first time seeing the moon close up

[singlespeedman]

Have just been out for my first proper session with my 127eq. Actually managed to get a decent view of the moon for about 5 minutes before the area went real hazy and I lost the sky altogether. Absolutely fantastic experience. I was only using my 20mm ep so cannot wait to try again tomorrow (when fishing) with the 15mm and 9mm that are due to arrive in the morning. Had a hard time with the barlow lens as could not get focused on either the 3x or the 2x with the 20mm so am hoping the new lenses will make life easier. I did manage to see vega after moving to another location and trying out the 4mm ep but the focus was hard to achieve and the 20m is a lot easier to use for a total noob like myself.

I really wanted to see jupiter but the mist in the first location and the tree line in the second ruined that for tonight. I did manage to find it in the sky with the naked eye on the long walk back to the car though and just hope that tomorrow night is clear for me so I can finally get a good view.

What size lens would be best to get any detail of Jupiter and does anyone have any tips for getting the view finder set up quickly as that took me about 20 minutes tonight?

Tight lines (to the fishermen) and clear skies (to everyone else)

Phil

[brantuk]

Jupiter will look great on a clear dark night away from light pollution and in good seeing at around 150x to 200x magnification.

Just divide the eye piece size (in mm) into the focal length (also mm) to work out wich ep gives that magnification. E.g. 1000mm fl divided by 8mm ep = 167x mag

[Moonshane]

best way to line up your finder is use Polaris as it does not move. use your biggest field eyepiece and centralise polaris. then set your finder so polaris is centred and it's done.

[Sam]

Phil, nice work on getting some fantastic views of the moon. If you can get out over the next few nights as the terminator moves across the moons face you'll see some pretty amazing things as crater rims start to come out of the shadow.

[singlespeedman]

thanks for the tip on working out the actual magnification and you now have me thinking of picking up a 6mm lens too.

[scottydog]

Hi Phil, glad to hear you got to see the moon earlier. Me and the wife saw it as we walked to the local curry house earlier and the cloud did spoil the view a bit.....but wait untill you see it higher in the sky and a little more 'full' - it is a awesome thing for sure!! I have a 32mm, 15mm and a 9mm EP's and they are all very good. For Jupiter I would start with the 15 and then go to the 9mm. A lot depends on the 'seeing' conditions if you go too high a power and the seeing isn't that great you'll just end up with a blurry image. Tell me, where have you ordered the 15 & 9mm EP's from? Sky's the limit?

Good luck

Scott

[singlespeedman]

the to ep's are both from amazon I am afraid as I have a prime account that is about to run out and I am not very patient with waiting for toys to arrive.

[nightfisher]

well done on your first lunar viewing, and it wont be your last! the moon is still my favourite subject...........tight lines phil

[JamesM]

Congratulations on firing your scope in anger, sadly for only 5mins but that's more than some of us have had of late. The moon the bane of some observers, is for me a great object to observe. Plenty of free maps on the internet that you can configure to reflect your design of scope (inverted, back to front or both!) There is the Lunar 100 being a list of features that you can find at different times of the cycle, some easy and some a lot more tricky to locate - but all good fun.

Hope the skies clear soon for some more action!

James