what should i be seeing on jupiter

[Bruce Ramage 85]

Atm im seeing a small orb with no detail. I was realy wanting to see more. iv been using celestron astromaster 130 with 10mm eye peice and 2x barlow.

[jimmyjamjoejoe]

Sounds like a bit too much magnification to me. Try the 10mm on its own. Jupiter is still low in the murky part of the sky, and the seeing isn't great. On a half decent night expect to see a small disk with a couple of greyish coloured stripes. If the GRS is on show you should be able spot a little light coloured lump on one of those bands. This time next month, jupiter will be well placed and the conditions should be better by then too.

[Moonshane]

make sure your scope is outside for at least half an hour before observing. this ensures it has reached equilibrium with outside temperatures. also collimate it (or check collimation) if you have not done recently.

I find that at 70x in my scopes Jupiter shows a small but pleasant disc which is beige in colour with two obvious brown bands. the four main moons are also obvious.

if you can get away with higher powers (seeing, altitude and collimation affect this most) then you should see dark caps, possibly the GRS, dark spots (barges) or dark dots (moon shadows) and if really lucky some of the finer detail in the main banding. the main thing is practice and spend at least half an hour to an hour looking at Jupiter - it rewards you for more time.

[Bruce Ramage 85]

Ty guys.

[DBushell]

Don't forget that when looking at the planets most of the colour is filtered out by Earths atmosphere. CCD style cameras able to detect faint colour like some web cams are used to record a movie of the planet, which when processed give more vivid images by multiplying the colour values of the stacked movie and helps to remove poor seeing.

All I could physically see when I looked through my Astromaster 130eq using a 2x barlow and 8mm BST eyepiece was a white disk with two faint grey lines across it, and of course the moons.

When I processed my movie from that night using my modified XBox webcam mounted to the 2x Barlow I got the following image, I'm new to all this but I'm pleased with my first proper attempt.

[John]

This is a rough sketch of what I could see on an excellent night last year with my ED120 refractor at 150x. The Great Red Spot was not on show during that session. It takes time to allow your eyes to get used to pulling the subtle details out - you need to sort of train them through practice. The colour is there visually but pretty muted and again, subtle:

[Capricorn]

If your scope is the one with the erecting prism in it then that will make the image worse, more scatter.

The 10mm and the barlow usually both leave a lot to be desired, they are not handing out TV grade optics.

Having all 3 in as a combination is probably not a good thing.

What should you be seeing, at 65x I would have expected a couple of bands and a small amount of colour - brownish somewhere.

That is what I have seen at a lot lower magnification, about half of what you would get with the 10mm alone.

If the thought is that more magnification is better, as in it's bigger I will see more, then forget it. More magnification also means dimmer images and less definition.

If you have the erecting prism in there I have no idea if it can be removed, if it can then you would need an extender for the focuser to move the eyepiece back. I would say that there is simply too much poor quality glass in the system. Would say that if no erecting prism and just a decent 8mm eyepiece you would see a lot more detail.

Is it collimated, the Celestron 130's appear to be f/5 so that needs maintaining.

[DBushell]

How can one tell if it has an erecting prism in it?

[John]

I think the Astromaster 130 is a normal f/5 newtonian with a focal length of 650mm. No erecting or other prisms used. The 10mm eyepiece used with the 2x barlow lens will give a magnification of 130x which should be entirely usable on Jupiter with a 130mm scope, assuming the observing conditions are reasonable.

Not seeing any detail could be caused by a number of things:

- not being sharply focused.

- scope not cooled.

- scope out of collimation.

- really poor seeing conditions.

- Jupiter being observed when it's too close to the horizon.

- lack of observing experience - it does take time for your eye to get used to teasing the details out.

Wait until Jupiter is high in the sky, let your scope cool for 30 mins before observing and try again with the 10mm eyepiece on it's own to stat with then adding the barlow once you are getting a sharp image with just the 10mm.

[JBadger]

How can one tell if it has an erecting prism in it?

Have a look at something terrestrial; if it's "the right way up" then it has been erected.

[cotterless45]

Around 6am Jupiter is overhead and super sharp, if the clouds ever clear. You could try early morning,

Nick,