Trouble observing Jupiter

[HEROIC MAKER]

Jupiter getting smaller and unobservable when focusing. when I focus jupiter with my CELESTRON POWERSEEKER 50AZ, it becomes smaller and brighter but unobservable.. HELP!!! [NEWBIE]

PowerSeekerAZ.pdf

[Ricochet]

In what way is it unobservable? Too bright? Too small? Blurry? 

[HEROIC MAKER]

too small

 

[HEROIC MAKER]

and too bright also

[HEROIC MAKER]

I was able to focus on a tree nearly 20 yards away during the day. But when I start focusing, the Jupiter starts turning small and bright and un-observable...

HELP::

[Stu]

Just now, HEROIC MAKER said:

I was able to focus on a tree nearly 20 yards away during the day. But when I start focusing, the Jupiter starts turning small and bright and un-observable...

HELP::

Which eyepiece were you using?

Small usually is good in terms of focus, but you maybe need more magnification to cut the brightness a little

[JOC]

HEROIC MAKER - what happens when you try to focus on something several miles away?

[noah4x4]

I have an 8" Evolution with high quality eyepieces; properly collimated (etc) and yet I too have recently struggled to define Jupiter as more than a bright white disc with two blurred bands. UK seeing conditions have been like soup. I note that you are in India, but sometimes life is like this. You might get more detail from lower magnification too, albeit Jupiter will be smaller. 

[HEROIC MAKER]

when I try focusing on moon, It turns good but on Jupiter as bright and small as a small like hugely magnified Polaris

[HEROIC MAKER]

I was using eye piece of 20mm

 

[Ricochet]

Looking at the specs for your scope you should also have 12mm and 4mm eyepieces. The 4mm will be too much magnification for your scope but the 12mm should work. You might also find that you have success using the 3x Barlow and 20mm eyepiece. Switching to either of these will increase the magnification which will have the dual effects of enlarging and dimming the image which may make it more observable. You should also try to observe Jupiter when it is at its highest so that atmospheric effects are minimised. 

[John]

When Jupiter is at sharp focus it will look very small with your scope and a 20mm eyepiece. You are using 30x magnification. With your scope around 80x would be the maximum I would use on Jupiter and it still won't look that large. You should be able to see that it has a disk and you might see a couple of cloud belts running across the disk. You should see up to 4 moons quite close to the planet.

A 50mm aperture scope is going to stuggle to show much more than the above in all honesty.

[Peter Drew]

Just beat me to posting exactly the same!  

[glowjet]

Hello Heroic Maker, I am afraid your Celestron 50AZ is a basic 50mm refractor, 600mm focal length, with your 20mm eye piece, that will give you 30x magnification, sufficient to observe Jupiter as a very small bright disc, but you should be able to see its accompanying moons as little bright dots, the observing conditions must be good however, anything other than that and your view will deteriorate.

Depending on what your seeing conditions are like in India, the most magnification you can expect to get out of this scope should be something in the order of 60x to70x to observe with reasonable clarity. Only use your 20x and 12x eye pieces for best performance, use of your 4mm is really out of the question ( focal length divided by eye piece ) as that will give a mag of 150x which is way above what the scope can resolve with just a 50mm objective.

I am afraid you will not see Jupiter as per illustrations as shown in many of the Astronomy books, you may find this a little disappointing as I feel sure you were expecting great views of the Planets. You should persevere with using the scope on such as the Moon as there is an awful lot to discover, if you avail yourself of a moon map. There are also countless double stars for you to observe and split. There is much for you to discover in the night sky even though your scope has some limitations, enjoy your Astronomy

[happy-kat]

Stellarium is a great planetary programme to help you find things to look at. To name a few m42, m44, m45 should be able to make those out with your telescope. You'll see Jupiter's main moons change position as you observe over a few days. You could split double stars observe stars with different colours. Learn the constellations, watch meteor showers. 

[Cornelius Varley]

Try this field of view calculator. Select your telescope and eyepiece combination from the drop down menus and your target and the calculator will then show you the size of image which would be expected with that equipment. Unfortunately, with your telescope and eyepieces you will not see Jupiter other than a small bright disc and occasionally some banding. 

[HEROIC MAKER]

I have $1000 to spend on a BRAND NEW Telescope. What should it be..

Which is better Refractor or Newtonian and which one in market is best

[HEROIC MAKER]

My last question..

I was able to see Jupiter and all it's beauty without EYE PIECE directly in the star diagnol. But I am not able to see all those charms with eye piece..

ANYONE WITH SOLUTION...

 

[glowjet]

In answer to your last question, I am afraid, no doubt like most others on this forum, how you are able to observe, and I quote... "Jupiter and all its beauty without eyepiece directly in the star diagonal. But I am not able to see all those charms with eye piece" I am sure most of us would like a little more information as to how you have managed to achieve this

[ronin]

First: Slow down.

To see Jupiter you will need at least 60x or 80x, more would be better but not necessary. 30x is a bit small and you are likely losing detail as it will be bright, so it washes everything out and at that small just picking out detail is difficult. Will say it is not impossible.

If you ask the classic "Which is best" then you will get 3 different answers: Newtonian, SCT, Refractor. Basically different people like each scope type/design and you get told to buy the one they like. I like refractors. So if I said a Bresser or ES 127 Achro in 1000mm focal length how do you feel. Becasue the next post would say a 250P Dobsonian then the next a 6SE.

Next I guess you do not actually have $1000 for a new scope, reason I say this is they sit on a mount, so you need to buy a mount and a scope. Everyone says £xxx or $yyy on a scope and that is rarely true. Then add in the need for say 3 or 4 reasonable eyepieces and that swallows another $250. Thinking the A-T Paradigms here as they are good euepieces, they are $60 each, 4 of those are $240+ shipping etc.

What are your future intentions?  Thinking that many have the idea of adding a camera and that causes the choices to be different.

Mount - manual or goto.

How "good" a scope? As in achro or ED or APO if refractor.

Do you need to transport the mount and scope?

[Grotemobile]

3 hours ago, noah4x4 said:

I have an 8" Evolution with high quality eyepieces; properly collimated (etc) and yet I too have recently struggled to define Jupiter as more than a bright white disc with two blurred bands. UK seeing conditions have been like soup. I note that you are in India, but sometimes life is like this. You might get more detail from lower magnification too, albeit Jupiter will be smaller. 

As U say it has been very bad lately.  Got this about 2 months ago.  Just about make out the bands. 

Hope it gets better. I thought about buying a bigger scope. Wont bother now with results like this.

[John]

2 hours ago, HEROIC MAKER said:

My last question..

I was able to see Jupiter and all it's beauty without EYE PIECE directly in the star diagnol. But I am not able to see all those charms with eye piece..

ANYONE WITH SOLUTION...

 

I think what you were seeing was an out of focus disk of light rather than a focused image of Jupiter.

 

[BGazing]

6 hours ago, noah4x4 said:

I have an 8" Evolution with high quality eyepieces; properly collimated (etc) and yet I too have recently struggled to define Jupiter as more than a bright white disc with two blurred bands. UK seeing conditions have been like soup. I note that you are in India, but sometimes life is like this. You might get more detail from lower magnification too, albeit Jupiter will be smaller. 

could not brave the cold to wait for it in the morning, but i hope our seeing will be a tad better. saturn will be a dud, so low in the horizon this year...

[HEROIC MAKER]

Is there a problem with my magnifications. I was using 20mm so the magnification was 30x. What is the range of magnification for viewing Jupiter. What is the best magnification for viewing Jupiter.

[BGazing]

1 hour ago, HEROIC MAKER said:

Is there a problem with my magnifications. I was using 20mm so the magnification was 30x. What is the range of magnification for viewing Jupiter. What is the best magnification for viewing Jupiter.

See ronin's post above...