Focusing or Seeing?

[beans4]

I recently bought some new Plossl eyepieces and a barlow (2x) to see if I could get some better views of Jupiter this year. Last year, all I saw was a smudgy brown sphere and I could not resolve any of the bands, etc... Of course I had wide field lenses and lower magnification. Regardless, I went out to test my new gear and I was pleasantly surprised to make out the bands of jupiter however, the bands would fade in and out of appearance. It was very very odd... I was not adjusting the focuser and I was not shaking the tripod mount or tube around.

Is this merely an issue with the quality of seeing I was getting from the night sky? i.e upper atmosphere turbulence, wind, etc... OR, is my focuser really that bad and cheap? =)

Thanks!

[Peter Drew]

Almost certainly the quality of the seeing, you describe the classic effect. 

[RichM63]

As per Peter, great that you are now able to grab some detail.

Focusing your high power EPs can be a bit of a challenge.

[Langy]

I always see Jupiter as a white disc due to its brightness and see the bands fade in and out all the time.

With the AstroMaster 130EQ, I think that's about the best I will get.

[brantuk]

Some times a planet will appear to "bubble" or "boil" in the constantly moving atmosphere. Getting to know the "seeing" is all a matter of experience. The more you get out there and experience the differing conditions - the less you'll doubt your gear.

[ChrisLX200]

Where I am the seeing tonight was absolute pants. I gave up trying to image about 11:30pm because I could get good focus and the guider kept throwing a fit, maybe it would have improved in the early hours I don't know. Thing is, had you tried to assess your optics tonight you would have gone away with a bad impression of them.

ChrisH

[Marky1973]

Beans, I had the same trouble as you last night - at 120x in my 200p dob Jupiter was waving in and out of pin-sharp focus and smudgy cream ball.....I think, from my very limited experience so far, that it just needs time to sit and observe and get excited when you get those moments of great clarity - I am sure there will be better nights too!

[Pete Presland]

I cam count on one hand the amount of nights that i have not seen boiling in an image in the last couple of years, it goes with location (UK)

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[Greg48(newbe)]

I was the same the other night couldn't see much only 

a bright blop and taught it was down to my collimating

so i tried adjusting it and made it worse because the night or 2 ago i was

able to see it clearly with its moons,,,took me over an hour and half the other night to get it 

back,,,,gonna half to do it all again because i ordered some BOB'S KNOBS

[Tonys]

Beans, I had the same trouble as you last night - at 120x in my 200p dob Jupiter was waving in and out of pin-sharp focus and smudgy cream ball.....I think, from my very limited experience so far, that it just needs time to sit and observe and get excited when you get those moments of great clarity - I am sure there will be better nights too!

Absolutely agree. And those moments of excellent detail do come ... eventually!

[Sandraj]

This thread has enlightened me, I would of worried it would be me or the scope, good to read threads like this.

[Marky1973]

Sandra - definitely check out Qualia's excellent thread on What Can I Expect to See? - although you won't get to see the glossy Hubble-esque pictures it can still be very humbling and awe inspiring to see deep space objects that are so far away....

[Fogagen]

You should see the video I took of Jupiter on the same night. I was convinced I had a badger tap dancing on my scope  Awful seeing.

[beans4]

Hey thanks everyone, I had not had such clarity with my lenses before and I was not quite sure of what I was seeing. Oddly, M42 looked great ... But perhaps that was due more to the nature and scale of things?

[Sandraj]

Sandra - definitely check out Qualia's excellent thread on What Can I Expect to See? - although you won't get to see the glossy Hubble-esque pictures it can still be very humbling and awe inspiring to see deep space objects that are so far away....

Had a look and thought it was a great thread thanks, very informative.

[AndyWB]

Hey thanks everyone, I had not had such clarity with my lenses before and I was not quite sure of what I was seeing. Oddly, M42 looked great ... But perhaps that was due more to the nature and scale of things?

Probably due to magnification. I'm guessing you were using much higher power when looking at Jupiter? This also magnifies the problems of seeing. My rule of thumb is if it's a bad night, view lower power targets.

[itmo]

This fading in-out effect is the reason you should focus only intermittently. Take a quick small turn of the focusing knob, then wait for a cycle of good seeing to see if it made the image better, then tune again, wait. If you keep focusing all the time, you will miss the good spots and you will never see if the seeing is doing that smudginess or if it is the focusing. 

[sandyshaw]

Try it during daylight on a far away object, easy test for focus no?