Eyepieces

[poncherello2357]

Being new to astronomy, telescopes and accessories glupt wanted some advice.

I have had my first few nights of viewing, using my new skywatcher 130. Great views of the recent full moon and also Jupiter and its moons, although I was amazed by what I saw when viewing Jupiter it was quite small I wanted to know how I can increase the size of the image. The eyepieces that came with it were 10mm, 25mm wide angle and a 2 x barlow. Do I need to add some eyepieces?

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[Capricorn]

First is what actually did you see?

I assume you are talking about the 10mm eyepiece and not the 10+barlow.

What do you expect to see in regards to size?

If 10p sized then forget it, if 5p sized forget it.

Jupiter just isn't that big, it might be the biggest of what we can see but that simply means the largest of the small planets we can observe.

For larger magnifications you need smaller focal length eyepieces, so make a choice, deoending on the capabilites of the scope. At 130mm dia then suggest you don't push it past 180x possibly 200x, but I suspect that 200x is beyond the sensible limits of the scope.

If it is the 900mm variant then that means a 5mm eyepiece to give 180x. How well a 5mm will work on your scope I have no idea. There can be a significant difference between 5mm and 6mm in use.

Try the BST Explorers at 5mm, they are good, the next one up is 8mm (112x). If you wanted a 6mm or 7mm then look at the TMB II Planetary's. I see FLO are doing an offer on the Celestron X-Cel EP's, they do a 7mm (128x) in those.

If you get greedy and go for as much as possible (5mm and 180x) be aware that the magnification may be too much and you see a poor fuzzy image so see nothing.

[Chris H]

Get a pea and hold it out at arms length and thats about as good as your going to get with Jupiter.

[poncherello2357]

Thanks for your replies, its all new too me! don't get me wrong I was amazed by what I saw

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[Hemsy]

Hi,

I have the SW 130 and purchased two Vixen NPLs, 15mm and 8mm, to expand my EP collection. I do find them a fairly big step up in quality of the provided eyepieces and see a pretty small (pea at arms length)but sharp view of Jupiter. If I use the 8mm with the 2x Barlow I find Jupiter bigger but less sharp which can be to do with the conditions (seeing), the Barlow I have is not that good; maybe a reason as well. I guess anything over 160x maybe difficult to get a sharp images with this scope and depending where you're viewing from. I guess one of the experts on here can correct me if I am wrong :-)

Ed

[John]

I've found 150x - 200x the most that is really useful on Jupiter even with a 10" scope. Jupiter does not "take" high magnification as well as, say, Saturn does. It is better to have a smaller but sharp and contrasty image than a larger but fuzzy one.