Knocked out by first time with a larger scope

[Stub Mandrel]

I picked up a second hand Skywatcher 150PL last Saturday. Last night I got fed up waiting for good conditions - I coudl only spend so much time on collimating and adjusting the gears etc.

I got an hour outside, although there was a very obvious thin layer of haze above scattered cloud. There was also enough wind to shake the scope!

A good omen was that I just plonked down the scope oriented to what I thought is north and Polaris was nicely in the centre of the mount.

The moon was stunning. The central peak in Tycho actually looked likea little cone, not a dot. Along the terminator the detail was incredible compared to my '76mm cheapy'.

Then Jupiter. I spent lots of time observing it at 240x and it was much clearer than with the small scope, although the seeing kept changing. As I got my eye in I started to convince myslef I could see a bit more detail than just two bands, two narrow pale bands just outside the main bands and darker beyond them, with a hint of texture in the big bands. Either I got better, the focus was better, the seeing improved or the scope cooled down a bit more  (I'd kept it in an unheated garage) and Jupiter got noticeably sharper.

I convinced myself that a small, dark dot just above the bottom band was the Red Spot.  I took a short break to check the 'net and used a few real time apps, and it seems the GRS was on the other side - what I saw was the shadow of Ganymede! Yes I did make sure used 'inverted' on teh simulator!

I would ahve tried other things, but Orion was half sunk in haze and Venus was behind a tree...

But I'm well and truly chuffed and can't wait for a truly clear night.

[ronin]

I convinced myself that a small, dark dot just above the bottom band was the Red Spot

It very likely was the GRS, Spot yes, Great and Red questionable. :grin:

Curious what the scope was on, you say gears and polaris, and I was expecting it to be dobsonian. :confused:

[Charic]

Nice report.

Im hoping that my next jump from 8" to a 12" I will experience the same or an even bigger wow! similar to moving from the 5" Celestron that I own. Bigger does bring with it some benefits, yet there are still some short commings to overcome.

[alan potts]

I know the new scope feeling and you would really need a scope to see through what I have outside, maybe even the VLT would not show anything.

Sounds like you had fun and I find that many times Jupiter responds very well to a thin cloud layer, it sort of acts as a ND filter, I have often thought that I saw more with the cloud though there is of course a limit.

Alan

[John]

Sounds like a good experience !

The more you study the planets, the more detail you gradually see, as you have found. It's as though your eye gets "tuned in" after a while to picking out the more subtle details.

If you were observing last night the Great Red Spot was not on show as far as I know but there were transits of the shadow and disk of Jupiter's moon Callisto crossing the planets disk and both could clearly be seen with a scope.

[damnut]

Nice report,

The more time you spend at the eyepiece the easier it becomes. Cripes 240x is good going in these weather conditions.

[Stub Mandrel]

As a rank beginner I have the advantage of not being aware what the limitations are ;-)

I've found this happens with other hovbbies too... fortunately in astronomy I'm less likely to break things than when I was overloading my lathe!

I certainly noticed that using the x2 barlow let me see more, where with the one for the cheap scope it made the view bigger but fuzzier. Certainly I was seeing a much clearer image than my (not very original) avatar.

Thick grey gloom again tonight. May I ask a couple of questions?

I have 10mm and 25mm eypieces and  x2 Barlow with a 1200mm x 150mm scope. I realise x300 is the theoretical limit, so I am assuming that stronger than about a 6mm or 7mm objective is pontless, or is it worth going for shorter focal lengths to make bright planet/moon images bigger if not sharper?

[Astro Imp]

Nice report, you're in for plenty of great sights with the scope you now have.

Good luck and let's hope we get some clear skies with less windy conditions.

[Stropper]

Nice report

I have a Skywatcher scope that came with 10 and 25 mm EPs and x2 Barlow. I now have a couple of Celestron X-cel LX EPs 7 and 18 mm and although they don't increase magnification I can see some things more clearly. The SW 10 mm EP was not great in my view

I am relatively new to this but in my limited experience my vote would be for better quality EPs rather higher magnification