what can i expect to see with a 250px

[michaelg]

Ok so I won't be taking delivery of my 250px for another couple of weeks and can't help but wonder what I will be able to see

I live in an area that doesn't have too much light and wanted to know what sort of detail I will get when viewing planets , will I be able to see jupiters bands or say mars ice cap this is my 1st scope so really unsure what views to expect

[Bluey]

Hello mate, I've had my 250PX for a few weeks now, and used it a few times, it is a superb scope. As far as planets are concerned, Jupiter is an amazing view, bands, moons even the red spot, although I haven't seen that yet, bad timing! Mars is a hard one to say, I've looked a few times and quite honestly, it was a bit of a disappointment, I found it really hard to pull out any detail, although I've read here that is not unusual.

But the best till last, Saturn, absolutlely fantastic, the first time I saw it I was blown away, to see the rings is awe inspiring. You will have a great time with the new scope, enjoy yourself!

[RikM]

The 250PX is a great scope but I find for fine planetary detail you do need to make sure the collimation is bang on. Much less forgiving than the f/6 200P. When it is right and the seeing conditions permit, the views are spectacular.

Have a look through the sketching section for an idea of what sort of thing you will be able to see. These are much closer to what the eyeball sees than photographs.

I find this site matches my own experience with this scope quite well: Eyepiece views from a 10" scope

[michaelg]

Thanks the images look great

[old_eyes]

Agree with the general points made. I have a 250 Skywatcher Dob and have seen loads from a reasonably dark rural site.

Saturn and Jupiter fantastic. CAnnot overstate how much of a blast they are. Mars is big at the moment, but I haven't had much luck with the seeing. It has been a bit fuzzy for me.

Clusters, particularly globular clusters, look great.

I have managed good views of things like the ring nebula, and Orion nebula (basically the more intense ones).

Galaxies - I have seen quite a few, but I wouldn't say that most of them were more than the classic 'faint fuzzies'. However, knowing what they are adds to the fun.

Most remarkable sight was the Quasar 3C273. OK it looks like a faint star (about mag 13) in Virgo, but the damn thing is 2.4bn light years away, and I can see it with my own eyes using 10 inches of parabolic mirror and a few other optical components mounted on a set of ball bearings with some pieces of chipboard!

If you are reasonably dark you should be able to pick out most of the items in the Messier catalogue (I have seen about a quarter so far) plus lots of other interesting things.

Then of course there is the moon. You have to throttle down the aperture or get blinded, but when the moon is washing everything else out, I really enjoy just tracing along the terminator where the shadows are at their most intense to see what I can see of the lunar mountaind, craters, rilles and other cool stuff.

So you should not be short of things to see, it just depends what takes your fancy.

old_eyes