Maxb

Thanks a lot! Ill definitely get a 130mm in time, i might try nebula tonight if the sky is clear! thanks for all the help people great to read.

17 hours ago, DaveL59 said:

I more prefer a frac but that's a personal thing and you may find a reflector suits you better when you get to that stage when you want to upgrade. Having said that tho I have 3 fracs and 4 mirror-buckets lol. One of the easiest of mine to pop outside and use is the small TAL-M 80mm reflector on a pedestal and that'll happily reach x139 and give very good views. The TAL's tho do punch above their weight esp compared to the lower-cost end of the market. As suggested above tho, if planets are your main thing then a Mak may be a better choice.

I have used the LT70 on moon, jupiter, saturn and mars and found it performed pretty well but sessions were short with the recent weather. I'd have liked time to play with barlow and higher mag but cloud and rain prevented that. Seeing also hasn't been great much of the time and that doesn't help. I reckon with the 8-24mm zoom that I got up to x88 in targets and while objects were small (they always are tho exc the moon) they were sharp and pleasing. I think with quality eyepieces and a proper star diagonal you'll get more enjoyable views but the scope will always be magnification limited tho the objective lens does perform quite well considering the price. The 2 other frac's I have to compare against are a TAL100RS (100/1000mm) and a 50's vintage 3-inch (76/1100mm) both of which show better but they run at higher mag given the much longer tubes. The 3-inch has a chip across part of the lens which is blacked out which reduces its effective aperture and still performs well, so I'd not say these low-cost 70mm scopes aren't capable 🙂 There is a thread on here "what can I expect to see" which would be good to read if you've not already.

 

The other issue to overcome is your own expectations. All the planets will look small, they are after all a very long way away and on the surface we're limited in how much magnification we can use for numerous reasons, the scope being only a couple of them. As Kat says, patience, learning how to see more, adapting to dark viewing are all part of the journey. For planets you don't need to be fully dark adapted, I find I get by just fine after just a few mins but then I do adapt to seeing in the dark quite quickly.   We'll never see the level of detail that imagers display in pictures but you'll get to the stage where you can make out a lot more than a bright blob, patience, the most important tool in the kit 😉 

Yeah i was looking at some scopes under £200, (Meade Polaris 130eq Reflector) even the 114eq, would this be too cheap or would it most likley do? I thought id be able to see mars with the 70mm but maybe not haha so to see the m31, or orion nebula with the 70mm is not possible either? Sorry i keep asking questions, ive only used my scope a few times but i really love the hobby already. Thanks for all the input and tips everyone, really appreciate it.

Thought I'd try to focus on mars with a 4mm tonight, couldn't even see any red haze, it was like looking at a star with my own eyes to be honest haha and its 100% a terrible 3x barlow, i gave it another try and im glad i got a new one:) Yeah ill see how things go, i just need more knowledge ect first. So would you choose a refractor over a reflector? And what aperture? Im just curious   

Yeah i was already looking at reflectors ect, i soon realised i won't get too much out of the 70,700 scope but its gained my interest in astronomy! Celestron eye pieces were pretty bad i won't lie, the scope its self is nice enough aside from the plastic haha im only part time just now so pretty much everything is on a budget.. ive been looking at the eye pieces for the future for when i can afford a more quality telescope for deep space, cant wait to see nebula and andromeda but ill need more practice too as you can tell. Thanks much needed guidance!

Aww thats great thanks! I thought the prism i had was pretty bad to be honest, thanks for the link:)  yeah i found the 3x to be too much, but being very new to this i wasn't too sure but speaking to you it pretty much clears it up. A zoom eye piece sounds quite good actually, ill go check them out too. Any other things i should look out for to improve the powerseeker 70/700? And again thanks for all the help:)

I have a 20mm and a 4mm eye piece, and the 3x barlow. I just ordered a 2x barlow for the 20mm eye piece, ive also tried mars but im pretty sure the 3x barlow is really bad. Couldn't see anything at a focus point, thanks for replying and the compliment!

What barlow and eye piece would be best for seeing jupiter and saturn? I also focused on the moon well with a 20mm eye piece, but could'nt get any closer focus at all through the 20mm and 3x barlow (that came with the scope). Im pretty new to this so any helpful advice would be great, thanks!