Jupiter

[Ad73am]

Can you see colours of Jupiter when looking through telescope? I have looked at it through skywatcher 500 but no colour? I have only used this scope once and don't really know what I'm doing or looking at.

Thanks

Adam

[lestergibson]

I can see the colour of the bands with my LX9mm EP, both straight and barlowed. What is a Skywatcher 500? It's not one that I've heard of. Were your eye 'dark adjusted' and did you study Jupiter for any length of time? More detail will appear the more you look at an object but it's important to be comfortable at the EP. If you have to crouch or whatever, it makes it difficult to concentrate on what you're looking at. It's a lot better and far more enoyable to observe if you're in a comfortable standing position or seated. Light pollution, which the West Midlands would have plenty of, I'd think, could also be factor, even if Jupiter is good and bright just now.

[nightfisher]

even with a modest telescope, you should be able to see colour on Jupiters surface, mainly in the northern and southern equatorial bands

[Dude_with_the_tube]

yes you can see the colours and the bands on Jupiter,obviously magnification has to be reasonable high

[Zul]

I see it white/brown or something similar to brown.

[Stu]

It depends on your eyes/brain too. I must admit that I don't perceive much colour on Jupiter normal, it is very subtle pink/brown at best

Stu

[Ad73am]

Sorry it's a Skywatcher 114/500

[Dellis]

I see colour using either of my scopes and would expect your scope to show colour too. However as has already been said the colours are subtle.

Dave

[Zul]

Sorry it's a Skywatcher 114/500

I had this telescope. Jupiter was white and bands gray all the time.

[Ad73am]

It's the first scope I've ever used, is it a decent scope to start with and should I buy it from my mate?

[Zul]

Well i actually liked that telescope. Its very good as a first telescope if you don't want to waste a lot of money.

[ronin]

I would have expected some colour with that scope - just 2 or 3 bands in brown but not black/white/grey.

Just searched and it is a spherical mirror which at f/4.38 will not give a good image.

What I suspect you are getting is simply a poorly defined image and so no real detail.

The eyepieces for a f/4.38 scope will have to be good to handle the curvature, the supplied ones will not be that good.

Personally I would pass on getting it as I cannot see you getting any decent viewing from it unless it is pretty inexpensive. Sorry to say it but you asked.

Will say I have no idea why they produce a scope that is a spherical mirror and f/4.38.

[Ad73am]

Thanks for all your info guys!!

[nephilim]

In my 130mm scope & 9mm ep I can see dark & light cream colours.

[LukeSkywatcher]

To be honest, i dont think a telescope plays a big part in seeing colours on any celestial object. I think it is mostly and almost exclusively down to your eyesight. Myself personally through any size scope i have used (90mm,130mm and 200mm) while observing Jupiter (on any given night).....................what i see is a beige/cream disc with 4 darker brown bands across the surface.

But there is colour none the less.

The GRS and the swirly whirly cloud formations that imagers get simply are not visible to me.

[JamesF]

There's a certain amount of "getting your eye in" too, I think. If you can spend enough time looking at it without disturbance it becomes easier to pick details and colours out.

James

[Lux1]

I have seen multiple cloud bands and subtle hues of cream and brown in a 60mm f12 refractor. It was a superb night for seeing and the 'frac was mounted rock solid on a goto mount. It also helps if you know what your looking for, averted vision or a suitable filter also helps.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2

[Neil_F]

I had a peek at Jupiter the other night with my TAL-1, and with the 15mm and 2x Barlow I was treated to a brilliant view of the GRS for the first time! I found that going down to the 9.7mm and 2x Barlow was just too much for the scope. The colours I see are pale cream and dark cream for the bands.

[Ragnar]

If I look at Aldebaran and Betelgeuse through my telescope, they appear to have a ruddy brown hue to them, Aldebaran appears to be more orange than Betelgeuse, but Jupiter looks cream and grey to me.

[Welrod50]

As has been noted already, it all depends on the quality of image delivered at the eyepiece. A sharper more contrasty image is down in some way to the scope's optics and also very much down to quality eyepieces too. If you use poor/cheper EP's with a quality mirror then the view will not be as good. The human eye sees far less colour in dark conditions and I suspect that, if you were to remain at the EP for a while and use averted vision from time to time, you would begin to pick out colouring in the bands. I find that my eye will not pick up too much colour unless the scope is cooled and I've been looking for at least a minute or so, and my vision is perfect.

To be fair, I would not anticipate a spectacular view with a 500mm focal length as it lacks the reach needed, but it would be better for deep space work, particularly at a fast f4.5. My SW 130 900mm focal length is f6.92. I only really get a good view of Jupiter with either a barlowed EP or through my 4mm eyepiece, and mine has an extra 400mm 'reach'. And then, if I used say, a 1500mm focal length Maksutov, the difference would be easy to see again (and so on).

HTH

[jason.p]

The bands are fairly well defined on my 6" with my 8mm (X150) and appear buff/creamy colour. Haven't seen the GRS yet, but that's because I haven't got the timing right yet.

(I did see Io's shadow last week )