why_always_me

Thank you everyone. Great insight and makes me feel relieved that I am doing something right 😀 I am also getting ready for the October 13 th opposition event. So hopefully I will be using the 10 + Barlow and see if I can get some Decent images of Mars. thank you so much once again to you all experts .

So, I decided to pick this stargazing hobby along with my kids from been cooped up due to Covid and went ahead and brought the Celestron 130 EQ newtonian. Set it up and all the good stuff of polar aligning and took it outside, and checked the moon out, everything is fine. Gorgeous moon and quite happy. Kids loving it, and then I tried to view the mars and the Jupiter. Using the 20 mm eye piece, i was able to locate the Mars and the Jupiter, but the image was too tiny. It showed very clear, Mars had that orange hue, but was very very small. I could also locate the 3 moons around the jupiter, but when i try to magnify the image, it is getting distorted, like a big white dish and the spider veins showing up. I checked the collimation and it seems to be okay (the three clips showing up, the eye looking back to me, the dark round ball seems perfectly centered. Is there something wrong I am doing or is the 20 mm eyepiece not meant for any magnified viewing? I have not tried with my 10 mm eye that came with the package though. I have ordered a Barlow but it has not yet showed up. All you experts that live and breathe this, can you please help with some pointers. Will be greatly appreciated.