What's the best set of lenes for Jupiter

[Bugfly]

Just asking, what is the best lens set up for Jupiter? I use a Barlow lens and a 17mm lens.

[ronin]

Whats the scope ?

Seem to find that 80x-100x does fine and I aim at that area, but happy at 40x if it produces a good iamge.

People have different requirements/preferences.

[Bugfly]

Whats the scope ?

Seem to find that 80x-100x does fine and I aim at that area, but happy at 40x if it produces a good iamge.

People have different requirements/preferences.

Thank you.

Dobson 8 inch.

[Daveb3650]

Its a minefield lol

[happy-kat]

Also depends hugely on the seeing conditions.

[ronin]

I would go for the 12mm and 8mm BST Starguider then.

Actually expect the 12mm (100x) to be better as I guess it would give clearer results, at 8mm (150x) it should be good but I have never been drawn to magnification for the sake of it.

[Qualia]

For Jupiter, I typically use magnifications in the 10" between 125x to just over 200x. There has been occassion to push 250x but that is on a rare night of good seeing. To be honest, I'd practice while with the 17mm and x2 Barlow. A 140x is a good working magnification and should highlight quite well what is possible to see on Jupiter.

Try to view Jupiter as close to the zenith as possible and bear in mind that as a general rule of thumb its brightness will decline as you up the magnification. but if you keep on doing this, eventually details just disappear. On the other hand, increasing the magnification does make detail more apparent, so we're now at a trade-off: will increasing magnification gain more detail even though I'm making the object fainter?

I've found that playing around with this trade-off - dependent on the evening's seeing (LP doesn't really affect planets, Moon or the Sun) - does make a difference. Even as little as 1mm increase or decrease in the mag - about 10% to 15% difference of magnification - can be quite surprising which is the reason why most planetary observers will have quite a run of high-mag EPs.

For planetary work, I use Orthos and in particular those that were made by Baader - the Baader G.Os which are no longer in production. They do crop up from time to time on the secondhand market (often overpriced). Nevertheless, John has made some excellent reviews of the Hutech and Baader Classic range which appear to be of very similar quality and sharpness.

The B.G.Os in particular - and I imagine it to be the same with the Hutechs and the Classics - will give you a quality of image about as good as it gets. If you want a similar quality image EP but with a wider field of view and a more comforting eye-relief, I guess you're going to have to spend more.

Final thought, whenever possible try to sit with Jupiter for a peaceful half an hour or so, and you'll find that they'll be moments of great clarity and seeing. By practicing attentive sitting you come to notice more and more detail from the given object.

[Ruud]

For me, when the atmosphere is stable enough, the best views of Jupiter and Saturn come with an exit pupil of about 0.8 mm.

On an f/6 you'll get a 0.8 mm exit pupil from a 6 x 0.8 = 4.8 mm eyepiece (f/number x desired exit pupil)

In general, 0.5  to 1.0 mm exit pupils are recommended for planets and the Moon.

[bingevader]

For me, when the atmosphere is stable enough, the best views of Jupiter and Saturn come with an exit pupil of about 0.8 mm.

On an f/6 you'll get a 0.8 mm exit pupil from a 6 x 0.8 = 4.8 mm eyepiece (f/number x desired exit pupil)

In general, 0.5  to 1.0 mm exit pupils are recommended for planets and the Moon.

The highlighted is the huge caveat in this proposal.

I have an 8" f/6 'scope and haven't yet managed my 5 mm eyepiece on Jupiter or Saturn.

0.8 might be the desired exit pupil, but I'm afraid you have to go with what's practical given the UK climate (the Netherlands maybe different).

I wouldn't rush out to buy a 4.8 mm eyepiece.

You may well find out that eventually you'll end up with a few different eye pieces at the lower focal lengths to accommodate the varying conditions and objects you want to observe.

This is also because at the lower focal lengths a small difference of only 1 mm can result in a large change in magnification.

On a good day, my 6 mm (x200) is fab, fortunately the good days come around frequently enough to justify its purchase!

However, a safer bet would be an 8 mm (x150) workhorse that would be usable on the majority of occasions (and as you can see, a difference of 2 mm focal length has given a change of x50 in magnification).