Skywatcher 127 synscan GoTo beginner needs help please!

[bex]

Hi,

I have set my new telescope up correctly (i believe) and have been out twice now on clear nights to view Venus, Mars and the moon.

Considering the scope is supposed to be able to magnify these objects by up to 150x, I'm a little disappointed at the image - In fact it does not seem much better than through my binoculers which are only 10x magnification!

I think I must be doing something wrong or am I just expecting to see more than this scope is capable of? I have tried both the 10mm and 25mm eyepieces and the 10mm is slightly bigger obviously but still not what I was expecting.

Please help!

Bex

[ronin]

Presume the Mak, so FL is 1500mm

The 25mm eyepiece will give 60x and the 10mm will give 150x

Venus is a cresent and is also cloud covered so in reality not a lot to see, well not quite a disk and the top of a cloud coverd planet doesn't have any real detail.

Mars is small and most find it dificult to get much out of it. From what is read it seems that you need over 200x and 250x is not uncommon. With this it means you also need good atmospheric conditions.

Jupiter however should be good at either 60x or 150x. Have observed Jupiter at low magnifications and it has been good, couple of distinct bands and, when I looked all 4 moons. That was at less the 60x.

I will however say that I used to see Jupiter through normal 8x42's and could see a disk and 4 moons, I have tried recently and not really a disk and have seen no moons for some time through them. So something has changed.

The possible reasons are:

The atmosphere is worse then you think, yesterday a few seemed to be saying this.

The eyepieces are failing to give a good image, could understand this of the 10mm but usually the 25mm isn't too bad. Equally the image through the 25mm may be small enough that all detail is lost due to brightness of the image.

Jupiter is now low for any observing, you are not looking "straight" up through the atmosphere so this comes into effect. The atmosphere is acting a bit like a prism, and not a good prism at that.

Something wrong with/in the scope.

Finally you are expecting something like a hubble poster image of Jupiter. Which you are not going to get.

I would say that all the first 3 are combining against you to some extent.

[Jiggy 67]

Unfortunately, if you've been out over the last couple of nights, although clear skies, the "seeing" has been terrible due to atmosperic conditions which will not be helping you.

Venus - As Ronin said

Jupiter - is past its best, you would have seen a lot more detail and the moons (even in bins) a month or two ago....but what you lose with one you gain with another, Saturn is making a comeback

Mars - Even with my scope at about 220x mag, Mars is small and it takes a lot of time at the ep to tease any detail

If you have the standard ep's that came with the scope, they are not the best (especially the 10mm) so you might want to upgrade them, also invest in a barlow which will double the mag of any ep you use. Most of all, don't get disheartened, I find this hobby to be 50% failure and 50% WOW

[Demo johnny]

I find this hobby to be 50% failure and 50% WOW

Perfect way to describe my short experience in all of this.

Struggle, struggle get peed off, mumble and corkscrew a bit staring at the sky.

Its like they say never go to sleep if you have had a row with the Mrs. Never pack the scope away without going back to something that you can say yeah tonight was alright.

For the last few weeks its been Jupiter and Orion Nebula now it is Saturn which I turn to if had no joy that evening. Waited 40 mins for Saturn to rise out of the fog up here last night just so I did not come inside in frustration.

[Tribal-Wolf]

I was not much impressed with my scope when I first bought it but after buying a BST Explorer 8mm to sort of replace the stock 10mm I was very impressed, definitely worth buying and also the TAL barlow is good value too. I think BSTs are called Starguider or something now but still the same EP.

One strange thing though I recently bought a second hand scope but another skywatcher although a small reflector and found the 10mm EP completely different to the one that came with the flex dob I have. The one that came with the dob is definitely a better quality EP, you can tell just by (pardon the pun) looking lol.

[Karen]

I was not much impressed with my scope when I first bought it but after buying a BST Explorer 8mm to sort of replace the stock 10mm I was very impressed, definitely worth buying and also the TAL barlow is good value too. I think BSTs are called Starguider or something now but still the same EP.

One strange thing though I recently bought a second hand scope but another skywatcher although a small reflector and found the 10mm EP completely different to the one that came with the flex dob I have. The one that came with the dob is definitely a better quality EP, you can tell just by (pardon the pun) looking lol.

The eyepieces supplied with the 127 synscan are Modified Achromats. These are the ones which disappoint so many "beginners" on this forum. Skywatcher's big Dobsonian 'scopes now come with 25mm and 10mm Plossl eyepieces which are a big improvement.

[bex]

Great - Thanks to all for your responses - At least I now know I'm not doing anything wrong so thats a start! I'll look into buying new ep's and basically just stick at it - Even though Mars and Venus didn't wow me the other night, I'm not disheartened, and I did see 2 satellites through the scope while viewing Mars which I never would have seen with the naked eye so that was cool enough for me to come away happy : )

[Northern Soul man]

Hi Bex, visual astronomy is totally different to what you see on images and pictures taken of the night sky, visually your only going to see what your eyes tell you and a camera lens works a lot better than your eyes.

If your observing from light polluted skies its even worse because the majority of the objects your looking for are invisible because of the brightness of the background sky washing all the faint objects out and making them "invisible".

I observe from very light polluted skies and even some of the Messier objects are invisible to me - but I keep trying, some nights are better than others due to sky transparency - so keep at it, Mars is difficult at the best of times, and even in much larger scopes, only show little detail.

I think you have to look at the whole picture - being out there under the stars on a nice clear night and being able to move from Constellation to open cluster and globular cluster, then onto the next target - knowing that the light, in some cases, has been travelling thousands of years to reach us and doing all this from the your back garden with a scope and your own eyes, not that I have anything against the imagers, means the universe (pardon the pun) I mean world to me.

Take care and enjoy your astronomy - as do the majority of gazers on here, keep plugging away - you sound like you have the enthusiasm for it - it gets better. Paul.