Help

[Seth]

I have a problem. When I observe jupiter at dusk It is great with lots of detail yet when it gets dark it is no where near as good and just looks like a milky disc. Why?

Also why does my friend get better views (orion nebula in particular)through a 6inch scope than I do through my 8inch in the same city?

Cheers,

Seth

[Ags]

I find dark adaptation is not helpful when viewing planets - it just adds to the glare factor. Also, dark adapted eyes can't see color. I observe planets with non-dark adapted eyes and see lots of color and detail.

The brightness and detail of a nebula depends on the scope and the magnification. A high magnification can make a fuzzy object too dim. Alternately, too low a magnification can make the object too small. What EPs were you using in each scope, and type of scopes are we talking about?

[Seth]

Well I was using a GSO 8inch dob with 32mm eyepeice then a 10mm .

My friend has a skywatcher 150mm explorer with eyepeices from 25mm to 10mm with x2 barlow

[ronin]

Jupiter may be lower down and so more atmosphere to see through. There may be an increase in moisture, so more murke.

If you have low magnification then the amount of light gathered may simply swamp the image you generate.

The eyepiece may be garbage.

Have you collimated the scope?

Is the scope f/5 as these need better eyepieces.

[Seth]

How do I know if the scope is not colliminated and the scope is f/12. the eyepeices came with my skywatcher 130p (brand new)

[Seth]

Actually no its not f/12 forget that I 'm not sure what it is

[jonathan]

I find a moon filter helps when viewing Jupiter, it cuts out the glare. There may be colour filters that will help bring out the detail better but I haven't tried those.