Orion SpaceProbe 130 ST EQ

[Johnshotts]

Hi everyone! I bought this scope so excited to see a reflector. I have as well a Celestron Nexstar 90 Gt. I live in Sandiego so light pollution is bad but I have found a good patch of dark. My problem is Jupitor still looks somewhat blurry! I bought a Celestron 8mm-24mm zoom eye piece and a Celestron x-cel lx 5mm. My question is did I join this sight to late and bought the wrong gear? And when I apply Celestron filters it doesn't make much difference! Please help and thanks!

[ronin]

Scope should be good on Jupiter, it is a 90/900 scope very likely the same optics as the Evostar 90.

The supplied 25mm eyepiece is likely to give a small bright image and possible too bright and everything is just too bright and no detail.

The 10mm however should be very good in giving 90x and that is a nice magnification and not pushing the scope to it's limits.

Did it come with a 10mm and a 25mm eyepiece ??

The 10mm is usually not good and maybe you have a particularily bad one.

Will say the filters will be of little use, there will be a moon one that you might want to try when lunar viewing but at 90mm not necessary in reality.

Cannot comment on the zoom, never use or have used one, but they are improving and generally a reasonable option these days. When I started they were a joke. The 5mm X-Cel is likely a bit too much for the scope. The 9mm would have been better and the 7mm may or may not have been a good option. It sort of sits at about the position where it might work and might not.

Easy option with the zoom is start out at the long setting to find Jupiter then decrease the focal length. Actually the 8mm may be good, so the zoom could be a very good choice for that scope.

How high up was Jupiter, the atmosphere can be bad and you are looking through something like 5 or 7 layers and they are all doing whatever they can to upset your viewing . It is not paranoia, they really are out there to get you. :grin:

What is the daylight temperature like ? Just thinking you could be looking through rising thermals from the ground. We do not have that luxury here, it is cold, grey and wet.

DAMN, Wrong scope. :BangHead:

The 130, 130/650 parabolic and f/5.

Really should be fine on Jupiter as well, a 5mm will give 130x. The X0Cel should produce a good image also. Still think that 80-100x would be better.

Orion say the eyepieces are plossl's so should be good. f/5 can be where they start to not work as well but still reasonable.

The 25mm will again be a bright disk with I suspect little real detail.

Only aspect other then thermals and atmosphere (again) is that the collimation is well out and it needs checking and setting correctly. Again the zoom should be a reasonable choice of focal lengths on the scope.

I assume the scope was able to cool sufficently but cannot see that doing anythig really bad, think it would just reduce the quality of the image a little, if you could notice.

If possible check collimation, it may be somewhat out.

[Johnshotts]

Thanks for the detailed post, I had both scopes out last night and it blows my mind that the 90gt refractor was by far the best for Jupitor and Saturn, but the reflector won on the moon, I feel like it may just be to much light pollution for the reflector.

I have on the way a Barlow 3x zoom, as soon as it comes in I'm headed to the mountans to see some real good stuff.

As far as scopes, the Orion with the manual mount was far superior as far as adjustments with little disturbance to view(shaking) The Celestron 90 gt just wobbles so much by the time it is still Jupitor is moving out of view! I think I'm going to find a manual mount for it as well. Personally the less battery I need the better time☺️ Again thanks for the post! I'm studying all that you talked about

[Johnshotts]

Temperature was on or about 37 - 40 degrees, gave both scopes a hour+ to cool, yes you could see the heat rising especially while viewing the moon, and later that night while Jupitor was high it did clear more, with the zoom piece @8mm the gas bands were very clear to the point I thought I was seeing the eye, Saturn on the other hand just wasn't as clear but you could see the rings, I'm anticipating the 3xzoom and possibly getting a camera so I can snap some pics! So much to learn

[Johnshotts]

The eye pieces the came with the 90gt were no where as clear as the newer pieces I got, to the point I use them now for nothing, won't even bring them out now. Any pointer on a good camera designed for astro photography?