What eyepiece should I use to see Jupiter?

[TheWelshMagician]

I've been doing stargazing for about a month now and I was wondering what the best eyepiece (with or without a Barlow) should I use?

[ScottS]

8mm BST

[RikM]

I would expect either your 8mm or on a good night your 5mm BST would be the best.

I wouldn't use a Barlow if you have decent eyepieces available in the focal length you need.

[ronin]

One that will give you around 120x and up to 150x should do well in a 200P.

Size and definition should be good and not too bright to swamp everything.

[RikM]

I have just been playing with my eyepiece calculator and your 12mm with a 2x barlow (if it's a good barlow) may be okay. 

I tend to use magnifications of 171x and 240x mainly but that is with a 250PX.

your 8mm would give you 125x

the barlowed 12mm would give 167x

and the 5mm would give 200x

[sbooder]

I have always favoured an 8mm or 10mm and the option of a Barlow when useable.  But it is always dictated by the seeing, the better the seeing the more power you can use, but if it boils with an 8mm it will boil even more with an 8mm with Barlow.  It is clarity of image you want not size of image.

[Qualia]

When it comes to planetary viewing, I've noticed that slight changes in the focal length of eyepieces makes a difference to what can be tweaked from the given object. In terms of general useful magnification, I have found useful magnifications between 140x to just over 200x. I have gone to 250x on a number of occassions but generally find I'm working between 150x to 200x in the 10" and between 140x to 160x in the 4".

[Solar_observer]

I used a 12mm bst and a celestron Ultima 2x barlow to view the shadow transit of Europa crossing Jupiter and the views were stunning.

Clear skies to you all :-)

[LukeSkywatcher]

Over the last 7-8 yrs of using scopes of all different apertures, ive settled on 8mm as the best size EP to use when observing planets.

[alan potts]

I tend to agree wit Quaila I very rarely go above X200 with Jupiter and most of the time settle around the x170 mark on almost all of my scopes.

Sometimes I can push up to X220 with the 12 inch but Pauls 8mm advice on my LX scope would give me well over X350 which would be useless for a few reasons.

Alan.

[AlexB67]

FWIW, in my recent experiences a good planetary eyepiece can help. Before I go the Radian 6mm I found myself often not wanting to go to 200x and the BST 8mm was the weapon of choice mostly. Perhaps conditions helped recently but with Jupiter getting so high up I am finding that 200x times territory more appealing.  When I had a more basic skywatcher eyepiece I found this not to be the case nearly as much, as it had a tendency to wash out the views more easily. It does take quite a bit of cooling time in my Dob before I start seeing the best details, but lately all last four sessions ended up with 200x in the 10 inch Dob after an hour to give the best views. 

How high up the planets rise above the horizon and the amount of atmosphere you have to cut through have a big bearing how far you can push. Contrast that with my early rise for Saturn and Mars this morning.  Saturn was very low in the sky still, and looking over a roof of a house not helping with all the currents that would produce, I found marginally over a 100x almost best on that occasion. 150x was already beginning to push it, there was just no additional detail to be had. 

Personally I always find planets are sensitive beasts and always wanting to push that mag as high as I can without compromising. I think if I owned a 5,6,7,8mm I would end  using all of them at some point depending on conditions to get that bets sweet spot on the night. I wish sometimes I had that 7mm in the case, not that it is a must, but it would be nice, but currently my 7mm eyepiece only consist of empty space

[John]

If you want the best optical performance for <£100 I'd go for an Astro Hutech or Fujiyama ortho in the 6mm focal length (166x). The eye relief is tightish and the field of view limited to 42 degrees but in pure optical performance terms on the moon and planets they are the best until you are able / willing to spend £hundreds per eyepiece.

[TheWelshMagician]

Thank you for everyone's advise, I found Jupiter with her 3 moons tonight with the 8mm then put in the 5mm to get a little closer

[TheWelshMagician]

I did put my 2x Meade in but I couldn't focus with my 25mm unless I was doing it wrong

[TheWelshMagician]

My profile pic is me tonight finding it

[Caldwell14]

A 6mm TeleVue Radian with 8mm in reserve, you couldn't go wrong.

[John]

I've been using the 3mm-6mm Nagler Zoom in my 12" dob tonight to watch the double shadow transit on Jupiter. Very impressive eyepiece

6mm (265x) was the best for Jupiter but 5mm (318x) and 4mm (397x) were very good on the Moon. The great thing about this eyepiece is that you can instantly very the focal length to anything in the 3mm - 6mm range so it's great for finding what the seeing conditions / object will allow.

I also swapped the zoom for Pentax XW's and Radians and a Baader GO 6mm at times but the tiny zoom held it's own against all these tonight.

[jabeoo1]

For me so far:

The highest magnification that gave a usefully stable image for viewing Jupiter was at x177 using a 9mm William optics SWAN. 

Using a 15mm T.V plossl (x106) allowed for a very detailed & compact disc thats very stable and easy on my eye. 

I have managed brief & honest fleeting glimpses of clarity with an 8mm Delos (x200), but only when the conditions allow, which are maybe a little infrequent but a pleasure when its happening.  Above x200 so far has been far from useful on this object. 

I must try an 11mm plossl on Jupiter giving x145, I like the views through a plossl.  This should give regular & stable detailed views with tight sharpness. 

A few eyepieces so far have managed to eek out useful detail but conditions are always the factor in charge.

Using a 10 inch f / 6.3 David Lukehurst Dobsonian.

[AlexB67]

Radian is a great planetary eyepiece and underrated IMHO, especially their colour rendition that some may accuse as being a bit beside neutral I really love it. If you do not want to break the bank however and narrow FOV is not a concern an orthoscopic like Astro Hutech or Fujiyama or second hand BGO is really marvellous if absolute detail is what you are after.  I can say that much after tonight having used both a Radian 6mm and a 5mm BGO ,  They both have their strengths though I would say, but I doubt you be disappointed with either, a Radian being quite a bit more expensive though.  Bang for buck on axis the ortho is a marvellous investment if close eye relief and you don't wear glasses is not a concern.

[jabeoo1]

Radian is a great planetary eyepiece and underrated IMHO

Having written about my viewing experiences above, I was just about to come back to the thread to say, having been outside watching a shadow transit of Jupiter, the 6mm Radian (277x) gave an excellent & up closest defined view of the shadow.  I suppose it depends what you are viewing exactly with regard to the planet, which then may define what E.P to use to see with.  I agree Alex radian are great.  I guess like with anything there is no one answer, there are many options and the variables are numerous.  

[sbooder]

Having written about my viewing experiences above, I was just about to come back to the thread to say, having been outside watching a shadow transit of Jupiter, the 6mm Radian (277x) gave an excellent & up closest defined view of the shadow.  I suppose it depends what you are viewing exactly with regard to the planet, which then may define what E.P to use to see with.  I agree Alex radian are great.  I guess like with anything there is no one answer, there are many options and the variables are numerous.  

I have been looking at Jupiter for 20 years now and last night was my first ever double transit (Io & Ganymede I think?).  Just luck of the draw I think having to wait that long.

[jabeoo1]

I have been looking at Jupiter for 20 years now and last night was my first ever double transit (Io & Ganymede I think?).  Just luck of the draw I think having to wait that long.

There is also another one on the 16th (Ganymede & Io).  Put a date in the diary for 24 January 2015, there is a triple transit that morning!

[John]

There is also another one on the 16th (Ganymede & Io).  Put a date in the diary for 24 January 2015, there is a triple transit that morning!

There was actually a triple transit last night in a way, Ganymede's shadow, Io's shadow and Io itself. It's tough to see the moon disks against Jupiter's cloud tops though except right at the beginning and end of the transit when the limb darkening effect helps the moons disk stand out a little more.