How much magnification is needed to see jupiter?

[Dolito]

There shouldn't be very much cooldown needed with a 3" reflector, but if its been stored at living room temp, maybe give it 20 mins to acclimatise.

I gave it about an hour outside while i ate dinner. That made a huge difference. I was able to actually see the shape of the planet, and if my eyes focused just right, i could make out the bands for a split second. I was also able to see the four moons!! thanks everyone for your input!

[DRT]

Seen Jupiter as soon as I set up my scope, starter scope, and all I get is a white disc with four moons but no detail. I am putting this down to the poor EP plus the relatively inexpensive scope. Just ordered a plossle eyepiece, 26mm, but I am tempted to look for a smaller piece given what is being said above.

My scope is a 114mm 500mm. What do people recommend as an ideal size of piece for looking at Jupiter? It is a 1.25inch piece.

Thanks,

Mark

What type/size of scope do you have?

[John]

What type/size of scope do you have?

"My scope is a 114mm 500mm."

My guess would be a Skywatcher newtonian.

[Charic]

I recently bought a telescope and last night was the first night since i got it that jupiter was visible, its been real yucky in the midwest recently. I have a 700mm telescope and both a 25 and 10 mm eyepiece. The moon looked spectacular with the 25mm piece but when i went to look at jupiter, it was nothing more than a point of light with both my 25 and 10mm eyepieces. do i need to get another eyepiece to be able to see it? if not what am i doing wrong?

Dolito.........Hi, Your not doing anything wrong!

Once your telescope is set up correctly, and the conditions are sensible for viewing, you will only achieve what the telescope is capable of producing. They have limits. The only way to improve this is to go bigger? The bigger the scope, the more detail you'll see, But larger apertures don't just provide higher resolutions, they provide a  brighter image at any given power.This is proven with my Skyliner 8" 200P. If I insert the OTA dust cap, and only use the small filter/aperture hole, the image of the Moon for example is much darker,  contrast is affected, because I'm only using a 2" aperture. Now remove the dust cap, and the image is full contrast (back to 8") and the difference is remarkable. Also, I get a bigger image due to the size of the aperture, compared to my  5" Newtonian 127mm. I can only envy the larger 12" and above  reflectors, in what sized images they produce, but alas, I've no-where for that sized scope at present? The smaller targets are a waste of time on my 127mm. because of  image size IMHO. The 3" difference in aperture really does make the difference to me.

[Kirscovitch]

I get my best views with a 9mm EP and 2x barlow which gives me 144x with my 130SLT.

[rwilkey]

Hi Mark, that's a very fast scope you have there, you will need quite a good eyepiece to function well in that scope, I suggest the 8mm Explorer/StarGuider from 'Sky's the Limit' on ebay.

[Langy]

Hi Mark, that's a very fast scope you have there, you will need quite a good eyepiece to function well in that scope, I suggest the 8mm Explorer/StarGuider from 'Sky's the Limit' on ebay.

I've just ordered one of those myself today for my scope.

[C7tsj]

What type/size of scope do you have?

Hi, it's a Tasco (like I said, starter scope).

Started branching out on better EPs already which will start me in good stead for future scopes.

Thanks,

Mark

[Pagandeva2000]

I can see Jupiter and it's 4 Galilean moons with my 15x70s, and even my 10x50 binocs. I use some astronomy iPhone apps to orient me to the sky.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Dolito]

congrats...

[Dolito]

Seen Jupiter as soon as I set up my scope, starter scope, and all I get is a white disc with four moons but no detail. I am putting this down to the poor EP plus the relatively inexpensive scope. Just ordered a plossle eyepiece, 26mm, but I am tempted to look for a smaller piece given what is being said above.

My scope is a 114mm 500mm. What do people recommend as an ideal size of piece for looking at Jupiter? It is a 1.25inch piece.

Thanks,

Mark

A 2" EP will only get you a bigger FOV at the same magnification. After letting my scope acclimate, it was able to get come spactacular views with 70x, thats my 10mm EP. Id say at the least you should try a 7.5 that will get you to almost 70x or you could go smaller for a greater mag. as said above. good luck!

[itmo]

The irony here is that when we look at clouds on earth, we go "meh", when we look at clouds on jupiter we are ecstatic. 

[itmo]

and for the record. I usually use 24mm to 9mm eyepieces barlowed or naked when watching jupiter so it equates to around 60-150-300x magnification. with my 12" 24mm barlowed or 9mm naked seems to be the best option for most seeing conditions.