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Jupiter in 60mm f12 refractor


Lux1

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I decided I couldn't be bothered to set up my goto newtonian last night and instead decided to try Jupiter in a cheap 60mm refractor.

First attempt with 12.5h 0.965 eyepiece, - moons apparent clean disc no detail.

Second attempt with sr4 0.965 - disc quite large faint banding seen, however image is fuzzy.

Third attempt with a 0.965 to 1.25 diagonal and a 2x barlow and a 15mm Astro Rev eyepiece. - Nice sharp clean image, not as bright as in the dob or as detailed, however moons all apparent.

Also several bands present during brief moments of good seeing.

All in all I am pleasantly surprised at what can be seen in such a simple scope once your insert a better or half decent eyepiece. Whilst this won't be my first choice for planetary viewing, - it will make a modest grab and go scope for the moon and nights when I just haven't got the energy!

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You can get a lot of enjoyment from a small refractor!

I started, many years ago with a similar 60mm Frank's telescope on a home made wooden(!) GEM....

Around x80 (8mm to 10mm eyepiece) was good; showed the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn's rings etc very well and with lower powers, all the clusters and some nice double stars...

Enjoy!!

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When I was in my early teens (many years ago !) I borrowed a 60mm F/13 refractor from a friend and spent a month observing a drawing Jupiter on every clear night. Towards the end of that period my drawings were showing lots of details as my eye had become used to teasing the detail out. It is amazing what these modest aperture scopes can do when you really push them :glasses2:

Nice report :rolleyes:

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My only scope (at the moment) is a modified 70mm F14 of indeterminate origin and for planetary / moon and white light solar is excellent

Having an alt-az mount it takes about 60 seconds to set up which is a big plus.

With a good Vixen 7.5mm Plossl it will resolve bands on Jupiter and Saturn's rings whilst a 25mm gives full disc solar and moon.

Quick simple and enjoyable.

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My first scope was a 60mm refractor. The mount was truly awful, but I spent years with it and got used to "working with the wobble". It outperformed my second scope (an 80mm Newtonian) for planetary views, despite the slight chromatic aberration.

My best views of Jupiter and Saturn with that scope were always obtained just after sunset, when they just started to poke through the blue sky - if they're ideally placed and you know where they are, you can pick them up in a finder before they're visible to the naked eye. The glare of the planets' discs was massively reduced this way, and it did wonders for Jupiter in particular where the more sharply defined belts and zones appeared chocolate brown and pale yellow in the dusky sky, instead of brick red and harsh, eye-watering white. It was nice not to have to peer intently at a very bright object trying to make out surface features, and I never saw as much detail near the poles when viewing the planet late at night.

Another thing that stuck with me from those days with the refractor was the way that diffuse nebulae appeared intensely green in the eyepiece, whereas my Newtonians have always showed them up as whitish. Possibly just chromatic aberration and I can see far more detail with the Newtonians, especially with my new 10", but there was just something about that green colour that made you feel as if you were looking at something that was glowing spookily in space, instead of observing patches of smoke against a starfield. Small scope views are special in their own way. :p

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I had incredible views at 170x in the 60mm 'frac last night. Even at half the aperture of my small 130mm Newtonian it showed numerous belts and zones, both at equatorial regions and towards the poles. The planet appeared a distinct rusty/amber colour.

Time to piggyback this on the Goto me thinks!....

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