This is my first post and ..........

[wimmer]

Hi everyone this is my first posting on here, and earlier this week was the first time stargazing.

I bought a 'beginners' scope, the Celestron 31042 Astromaster 114EQ Reflector, due it's good reviews, (and low price)!!

I notice many discussions on the eyepiece, I realise I am not going to get huge images, but should I be getting more than pinprick sized images of jupiter, not much bigger that when I used 50x binos, when using the supplied eyepiece?

I can just get the whole of the moon  (as it is at the moment which is apparently Waning Gibbous), in the eyepiece, again no bigger than with binos, can't really see any craters as some suggest I would?

Happy viewing!

[F1Bird]

Hi! I have this scope too and am quite happy with it. Yes, the view of Jupiter is pretty small in the 20mm eyepiece but to be fair it is half a billion miles away!   I found the 10mm made a small difference in size but made the view more susceptible to atmospheric wobbles (to use the technical terminology). If you spend some time just looking at Jupiter with the 20mm eyepiece you will start to pick up detail like the cloud belts. As for the moon you will get on much better when there is less of it on show than there is at the minute. Look at the terminator with the 10mm and you will see plenty of features. I have just got a new 8mm eyepiece and I swear that the view of the moon was like the footage of the Apollo missions when you can see the surface of the moon through the window!

[wimmer]

Hi, When you say Jupiter is pretty small, all i get is about the equivalent size of a zero in font size 12, on an A4 sheet of paper.

Mind you i still haven't worked out the star pointer yet!

[entropia]

I am new, too, and I have a Celestron 127EQ. My telescope came with a 20mm and  4mm ep. The first time I saw Jupiter I couldn't see the bands, it was a little white ball and what made me realize it was Jupiter were its four moon. I bought more ep since then but my favorite to spot Jupiter is the 17mm. It still look small but I can see the bands very clearly. I have used a 4mm but even though it looks bigger, the bands look kind of blurry (at least in my telescope).  I would say the size of Jupiter through my telescope is like the smiley face

For the moon, you should be able to see the craters. I have used a 4mm plus barlow and the craters look great. 

[kor84]

Hello and welcome to SGL.

The size of your eyepiece and focal length of the telescope will depend on how big it will look. I use an 8mm in my 650mm scope (650 / 8 = magnification), which gives a magnification of roughly 81x .

It looks small, but not so small that the bands cant be seen. I've not quite been able to make out the Red Spot

 As for the moon you will get on much better when there is less of it on show than there is at the minute. Look at the terminator with the 10mm and you will see plenty of features.

I agree

[entropia]

I took this picture last night with my phone. I had a yellow filter on that's why it looks yellowish. But it will give you an idea of how I see it through my telescope. 

[ronin]

Jupiter is small assuming 10mm and 20mm or 25mm then you will have about 50x magnification, with the 10mm then 100x.

At 50x you are sort of boarderline for Jupiter, not for size but getting detail, being bright it could be too small and the brightness swamps the image.

However 50x on the moon should be good.

Now the problem area, the scope is 1000mm focal length and a tube length of 457mm. Imaging getting a 1000mm rod in a 457mm tube. You cannot do it.

The scope design is therefore I believe a Bird-Jones, mean it is a shortish focal length with a barlow arrangement built into the focuser. To deliver an apparent focal length of 1000mm.

I suggest you do not use the supplied barlow (was there one) and stick to eyepieces. Simply having 2 barlows and an eyepiece in the optical path is too much. The B-J design is OK but it needs good optics to accomplish, Celestron do not throw in a good optical arrangement.

You may need to consider something like a 12mm plossl, GSO or Revelation better still Vixen, to give 80x and try that. The plossl will be a better eyepiece and the extra magnification should make Jupiter a little less bright so detail like bands appear. That is about all I can suggest.

Not sure that collimating one of these scopes is easy, the optics in the focuser sorts of makes it difficult.

[Gomtuu]

I took this picture last night with my phone. I had a yellow filter on that's why it looks yellowish. But it will give you an idea of how I see it through my telescope. 

Nice. If you know exactly when you took it, you can use this to work out which moons you are seeing.

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/javascript/jupiter

[entropia]

Nice. If you know exactly when you took it, you can use this to work out which moons you are seeing.

http://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/objects/javascript/jupiter

Thanks:)  I downloaded that application on my Iphone (from the same company, actually) but I always forget to use it. 

[entropia]

I couldn't edit the picture but this is the order of the moons at that time:

Europa on the left, Io, Ganymede and Callisto on the right hand side.

[Blazar]

Hi,

Might be worth also setting doe expectations. read this quality thread by Qualia located here. Its entitled "what can I expect to see". Might give you some additional information on what things will look like etc further down the line.

Hope you continue to have fun with your scope

Regards