Lens and light pollution question

[FC360]

I went out tonight as I saw Venus and Jupiter last night and wanted to check them out if the sky was clear and luckily it was I also managed to look at Mars for the first time which I was pretty excited about.

I've had my telescope, A Skywatcher 130M, for just over a year and found it a little disappointing when viewing planets, I thought they would look bigger then they do but I can still kinda see them and I have fun trying to find them and can stand looking at them for hours if only I could standing in a awkward position to look through the lens for that long lol.

I only have the 3 lenses that came with the scope 10mm, 25mm and a x2 Barlow Lens. What would be the maximum magnification to get for this scope? Also there is quite a bit of light pollution (that's being kind) and I was wondering is there anyway I can get a clearer image of the planets, moon and DSO's?

I also have a question about the mount I have as I don't know how to use it properly but I suppose that would require a new thread in the mounts section of the forum?

[umadog]

Roughly speaking, about 176x to 200x would be a high power for you scope. It will probably perform better at about 130x to 150x, but some experimentation will be needed to figure that stuff out.

Light pollution won't affect your views of planets at all. They will look blurry if you scope is badly mis-collimated or if the mirror is warm.

The light pollution will destroy the views of DSOs. The best solution there is to travel somewhere darker to observe those objects.

[paul schofield]

The supplied Barlow with SkyWatcher 130 scopes does leave a bit to be desired. Im afraid planets will always look small through yours and many much bigger scopes. Im sure if you upgraded your e.p's over time and invested in a decent Barlow or planetary eyepiece, say a BST explorer 8mm for example, your collimation spot on and a decent dark viewing site your planetary viewing would be more satisfying. I owned the SW 130P for a year and the views I got of Saturn and Jupiter with it were awesome. Keep at it, things will get better. But planets wont get much bigger, just more fun to view when details are seen. Good luck.

[FC360]

thanks for the information