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Greetings from southern michigan!!

whytespyder

By whytespyder
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whytespyder

whytespyder

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31 year old childhood space enthusiast from Hillsdale Mi, Always wanted to be an astronaut. Finally bought me a decent scope. Celestron 130eq. Celestron lenses: 20mm Erecting, 32mm, 17mm, 13mm, 10mm, 8mm, 6mm, 2x Barlow. Filters: nd 0.9 moon, 80A blue, 58 green, 21 Orange, 12 deep yellow, 56 light green, 25 red. Celestron 10x25 binoculars. I've been quite successful at finding both solar objects and deep space objects, but unsuccessful getting good views of anything but our moon. From my reading I should be able to see the rings of Saturn. The best view of Mars I've gotten looks little more than another star, hardly bigger yet alone round. What am I doing wrong? My math says my maximum achievable magnification is about 216x (6mm, 2x Barlow, f/5) and the scope should be ok with this, but my views look like binoculars. Please help?

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paul schofield

paul schofield

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Hi and welcome to SGL.

You have a few eyepieces there. What have your seeing conditions been like ? Is your scope well collimated ? I think maybe you are using a bit too much magnification on Saturn. I am no expert, but I would try Saturn first with your 8mm without barlow, then if seeing is good, you may get away with the 6mm. 6mm for me would be my absolute limit. Have you tried Jupiter with your 8 & 6mm eyepieces. Mars is quite difficult at the moment for detail, but if your seeing conditions are good you may be lucky. I think a lot of people express disappointment where Mars is concerned, me included. Anyway someone who knows a lot more than me will be able to advise you better. You should definitely be able to see Saturns rings with your set up.

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glowjet

glowjet

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Hi Whytespyder and welcome to SGL, from your description of the scope and accessories, am I right in thinking you acquired the scope s/h ? if so it may need re-collimating, especially as you have commented that objects do not appear round. With your clearer skies in the States you should be able to achieve reasonable views approaching the scopes maximum mag capability and certainly using less magnification the scope should perform well. If you go to the "Help Section" there will be many who could help you through some checks and the process of re-collimating, or you could enlist the help of a local Astro Club, if you have one nearhand :)

John.

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi and welcome to the forum. The Celestron site details some images performed with your scope and in particular one of Jupiter. Given that images tend to be a bit more detailed than what you can normally observe and also given that Mars is a smaller object than jupiter, you are not going to see a whole lot of detail, and that's without 'seeing' being included in the mix. Of course the other factor is what you are expecting to see given the available aperture and short focal length that you have. I agree with John in that your first port of call will be to make sure that all the optical elements are aligned correctly.

Clear skies

James

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whytespyder

whytespyder

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Thanks to everyone I will take your ideas into consideration next time I take it out. I was heavily considering the collimation being off but I did purchase this scope new and assumed it would be relatively accurate. I will be ordering a collimation tool soon. The night I was attempting to view Mars it was slightly heavy air out, I'm guessing that hurt the sharpness of my image as it did affect my view of the orion nebula also. I have not actually tried to view Jupiter yet as it dominates the side of my house that gets all the wind. Nor have I tried Saturn I was just discouraged by my poor views of Mars being an objuect so much closer. Today so far has been clear and calm but still heavy air. I should be able to try again this evening and will try Jupiter and maybe Saturn if I can find it. I do aslo have a question about the motor drive for this scope. I've been debating getting one but have heard so much bad about it. Can anyone who owns one give me some honest feedback on what they think about it?

Sorry Dana I'm not a baseball fan or any other sport really, LOL

-----------------------------------

Celestron 130eq

Celestron Lenses: 32mm, 20mm, 17mm, 13mm, 10mm, 8mm, 6mm

Celestron 2x Barlow

Celestron Filters: ND 0.9 Moon Filter, Kodak #80A, #58, #21, #12, #56, #25

Celestron 71133-C 10x24 Binoculars

Astronomy Stats.doc

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whytespyder

whytespyder

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Great news even though tonight ended up partly cloudly and hazy I was able to get a good view of Jupiter as well as three of its moons!!! I attempted to take a picture with my phone and Jupiter itself turned out ok but the moons of coarse did not show up. I tried to upload from my phone but its not corporating, lol. I was hoping for the "big red spot" but seeing conditions were not favorable and I'd dunno if it was even facing us. Still feeling a lot better about this purchase.:)

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