seeing more detail

[skankanan]

loving my new scope but just wondered how to get more detail out of jupiter and wondering if filters would help coz its just sooooo bright. can see the dual bands but the brightness of it seems to hide the detail and also wondering what i would need to see colours in some nebula(if possible) such as orions nebula and ring nebula

any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated

scope is a az goto skymax 127

[barkis]

Good seeing conditions play a big part in distnguishing detail on planets. Make sure your scope is not observing over a building, which may be radiating heat from it's roof. That can affect what you are observing.

Don't get carried away with magnification either, it isn't always advisable to use too much power.

Resolving detail is directly linked to the the diameter of a telescopes objective, be it a mirror, or a lens.

Colour in nebulous objects will only become visible to you if you image them. The distances are far too great for the human eye to discern, however big your scope is. Seeing colour of stars is fine, as their temperatures govern their colour. Contrasting colours can be seen when observing double stars, such as Albireo in Cygnus.

Ron.

[John]

Ron has made some good points in his post so I won't repeat any of those. What I will add is that it took me a while to learn how to get the best out of my scopes on the planets. I've now found what I need to do is to spend time observing them. You can see the basic planetary features easily enough but there is often much more that your scope can show (if the seeing conditions allow) but you need to give it time and work at it. After a while the eye becomes almost "trained" and the more subtle details start to pop out during the moments of best seeing. The time also allows your eye to become adapted to the brightness. I don't use filters for the planets but I've managed to see some fine details on Jupiter with my 120mm refractor and I'm sure your 127mm mak would be able to do the same.

[skankanan]

generally been using 24mm eyepiece so not overly magnified i dont think.and am i right in thinking coloured filters are pointless unless your imaging but what about a polarising filter would that help

sorry for such noobish questions lol

[John]

24mm (63x) is not enough to do Jupiter justice really - the scope should support 150x easily so thats a 10mm. Some folks do find filters help bring out the contrast a bit but I prefer to view planets unfiltered.

[RikM]

Coloured filters can help because they darken some features more than others and so help to increase the contrast. They are not to everyone's taste though. I sometimes find that a general light pollution filter helps bring out details on Jupiter but not every night, it depends on the seeing.

[ollypenrice]

I observe at a superbly dark site an have a half metre Newtonian but I must be honest and say that I have never seen colour in diffuse nebulae. Planetary nebulae, yes, and I think you will too. (The Blue Snowball for example.) Orion, no, though I'd love to say yes! I have poor to middling eyesight but I think you need to remove photographic images from your expectation. As ever, John is dead right in his advice to settle down and take a lot of time teasing out what the eye can reveal.

Olly

[Skylook123]

One of the not often mentioned secrets of visiual observing is managing expectations. Aperture and seeing combine together with quality optics and good collimation to make almost every time out a bit different. Great comments so far. From my experience, I got good star color in a 6" f/5 newtonian I had two decades ago, but I had to go to 14" to get good color from Orion. But moving up to over 7,000 feet altitude makes my 10" SCT do wonders with the blue-green planetary nebulae, and the 18" on The Ring, The Dumbbell, and Orion will bring tears to your eyes.

On Jupiter, it seems that color filters are a personal choice. But I've used lunar filters and a variable neutral density filter to knock down the glare and get the details. If the seeing supports it, high power helps draw out the detail on Jupiter, as does collimation.

It all becomes a package of elements that come together. And expectations have a lot to do with the post-observation satisfaction. Keep trying different things, and you might find you go from "looking" to "seeing". That's always an uplifting moment.

[skankanan]

kool thanks for the advice just didnt want to miss anything from not having any filters

not had greaT CONDITIONS EITHER new scope curse and all that

bring on the cold january nights lol

[swamp thing]

It all becomes a package of elements that come together. And expectations have a lot to do with the post-observation satisfaction. Keep trying different things, and you might find you go from "looking" to "seeing". That's always an uplifting moment.

Indeed. This is great advice. The more you look the more you will see.

Sounds a bit corny but it's true.

I am not much of a planetary observer, preferring the deep sky but this too benefits from time and patience at the scope.

More than one night is needed on most objects. If you start a log you'll be pleasantly surprised how much more detail you can see after a few sessions.

A quick glance is never enough to see all that can be observed.

Keep at it buddy

Regards Steve

[skankanan]

almost went blind in 1 eye the other night i spent so long looking at jupiter

[dweller25]

For Jupiter I find an exit pupil of 0.8mm to be about right in terms of brightness v detail. In your scope that would be a 9mm eyepiece giving x167 = 0.76mm exit pupil.

Also cool down is VERY important - a good hour for critical planetry detail.

[Moonshane]

For Jupiter I find an exit pupil of 0.8mm to be about right in terms of brightness v detail. In your scope that would be a 9mm eyepiece giving x167 = 0.76mm exit pupil.

Also cool down is VERY important - a good hour for critical planetry detail.

some excellent points above, especially David's quoted here. This exactly matches my usual experience with my 9mm eyepiece bringing the best from my 6" f11 newt.

[Bart]

I agree, patience at the EP is a virtue, as is relaxing the eye, and for me, relaxing the bum on a well adjusted chair (and warm clothes these days), all the latter allows the former.

Bart