Lenses for skywatcher mercury 707

[Lillyjane15]

I am totally new to sky watching, I decided to buy a skywatcher mercury 707 for me and my 6yo daughter to use, as it looked quite simple to use and set up. we had great views of the moon last night using the supplied 2xbarlow and super 25mm lense, tonight we have had a look at Jupiter using the same lenses and we managed to see a bright blob, couldn't find it with the 10mm! Can I improve the view with better lenses? Do I need some sort of filter? I had one for the moon. Sorry for the silly questions and advice I would be grateful for:) thank you

[NGC 1502]

Hi there.  First thing to say is were you actually looking at Jupiter ?    Almost any telescope should easily show Jupiter's disc and 4 moons, even at very low magnification.

Best to check the finder is aligned with the telescope, a daytime job so you can seen the adjustments better. Use a distant object like a chimney pot etc.

When hunting for Jupiter (or any object) start with the lowest power eyepiece (one with the highest number) as that will have the widest field of view and making finding things easier.

Focus carefully, change to a higher power to see Jupiter's cloud bands etc, refocus after changing eyepieces.

Better eyepieces may help, but see how you get on with the supplied ones first.

Hope your next session goes better, Ed.

[Lillyjane15]

It did cross my mind I might be looking at the wrong thing, I will try tomorrow in daylight to align it again, and hope for a clear night:) thanks for the advice on the lenses, much appreciated.

[Zuben Elgenubi]

It can be tricky to find your target when switching to a higher powered eyepiece. Make sure that the object is dead centre when you swap, and try not to nudge the scope off target as you change EPs. If your finder scope is aligned then it shouldn't be too difficult to get back on target if it has moved out of view.

I don't know your telescope but I would think it is likely that better EPs would improve your views. The Skywatcher 25mm is pretty decent. The 10mm tends to be less well thought of, although some people get along with it OK. Bear in mind also that the 10mm in your scope will give you 70x magnification, which is not a lot for planetary observing. You can get an idea of roughly what to expect from a telescope/eyepiece combination using 12dstring (make sure you switch to visual view to choose EPs rather than cameras):

http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fov.htm

[RichM63]

The supplied SW 10 and 25 mm EPs are OK, not great, but OK and you should be able to grab Jupiter and view a couple of bands + moons.

One good thing to do is to download a program called Stellarium (free) set it for your lat/long/location and then you will be able to see where a given object will be.

Bridgenorth UK

Lat, 52.5341

Long, -2.4184

Jupiter will be very high and in a rough S/E direction at about 19.00 your time.

It is also a very good idea to memorize your N/E/S/W directions for your observing location, that way you will get a better feel for where things are going to be.

With the poor weather it may also be one of the only things visible naked eye when you go out and look up.

It is like an old friend always a pleasure to say hello to and see what the 'kids' are up to.

Best,

Richard