Newby eyepiece help for travelscope

[Starfox]

Hi all,

i recently bought the celestron travelscope 70.  I have definately caught the bug and am desperate to see more detail on jupitar.  Last night with the supplied 20mm i saw Jupitar with three of its moons, but no belts ir red spot.  I assume the red spot was on the otherside as i've seen it before.  However, my question is what eyepieces should i invest in to be able to see more detail.  I only have the 10 and 20mm that came with the scope plus i bought a 90 degree prism to save my back!

i appreciate that my scope isn't the best of quality but for my birthday later in the year hubby has said he will upgrade it.

any help and guidance is appreciated.

thanks

[bingevader]

Ah, then if you are going to upgrade soon, do you really want to buy more eyepieces for this 'scope?

It might be better to wait until you get the new one and buy eyepieces for that 'scope which will also work with this.

It will always be a good travel scope and all rounder and good for birdwatching too.

What kind of budget were you thinking of for the eyepieces?

A 2x barlow is usually a good idea to start with as it appears to double the magnification of any eyepiece it is used with.

However, that wouldn't be much use as your 10mm already gives you double the magnification of your 20mm.

You could get an 8mm or 7mm eyepiece and a 2x barlow and that would get you to 100x magnification or just over.

You might need to think about the stability of the 'scope then though.

Hanging a brick between the legs of the tripod might help.

[rwilkey]

Hi, and welcome to SGL. My advice would be to continue with the current eyepieces and practice viewing the object (Jupiter), you should be able to see more detail, practice on getting a sharper focus, you may be surprised what the current ep's can do, practice with the 10mm after starting with the 20mm.  A lot of astronomy is about learning how to see.

[Starfox]

Thanks both for replying.  Hanging a brick between the tripod legs - genius idea.  The tripod is rubbish currently.  I think you are right regarding the eyepieces.  I'll keep practising with the ones i have and then buy more when i get a new scope.

thanks again, great advice.

[Reeny]

I have a 3" reflector 700mm x 76mm, and can sometimes make out the 2x brown coloured bands on Jupiter, but nothing else.

You are lucky to be able to see the red spot. I need to use the 200P dob for the finer detail up to 180x magnification.

The 3" can only manage 90x mag with a crystal clear image.

Once near to 100ish magnification, the 3" starts to go blurry, and the tripod vibrates too much for a crystal clear view.

At 400mm focal length, your 10mm will give you 40x mag.  To get up to 80x - 100x, you will need a 5mm to 4mm eyepeice (or barlow the 10mm)

 

I would invest in a decent eyepiece which can also be used on your next scope.

 

[ngwillym]

And, if you want to see where the satellites are and if Red Spot is visible, try this - http://www.astrosurf.com/rondi/jupiter/

[Highburymark]

The red spot is getting smaller and more difficult to see as the years go by, although recently it has grown much redder. I think you would need very good skies to see it with your telescope. But another point to bear in mind is that the planet will get bigger in our skies over the next month or so - so you might get lucky - part of the fun of astronomy is that you never know quite what you'll see from one session to the next.

[Mak the Night]

The GRS rotates with Jupiter and isn't always visible. I can often see the GRS at around 120x when conditions are good with a 102mm aperture. Often the seeing precludes any decent observing of Jupiter. Observed over a period of time it can vary between extremes, sometimes the equatorial zone and belts are quite easily seen yet sometimes they are quite indistinct. If you can get a magnification of at least 100x it might help. I'd consider the Celestron Universal Barlow sold by FLO. 

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/barlows/celestron-2x-universal-125-barlow.html

[billyharris72]

If you are getting another scope (which may well come with some eyepieces) and don't know what to get just yet, a good bet might be a 2x Barlow lens. That would get you x80 with the 10mm eyepiece.

If it's definitely another eyepiece you want, I'd go with a standard Plossl (Skywatcher, Celestron Omni, GSO, Revelation - they are all basically the same). Decent eyepieces (a step up from the supplied ones) and they perform in just about any scope. As to what size, it depends on what you want to see. For planets, high magnification is good - an 8mm will give you x50 and Barlow to x100 (though as others have said you would need better tripod over about x50).

You could go straight to a 4mm Plossl and get x100 without a Barlow. I use mine a lot, but hesitate to recommend it. It's not comfortable and does not work if you wear glasses (you have to push your eye very close to the lens).

If you are only going to buy one thing, I'd recommend the Barlow. Get a decent one - the Celestron Omni is okay and not too pricey. You are sure to get plenty of use out of it.

Best of luck.

Billy.