what is best next !

[solarman2012]

I recently bought a skywatcher explorer 130p and took it out to view Jupiter mars and Venus last night,i know that light pollution near me is quite bad but i was disappointed at what views i got back.

Through the 25mm eyepiece as supplied all i get is a dot with no detail what so ever, Venus looked like a bright white dot and Jupiter the same all though i could see three of its moons but again no detail,to be honest almost the same views as what i got though my binoculars,what is the best next step for closer images and at least some detail on the planets:icon_scratch:

[hobbesy]

Did you get a 10mm with the scope? I did with mine. It's not a great eyepiece but it'll do. It'll give you much higher magnification. Also the supplied 2x barlow will magnify the views somewhat, makig the 10mm a 5mm and the 25 12.5.

Venus always looks like a bright white dot by the way. It's the one planet that looks far better with your eyes than with a scope.

[solarman2012]

Hi thanks for replying,i did get a 10mm eyepiece as well as you said,so a barlow would be the next step then,would anything higher than 2x be to much do you think only i have seen a 5x one but i don't want to waste money if it would spoil the images with the default eyepieces supplied.

Many thanks.

[onesmallstep]

Hi

A x2 barlow would be fine for general observing and would give the equivalent of 5mm and 12.5mm eyepieces when used with the stock 10mm and 25mm EPs respectively. BTW, you could consider buying a moon filter as well to make lunar observing easier on the eye (observing the unfiltered moon is way too bright and will wreck your dark adaptation for several minutes).

Another way to improve EP quality is to upgrade the EPs themselves by buying other makes and/or high quality versions of the ones you already have. Have a look in the Eyepiece discussion subforum for more info plus related threads.

HTH!

[Merlin]

If you are a beginner to astronomy, bear in mind that atmospheric observing conditions affect what we can see.

Always make allowance for seeing conditions before condemning the 'scope. Is the 'scope properly collimated?

[solarman2012]

Hi Merlin, No I'm not condemning the scope i am pleased with it.

It could be a number of factors i guess, it hasn't been collimated although i didn't think it had to be done straight away as soon as i got it.

How frequently does it have to be collimated,is it every time it has been moved.

[newman]

You're going to need good seeing for planets, because high power work is more demanding of that sort of thing. That being said, Venus is always going to be a bright disk. You should be able to see her phases, but that's about it. As for Jupiter, it's my favorite planet to look at. I have no problems observing it's equatorial belts and the 4 sattellites, I found that I see the GRS too when the sky allows it.

Word of warning about barlows. If you can't get a satisfactory image through an eyepiece alone, you're not going to get a satisfactory image with a barlow + eyepiece combo. More magnification will degrade the image further, and you really need to keep it inside certain limits. In theory that scope should be able to go to about 260x, but in practice I'd forget anything above 150x-160x on most nights. And that's with at least moderately steady seeing and a properly collimated scope.

The best way to improve what you see is to find a darker sky while the seeing is steady. Equipment upgrade wise, you'll get a most dramatic difference (short of buying a new scope, of course) by upgrading from stock eyepieces - I'd forget about buying more barlows until you've at least replaced the stock 25&10 most of us get with the scopes these days. I'd do some research into that if I were you and plan any other upgrades for later - good eyepieces will be usable on future scopes and will provide a dramatic improvement over the stock ones.