Please help!!!

[dhdeano]

Another clear night down here on the South coast, I must be doing something wrong. I can see so much detail on the moon through my 130p, but when i look at Jupiter or Venus i see the same, a bright small white/blueish disc!! i can see Jupiters 4 moons bright as you like but i cant get any detail of the planets.

HEEEELLLLP please!

Do i need to get a cheshire collimator thingymajig???

Im wasting so much clear sky.

[Mikea]

What eyepiece are you using? If you can clearly see Jupiter's moons, I doubt if you need the scope collimating.

[hemihaggis]

what did you think you would see when looking at jupiter ?

be honest please...

[dhdeano]

Im using a 10mm/25mm ep with a 2x barlow. when viewing Jupiter i can see the planet as a blue/white disc with 4 bright moons in a line, which are pin point clear, no fussyness! when looking at Venus i see a simuler white/blue disc.

I thought i would see a band or two on Jupiter.

The discs or planets are bright and sharp, just cant see any detail.

[rowan46]

you will not get any detail off venus just a bright disc if jupiter is too bright put a smaller eyepiece in and magnify it you should with a little time and practice start to see a couple of bands across it

[dhdeano]

What ep should i use? all i have at the moment is a 25mm =x26, x52 with 2x barlow and a 10mm =x65, x130 with barlow.

[hemihaggis]

if you have a lot of lp , might be worth heading for a dark site

[Tiddles]

There is a lot of whispy high cloud about tonight and seeing not great. Observe for a good while and you might just sneak a glimpse of the bands in a fleeting moment of better seeing.

Start with your 25mm EP, then try your 10mm without the Barlow. A small clear image is better than a big blur.

[patomlin76]

Be patient and you will see more detail on Jupiter, or you should do.

With a 70mm refractor I was able to clearly make out 2 bands and the 4 moons, but nothing much else. It was still a lovely sight though...

[stevetynant]

Every time I've looked at Jupiter I see the bands quite clearly and also the shadows of the moons passing in front of the planet - but no great red spot as yet - I have a 200p - the street where I live has bright orange lights which are partially blocked by a tree in my front garden and yet I'm getting decent enough views of the bands.

Same Eye pieces - surely he should be able to see the bands of Jupiter or have I just been lucky on the nights in the last few weeks I've been out and this is more of what I can exoect to see?

[kharga]

Venus is 1.1 AU in distance and the Moon is 0.026 AU - might be why you can't see it very well!

[hemihaggis]

Venus is 1.1 AU in distance and the Moon is 0.026 AU - might be why you can't see it very well!

cough cough lol im saying nothing

[dhdeano]

no light pollution, dark back garden, clear dark skys.

[Tiddles]

Make sure your scope is properly cooled down. You are outside and not looking through a window?

[hemihaggis]

no light pollution, dark back garden, clear dark skys.

i dont think you realise what light pollution and dark skies truely means

light pollution maps and the bortle scale tell us that bognors LP is bad , reading 7 on the bortle scale (out of 9 which is the worst )

this is what the bortle scale says about the level of light pollution where you live

" Entire sky has a grayish-white hue; strong light sources evident in all directions; Milky Way invisible; M31 and M44 may be glimpsed with the naked eye, but are very indistinct; clouds are brightly lit; even in moderate-sized telescopes the brightest Messier objects are only ghosts of their true selves.

At a full moon night the sky is not better than this rating even at the darkest locations with the difference that the sky appears more blue than orangish white at otherwise dark locations"

the 7 rating for bognor covers a wide area around the town , pogressivly getting worse as you head towards brighton and chitchester

what was that you were saying about no light pollution ? :D

[dhdeano]

im a few miles outside bognor, in a little village, Yapton. i know a clear sky when i see one. No street lights. when you look up all you see is a blanket of bright stars.

I will try some coloured lenses and see what happens.

[brucen]

With the same scope I can usually see the rings on Jupiter quite clearly. Having said that the last couple of times I tried over the past week they have not been that obvious despite it appearing to be very clear viewing. A 10mm eyepiece on it's own is probably what I would start with. I tried Venus as well last week but gave up as it was just a fuzzy blob.

[hemihaggis]

im a few miles outside bognor, in a little village, Yapton. i know a clear sky when i see one. No street lights. when you look up all you see is a blanket of bright stars.

I will try some coloured lenses and see what happens.

hi there , you would need to stay at least 50 miles from the nearest city or large group of towns to avoid the sky glow and lp caused by them , you stay 50 miles south of the largest city in western europe , you are a few miles from chitchester with a popuation of 30,000 people , bognor is very close with 25,000 people , you are about 20 miles from brighton with 160,000 people , you are in the middle of all this , you cannot avoid thier lp , have a look ay the below links

need-less light pollution

http://www.avex-asso.org/dossiers/pl/uk/index.html

the second link is very interesting as it lets you zoom right in with a high degree of resolution , even on yapton . the lights from your village are quite clear to see !!

you said in your above post " you know what a dark sky is when you see onen " ect , well i beg to differ ,you obviously dont . if you think your sky is dark i suggest taking a little holiday in the highlands .

please dont think im having a go ,im only trying to educate you , as to why the views from your location may not be as good as you would expect . and try to make you understand about the true horror that is lp

[rowan46]

I don't think it's lp I am in the middle of the west midlands and can see 2 bands on jupiter through a 25mm eyepiece and a 5"sct my guess is you are just slightly out of focus. I doubt it's collimation if you can see the four moons as tiny spheres. however it wouldn't hurt to get a collimator as you are definitely going to need it sometime

[hemihaggis]

Yeah think you are right about focus or just spending more time at the ep .

[Capricorn]

You will not see anything on Venus it is basically cloud covered at all times. So all you see it the top of the clouds.

Put the 25mm eyepiece in and locate and centre Jupiter, then swap to the 10mm and refocus. At 65x you should see some banding.

The barlow and the 10mm may not work too well together, so putting both in may not give the result you expect.

[dhdeano]

last night i tried using the moon filter with the 10mm plus x2 barlow and i could make out the browny bands on Jupiter. Think it was just too bright to see them without the moon filter. Also found Orion nebula (M42) for the first time last night. All from my rather dark back garden!!! I have clear skies again so will be out again in an hour or so. Or should i check a map of light pollution to see if i have a clear sky outside???? Mr Hemihaggis, as a newbie(had a scope less than a week) i find your so called advice rather offensive and not very helpful and has me thinking i wont be using this site any more.

[Trickystar1]

last night i tried using the moon filter with the 10mm plus x2 barlow and i could make out the browny bands on Jupiter. Think it was just too bright to see them without the moon filter. Also found Orion nebula (M42) for the first time last night. All from my rather dark back garden!!! I have clear skies again so will be out again in an hour or so. Or should i check a map of light pollution to see if i have a clear sky outside???? Mr Hemihaggis, as a newbie(had a scope less than a week) i find your so called advice rather offensive and not very helpful and has me thinking i wont be using this site any more.

1st... is the scope in correct collimation? To check this see this page, because it can be a huge difference.... Astro Babys Guide to Collimation

2nd... Forget the barlow for the minuet. Use your finder scope and get the star called Sirius in place. Use a low powered eye piece 25mm and gently focus onto the star, I mean very gently. Little touches and turns until you can get the star into perfect focus. Make sure your finder scope is centred on the star and it should be within a few mm when viewed trough your 25mm eye piece.

3rd... Locate Jupiter, from your position in your finder scope. Now with your 25mm no filters no barlow, you should be able to see 'pineapple rings' when you go from your finder scope to your focuser. Gently turn your focuser again until you see Jupiter come into focus. It will look like a small bright ball with other dots of light around it. Thats Jupiter's moons.

4th... Take out your 25mm and insert your 10mm. No filters... focus in on Jupiter. Through your 10 mm it will look a little bigger, you may even depending on weather conditions start to make out a few bands or a Orange glow.

5th... Once you are satisfied with this, carefully take out your 10mm and screw on the filter... the filters screw onto the bottom of the eye piece. Note the fine threading.

6th... Before you look through your focuser make sure everything is lined up through your finder scope. Now go back to your 10mm with the filter. You will be able to see bands although its not going to jump out at you, you will notice an improvement.

7th... Dont use the barlow if you are satisfied with that. I would use your barlow with the 25mm again repeating the steps above. But a Barlow plus a 10mm and filters on a 130mm diameter mirror is probably to much. You need to give yourself time and lots of patients... I to get blood boiling moments of frustration sometimes when my scopes seem to be having a bad day but bare with it and the more you do this the easier it becomes with the vast wealth of knowledge you learn.

You can do this on any planet and I will describe to you below what they will more than likely look like on your 130p.

Mercury... No.

Venus... A white/yellow/green haze, unless you have a big aperture scope, with filters.

Mars... Red haze... maybe just maybe! You might be able to make out the white polar regions.

Jupiter... Should see banding plus moons, however I very much doubt you will be able to see the BRS (big red spot).

Saturn... Light red/orange haze with ears. These ears are the rings but depending on your viewing conditions/quality of eye pieces will determine how distinct the rings are with your 130p.

The rest of the solar system you may get a blue star for Neptune and Uranus.

Hope this calms your frustrations.