Help needed please.

[buzzlightyear]

Hi folks.

Can some of you experts give me some advice on Jupiter with my scope?

I can see its bands through my Meade etx70 but was wondering if I could see it in some colour. My view in my scope is black and white only, so would I need any filters or whatever to see some colour ?

Any help would be great.

Happy star gazing to you all.

[Oddsocks]

You won't be able to see any colour in Jupiter with the telescope you are using as the amount of light reaching your retina is too low to activate the colour receptors.

Your eyes are very sensitive to the luminance part of the image which is why you only see a black-and-white image but the light intensity has to be quite high before colour becomes apparent.

There aren't any add-on filters that you can use that will bring the colour out, the only way you would be able to see some colour is by looking through a telescope with a bigger aperture and faster focal ratio, even then picking out the colour bands in Jupiter is quite difficult.

[buzzlightyear]

Thanks for the help it's appreciated.

It's my first scope but I'm hooked now so probably need to upgrade soon.

Any suggestions on a secondhand scope for £400 budget?

It was still nice tho to be able to identify Jupiter's bands on such a small scope even in black and white, and I could see three moons tonight with fourth in transit I think?

Cheers

[davefrance]

You may be able to get some colour using a DSLR camera as the sensor will be more sensitive than your eyes.

[Oddsocks]

For your budget, and provided you want to be a visual observer then you don't need to spend all the £400 to find a telescope that will begin to tease out some colour.

You could go for a brand new 200mm 8" f6 Dobsonian, for around £280, like this one at F.L.O: http://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-200p-dobsonian.html

or here is a second hand example of a larger 250mm 10" Dobsonian for £300: http://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/propview.php?view=77154

If you check the UK Astro Buy Sell site often enough you can find something well within your budget that will be fast enough to show you some colour and much more detail.

http://www.astrobuysell.com/uk/index.php

You might be tempted towards astrophotography at some time and a Dobsonian is not an easy platform with which to pursue this branch of astronomy although many SGL members do post very good images taken with them.

As "davefrance" states above, a camera attached to your current ETX70 telescope will capture much more colour, I'm not so sure about a DSLR on the back of the ETX 70 due to the lack of space between the base of the fork mount and telescope tube but a webcam would certainly fit and with a little freeware image processing software you will be able to capture the colours quite clearly.

If you do think you might want to pursue astrophotography in the future then hold off buying a Dobsonian for a while and buy this book to read first, it will save you making expensive mistakes!

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/making-every-photon-count-steve-richards.html

Good luck with your observing!