeing conditions do need to be reasonable.

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Welcome Treehopper.  Seeing conditions play a vital part of seeing or not seeing.  Patience and take you time focucing, small movements.  I get really good results with the stock Celestron 20mm that came with my scope.  I've take a few photos with a 32mm projection eyepiece and my Nikon D5300 and T mount adaptor, not brilliant shots by SGL but I was pleased as a beginner imager,

Ron

Jupiter X2

Jupiter & Moons

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Hi Ya Guys - nice1 - I think TheGhetto got it about right  - great - its never the scopes that we have problems with its more than likely the seeing conditions - these can range from a rock steady image with a wealth of detail - to an image that is just barely noticeable - even the cloud bands can become "lost" in the turbulance  -so as you get out night after night you just get used to the seeing conditions and just try to make the best out of it if they're poor.

I've got a load of filters as well, but I've been using the Variable Polarising filter lately - its 2 filters which you screw together and then rotate the filters in their housing - this varies the amount of light which passes through - so you can just take the glare off the Planet - making things a little easier on the eye - and with not so much glare, you can make out the detail a little better - there's no hard and fast rule - some people use the coloured filters and some don't - it just depends on what works best for you - you can tailor your observing to the conditions - some nights I really struggle trying to see the detail there - so I just try some deep sky objects, or if the Moon is up - I do a little Lunar - there's always something to see.

Nice 1 Guys.

Paul.

Hi Paul,

I'm interested in the Variable Polarising filter.  They may just be the ticket for me as I suffer from intense ball of white light in eye piece ... otherwise know as Jupiter.

Do you mind me asking where you got yours from?

Thanks

Pete

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Treehopper, I put a picture on here last night and found out it needs to be a PNG file as mine was Bmp and you could only see it if you download it. What phone have you got? I used my phone and webcam together last night and got an ok-ish video of Jupiter.

I have a 7mm-25mm zoom lenses and if I look at Jupiter using the 7mm it takes the smallest possible movement to focus the image. Even then its not very clear.

Don't know if that helps at all.

Are you using the mobile site or the full site?

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This is a frame taken from the webcam video I got on my phone last night, to add the photo I went on the full site and clicked more reply options and it shows up at the bottom of the comment box you type in.

Hope this helps, also the image is just to show you what Jupiter looks like to me when recording.post-41658-0-16443200-1425023517.png

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Hi Paul,

I'm interested in the Variable Polarising filter.  They may just be the ticket for me as I suffer from intense ball of white light in eye piece ... otherwise know as Jupiter.

Do you mind me asking where you got yours from?

Thanks

Pete

Hi Pete, Thanks, I have 2 sets of the Variable Polarising filter, 1 is an Orion 1.25" set and the other is the  2" set from FLO (Variable Polarising #3) - Its branded as a Variable Moon Filter, works well on Jupiter though.  The good thing about these type of filters is that they keep the same "colour" - so a more natural look, as opposed to the Colour filters which add colour - so through an orange filter Jupiter looks mainly orange, but the Polarisers vary the amount of light through when rotated - I only rotate a very small amount - this just takes the edge off the brightness, but, importantly keeps the "natural" look of Jupiter.

There is another filter I use - its a Neodymium (hope the spelling correct) from Baader - I think its also called a Moon and Sky glow filter - it works very well on just taking the edge off the brightness, and importantly still retains the same colour - I was using this filter last night (26th Feb) during the double shadow Moon tranist of Io and Callisto early in the evening, I then "hibernated" the scope for a few hours and went out looking at the GRS transit  -a very nice night - the seeing was probably the best for a while, the detail on show was very nice, with a large "rift" in the North Equatorial Belt and a trio of white Ovals in the Equatorial region of the planet - the seeing was that steady I could make out detail in the polar regions (North and South) - but this detail is very "elusive" and only visible on the better, steadier nights when the planet is at its highest in the sky.

There's no hard and fast rule to observing Jupiter in my opinion, it has a lot to do with the SEEING - I think, more so than any filtering you use, when the seeing is good - its VERY, VERY good, but these nights only come around once in a while, last night was probably 1 1/2 - 2 out of 5, 5 being the poorest and 1 being the very best, so a good night for me here in the Midlands - with a wealth of detail on show, before and during the GRS transit with 2 moon shadow transits to start with, I could even follow IO as it entered the Jovian disk for a few arc seconds, until the overall glare of the disk took hold.

Paul

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You probably won't ever get a photo or video of Jupiter with your phone, you would need a fast shutter speed. I tried countless times and just got a bright ball. Don't know about the neximage but I'm having some nice views with the webcam...

Hope you get everything sorted and you get to see the bands sooner rather than later!!!!

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I got a cheap one from wilko cost about £8 just unscrewed the lenses and put on the adapter that cost about £10 on eBay with a built in IR filter, then just been using sharpcap or the webcam app on my phone. You can use any webcam really. Heard of people using a cheap £3 asda webcam. I tried using my phone at the eyepiece and point and shoot but nothing seemed to work so went with the webcam option and it works really well.

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