I saw Jupiter!

[Naaaysmith]

I recognised Jupiter for the first time!

The software Stellarium brought to my attention the presence of Jupiter in last night's sky. When observed through 10x50 binoculars, the yellow disk shape becomes apparent.

At -1.98 magnitude the object is very bright. Up until now the most interesting object I've seen was the Pleiades. This experience has made me think about telescopes a lot more now. Can anyone recommend a nice affordable telescope to bring out Jupiter's details? Is the same telescope recommended for observing details on the moon? Time to get googling.

Binoculars are a good start to astronomy, but telescopes do become enticing once you've spotted planets.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Congrats on finding Jupiter. A good al-round and affordable scope is the Heritage 130. Nice aperture, should be good on DSOs and planets.

[SteveB72]

Congratulations! Try to find Andromeda galaxy and the Great nebulae in Orion's sword next.

My first scope was a Celestron Nexstar 127SLT. It is a great scope with GOTO, I chose tracking and GOTO to make it easier to use with my children, it keeps objects centered in the eyepiece for as long as you want. They are both now enthusiastic astronomers.

[ghostdance]

Nice, congratulations!

As SteveB72 said, M42 in Orion is worth a visit - tho I can't recall offhand how it presents in 10x50s, should be good from a dark site - as are the Hyades just below the Pleiades. And you can't have been far from the Beehive in Cancer  (Stellarium labels it Praesepe, aka M44) when you were looking at Ol' Jove...Beehive is a drop-dead gorgeous cluster - a little stunner in binoculars.

For a great little, highly portable starter scope I'd recommend the Orion Starblast 4.5" - get past the juvenile name and you have a great little manual tabletop Dob, excellent for widefield, good on planets (small but detailed), & imho a fantastic starter scope, or grab n go....

[cotterless45]

Nice ! There's some thrilling Jupiter action coming up next month . Including a triple transit on the 24th. Hurrah !

Nick.

[Astro Imp]

Nice report and congrats. on getting your first view of the King.

I was looking at M42 (Orion Nebula) with my 8 x42 bins from my moderately light polluted garden and had a pretty good view so your 10 x 50 bins. should be great. Give it a try, one of the iconic objects of the winter sky.

Good luck and clear skies.

[Naaaysmith]

I've ordered the Orion Starblast 4.5". I was ruminating for a while in deciding between buying large binoculars or a telescope. The recent planetary bonanza of Jupiter, Venus and Mars swung it for me to get a telescope.

I was so close to buying 20x60 binoculars, but after several failed ebay bids, I think I've finally managed to overcome my binocular obsession. No one in my house wants to see another pair of binoculars and my four year old daughter will love having an actual telescope to look through.

Alex

[ghostdance]

Dammit...and I'm selling my 4.5" with a heap of accessories (moved up to its big brother, the 6i).

Hope you enjoy your new Starblast - it's a little cutie. Just visit Astro Baby's website and do the focuser improvement she did - it really does benefit the cheap focuser the scope comes with

[Calculon]

For what it's worth in the future, it really helps if you specify your budget rather than just saying "affordable" - that means very different things to different people!

Hope you enjoy the views through the scope, the details to be found on Jupiter are always intriguing.

[goose35]

I had an celestron astromaster 130eq at chrismass. Wanted a scope on and off for years. I was like a kid when i saw the the banding on jupiter and then m42 orion nebular (goosebumps). Then i got a rather rubish dslr pic of the nebular and a webcam capture of jupiter but i loved them. Now ive upgraded the mount and im on that road lol.

have fun and enjoy

[Naaaysmith]

My Orion Starblast 4.5" arrived today.

It came with 17mm [26x] and 6mm [75x] eyepieces. I placed the telescope on a sturdy table in my back garden.

The first object I looked at was Venus with the 26x magnification. Found it rather tricky to find with 75x.  Next object I looked at was Jupiter. I used Jupiter to calibrate the EZfinder2. This made finding objects with 75x much easier. With 75x I saw Jupiter's cloud bands for the first time. The five objects [io, Jupiter, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto] fitted within the 75x fov. I soon got the hang of tracking Jupiter with the finder scope. Using 26x, I found the Pleiades, although with the light cloud cover only the bright stars were visible. So back to Jupiter with 75x for the remainder of the session.

Very pleased, quick to set up and easy to use with the finder scope.

[christhebrit]

So it starts. My first was a 4.5" from Visionary.

Now I mainly use my 6" Skywatcher.

You may find at some point that you're looking for more detail.

That was why I stepped up, but now I'm spending more on eyepieces.

It's something you'll notice when buying higher Quality items and eliminating the imprefections.

Can't do anything for weather though, cloudy here tonight... :-P

[Naaaysmith]

I'm already looking into buying plossl eyepieces.

I currently have the 6mm and 17mm kellner eps that came with the scope, which according to a cloudy nights review, are good budget eps. Based on stargazers lounge beginners forum eyepiece guide, I've calculated the suggested eps for a f/4 scope to be 6mm, 12mm, 16mm, 20mm and a x2 barlow.

My approach now is to place the scope down on the lawn with a picnic rug underneath and lie down next to it. It's rather portable and takes no time to set up. I managed a quick peak of M36 before it clouded up completely.