Disappointment with latest purchase, am i doing something wrong?

[D4V1D88]

15 hours ago, Charic said:

The scope is the Sky-Watcher Skyliner 200- Dobsonian.

Ive had a look at that and its about the same price as the one I purchased! Wish I had found this forum before - however I still have a lot to learn which I can do with my current scope and like you said I still haven't seen the maximum results my telescope can produce! So ill stick with it for a good while!

Stu - all noted thanks very much for your advice!

[TareqPhoto]

Can't wait to get SW 200PDS, it is for visual and imaging regardless it is a newt.

I have 25mm and 10mm with 2x barlow that came with my ST80, i was able to watch Jupiter but without ant details at all, i saw the 4 moons, i went more further and i was able to watch Saturn too, but it was very very tiny in the scope, but i could hardly see the Cassini division ring anyway, very tiny but i can identify the planet, that thrilled me so i asked about the scope for visual, many recommended me SCT or Dob, but someone gave me an idea about 200pds, he says it is like 70% visual and 30% imaging or 60/40, and the cost is as low that it will give me a joy for both, better than my ST80 and not expensive as many long SCT/Dob, i said why not, if i was barely able to see Jupiter and Saturn with my ST80 which is 400mm and has no great magnification maximum then i can see a lot with 1000mm and better max magnification but won't go that max anyway, and newt is better than achro refractor for visual anyway.

[D4V1D88]

Guys your advice paid off. Went out last night and managed to see two distinct brown separated lines across Jupiter and also all four moons this time! Also for the first time saturn was up at a reasonable time 01:30 and was blown away by what I saw! I've definitely got the bug now! I've attached what I managed to capture with my camera phone - unfortunately the picture of Jupiter doesn't show the coloured lines.

[Stu]

Excellent news, well done!

Need to get my bottom out of bed and have a look at Saturn too, it's been too long!

[Mr niall]

congrats, glad its working out for you!

[Stub Mandrel]

Like me you are the victim of beginner's luck.

On an early attempt at viewing Jupiter I could see a moon and it's shadow clear as a bell, as well as the red spot.

I have had good views since, but nothing as dramatically clear. I can only spend a short time at the eyepiece, but I kept coming back to watch the shadow move across the planet and teh spot revolve out of view.

[TareqPhoto]

I don't know why, but i feel shooting Saturn is easier than Jupiter in he exposure wise, i have an example i will show one day soon i hope.

[beka]

Hi D4V1D88,

Nice to see you are getting better views. If you have not done it yet you should really have a go at adjusting the collimation. I have had experience with a few Celestron reflectors and collimation out of the box can be very bad. With your scope well collimated moons and bands of Jupiter should be effortless. With some patience you should be able to get fairly good collimation by following the instructions in the manual without having to purchase a laser.

 

Happy observing!