Europa 150

[Batman301982]

Can anyone help me I've had my telescope for about a year now, and tonight I tried to look at Jupiter but it was not clear at all, I have 9mm and 25mm Kellner eyepieces, and I couldn't really see Jupiter, can anyone help me in which eyepieces to get so I can see the planets.

[C7tsj]

Likely this is just due to the conditions. I normally use a 10mm on Jupiter, perhaps with a 3X Barlow but my scope is a small aperture so difficult to get any real quality but I still manage to get something.

Give it a few day still the weather breaks and try again.

[avtaram]

What telescope do you have?

Avtar

[Batman301982]

I have a Europa 150.

[Batman301982]

What is Barlow?? Im new to this,

[C7tsj]

A Barlow lens allows you to increase mag. Not an expert either but if you use a 2x Barlow lens combined with a 10mm, you end up with 5mm eyepiece. Same reasoning is true for a 3x Barlow. Basically increases the magnification.

However, more mag is not always a good thing. All depends on what your scope can handle.

[Batman301982]

Cheers mate, that makes sense. Is a Europa 150 a good telescope to see planets and stars??

[C7tsj]

What telescope do you have?

Avtar

Quick search suggests it is a 150mm f5.

[Batman301982]

Yeah that's the 1, so is it a good telescope??

[C7tsj]

You will be able to see something with this, not sure how much. To give you am idea, I can see Jupiter and four moons with my 114mm.

It appears as a sharp white disc half the size of a lentil. If I spend 10-15mins looking, I start to make out the bands. You need to give your eye time to adjust and then you can pick out the colours.

You will def see more than i do you won't get Hubble quality though.

[Langy]

I know most of tonight in Cumbria has been windy and very hazy, you can tell it's like that when you see so much of a glow around the moon.

So it could well just be down to the conditions, plus we have it a bit blustery here tonight too, another reason I've not been out.

[Batman301982]

Cheers lads, last night was so clear, I ready instruction manual again last night and I think it was set up just slightly wrong so tonight I shall try again depending on the forecast, thankyou for all your feedback it's really helpful. Much appreciated. Karl.

[MND]

Jupiter was quite difficult last night. It wsa all blurry for me when I tried an 8mm but fine in a 25mm.

[rwilkey]

Hi Karl, the Europa 150 should be a very capable scope and should easily cope with Jupiter, however, although last night seemed clear it wasn't brilliant and you should give it another go perhaps in the coming week.  Use your lowest power eyepiece to start with, the 25mm Kelner, and them move to the 9mm, you will NOT need a Barlow for this, just get used to observing and focusing correctly on the target.

[RichM63]

As per rw and MND ^.

The 'seeing' conditions over here were not great last night.

Re your EP purchase, when I bought my Planetary EP for the 150/750 I deliberately did not go for the theoretical max of 5mm, but opted for a 6mm due to atmospheric considerations.

The 25mm is always first out of my box.

Rich

[Astro Imp]

It is important to focus carefully, when you rack the eyepiece in and out do it really slowly. You might find it easier when you get close to focus on one of Jupiter's moons rather than the planet itself.

Good luck.

[Caldwell14]

The Europa is an excellent scope, I had a 10 inch and have just bought the latest version, the VX in a 8 inch model.

[Qualia]

Batman, I try to view Jupiter whenever possible and I have found that it makes no difference to my eye whether I'm viewing from the city or a relatively non-light polluted sky. However, what does make a big difference are stable seeing conditions and I have found that this 'seeing condition' is a rather ellusive term. Either that or I haven't identified it correctly.

There is, for example, both in the city and out at dark sites, a kind of high altitude turbulence that can give the image a boiling effect. Another night I will be viewing a really solid and steady image of Jupiter but for some reason its features are soft, not nearly so pronounced as the night before. Another night, both in the city and at the dark site, there may be noted a strong glare, a scattering of light around the planet that makes viewing a tad tricky. Then another night, like last Thursday, for example, there are patches of very light mist over the late night/early morning sky and the image of Jupiter (not to say of Mars and Saturn) is spectacular in the superlative; 250x and wishing I had an eyepiece of 300x or more. You'll even find that over a given evening, some of those more annoying seeing conditions will suddenly disappear and the image of Jupiter becomes super steady and sharp only to fall back down again a few moments later waiting to return again to super sharpness.

To add even more madness to the cocktail, I'm sometimes awake just as the glimpse of dawn is becoming obvious - both at the dark site and in the city - and for a very brief time the viewing of Jupiter last year was as good as it was during the night sky! I cannot imagine a bigger light 'pollutant' than the Sun, but there it is - the image of Jupiter remains as good. Another thing I've noticed is that it isn't useful to have my viewing eye dark adapted (eye-patched until at the eyepiece etc). It seems to work better for me that my Jupiter eye is not dark adapted and I have found the same when viewing the Moon. In this case, every now and then I shine torch on the ground and quickly glance at its reflection for a few moments and then go back to viewing Jupiter.

These are certainly great puzzles from which I am learning from every night of planetary viewing but from hundreds of hours of viewing Jupiter, I can tentatively conclude that in my own case unless the night is just awful, whenever possible try to sit with your given planetary object for a peaceful twenty to sixty minutes or so and you'll find that they will be moments of great clarity and seeing. By practicing this kind of attentive sitting you come to notice more and more detail from the given object. Oh, and for general powers, for Jupiter I'm using mags between 140x to just over 200x and that a run of focal lengths at this high power are often very useful to have at hand.

 

[Knight of Clear Skies]

To add even more madness to the cocktail, I'm sometimes awake just as the glimpse of dawn is becoming obvious - both at the dark site and in the city - and for a very brief time the viewing of Jupiter last year was as good as it was during the night sky! I cannot imagine a bigger light 'pollutant' than the Sun, but there it is - the image of Jupiter remains as good. Another thing I've noticed is that it isn't useful to have my viewing eye dark adapted (eye-patched until at the eyepiece etc). It seems to work better for me that my Jupiter eye is not dark adapted and I have found the same when viewing the Moon. In this case, every now and then I shine torch on the ground and quickly glance at its reflection for a few moments and then go back to viewing Jupiter.

I hadn't really thought about that, but I guess that's because it's easy forget how bright the Moon and Planets really are. After all, they are directly illuminated by the Sun, so the brightness in the eyepiece is going to be similar to pointing your telescope at an object on the horizon during the day.