What eyepieces?

[Mathis]

 

Hello I just got an Orion Observer 70mm Altazimuth Refractor Telescope and I want to look at mars but none of my lens (10mm and 20mm) makes it big enough. Which lens size should I get to look at mars? or is my telescope not good enough?

[John]

Hi and welcome to the forum

Mars is very far away from Earth at the moment so appears very small even in large and paowerful telescopes. Your scope will show it as a pale pink disk but very tiny at around 100x or 120x which is about the maximum useful magnification.

To see it larger I think you will need to wait until Mars nears opposition with Earth which is in the early Summer 2018. It will appear quite a lot larger then - nearly 4x larger than it does now.

Meanwhile Venus is looking good and Jupiter is starting to rise up earlier each night and both those planets should look more interesting with your scope.

[BXRO]

Hi Mathis

 

You don't really want to be going above twice your appature in terms of magnifaction (140 X). Your options are buy a 5mm plossil or buy a 2X Barlow. I myself would go for the Barlow but the plossil would be a stepup from the stock eyepieces, it's your choice, both the EP and the Barlow would be usable on your next scope so would be a good potential upgrade purchase

[ronin]

As said Mars is a bad target at present. Besides Mars actually being quite small it is also a long way away from us. So smaller and dimmer. Even when it is well palced it is never actually big. Easy way to put it is that Mars at its closest is always smaller then Jupiter is at it furthest from us.

To see Mars it needs a lot of magnification and even more luck. Your scope wll deliver around 100x magnification as a maximum, the 2x diameter is a bit of wishful thinking. Mars is closer/bigger next year, 2018, and is even better in 2020. You can infer that it comes around to a good poistion every 2 years.

Not sure what the focal length of your scope is, so suggesting a suitable eyepiece for high magnification is not easy. I would guess (total guess) that it is a 700mm length scope so f/10, if it is then try a 7mm eyepiece for 100x and a 6mm may just work - only may. I doubt a 5mm will be any use.

Towards the end of March Jupiter becomes a suitable object, being in a reasonable position about 10:00pm, try a magnification of around 60x to 80x on that.

[Dom71]

I've been a bit frustrated with viewing Mars. I've recently bought a scope and was looking forward to ... well ... far too much, Mars-wise.

Right now it's about 175,000,000 miles away - barely able to see the disc and even then, I'm honestly not sure if I've seen any phases. But next year it'll be waaaay closer - 36,000,000 miles only.

Guess that's another reason to eat healthy

[StarryEyed]

Mars is an exciting object for sure but Jupiter will amaze you when you see it rotate during the night and the moons dance around and shadow transits. You telescope is good enough for Jupiter for sure. Be prepared for saturn it shocked me the first time I saw it even though I already new what it looked like seeing it with your own eyes just changes you.

There's plenty to see and plenty of time for Mars. As for eyepieces I will also suggest a Barlow.

[Mathis]

Cool but just making sure Jupiter is the reddish star in Orion right?

[John]

No, thats the star Betelgeuse.

Jupiter is currently in the constellation Virgo.

 

[Louis D]

5 hours ago, Mathis said:

Cool but just making sure Jupiter is the reddish star in Orion right?

Jupiter appears pretty much white to the naked eye.  It's quite a bit less bright than Venus, but brighter than Sirius, the brightest star.  Because it is an extended object, it doesn't tend to twinkle all that much.  Right now, it rises around Midnight in the ESE and isn't well positioned until a few hours later.  In April and May it will be higher above the horizon soon after sunset.  You'll know you're on the right target because its moons will show up as pinpricks of light on either side of it in a line.  The positions change noticeably hour by hour, even minute by minute when near the planet.

[ArpeggioGarden]

I'm new here and this thread is very helpful.  So, Mathis, I have an Orion StarBlaster 660 mm.  I was trying to view Mars in vain last night, as well.  Recently, I got the $100 filter/lens kit for my scope.  I'm viewing Venus and Orion's nebula well with the 2x Barlow + 10 mm eyepiece.  I start with the 25 mm and work my way down.  I can't get myself oriented with the 7.5 eyepiece...I think I'm only seeing the inside of the barrel.  I don't work for Orion :-)  The red filter is also kind of cool with Venus.  The white filter is great for moon viewing.  Oh, I also bought myself a red LED flashlight.  Great accessory.

http://www.telescope.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=8889&utm_source=google&utm_medium=comparisonshopping&utm_campaign=US-googlemerchant&gclid=CI6n5dGssNICFUm2wAod45gFiA  

[SloMoe]

 

what I do for viewing mars is stream some NASA stuff or Hubble.

Seriously, Orion has a bandpass filter for mars viewing, better contrast than a colored filter, not very expensive, but designed to enhance Mars.

Each planet has a filter that enhances the reflected light from them, the trick is to get as much contrast of the features, like light yellow or yellow/green for Saturn, Mars would be Magenta or Salmon or very light red, Jupiter will be light blue for the best contrast to view any features.

The moon is a different story still, most like the viewing during half moon phase or less, the shadows on the surface will show the terrain much better. The ideal filter seems to be the variable contrasting two piece filter, you can adjust the amount of light down to where some of the features will astound you. Too much light spoils the view. 

When I do the Lunar thing I like to use a zoom type eyepiece 8 to 24mm, and one half the variable contrast filter screwed into the barrel of it and the other half of the filter screwed into the front of my diagonal. I set contrast by turning the entire eyepiece then scam around at 24mm till something I want to view closer then I zoom in on it, and when max magnification for clear viewing is reached I again adjust contrast.

I don't get disappointed with the view of anything, just I take my time and stare at what I can see, and see past it, way out there, just keep looking and realize that what we can see with our scopes is so much.

btw, if I'm lucky enough to just see Mars, it's a tiny little reddish disc with dark spots. 

I would recommend your next eyepiece purchase be a zoom lens.

What eyepiece and filter set did you buy?