Can't see jupiter well. Please help!

[Ahgii]

Hello, i am a new astronomer and i recently bought the celestron astromaster 130eq md. I looked at jupiter on plenty of nights, with filters or without, all i see is a white dot even at higher magnifications (enough to usually see fine details). I even collimated my telescope numerous times. Could it not letting my telescope cool down and looking out the window from a city affect the view so much that i can see 0 details? Could it be the barlow because it has only 1 lens? But even with the 10 mil or 20 mil eyepiece i can barely see some color variation from far away. Don't ask if t was focused well because it was, and i had no problems observing the moon. I even got some really good pictures of it. Please help!

[kilix]

1) let the scope cool down
2) don't look out the window from a building, go outside. The heat exchange is insane and ofc your image does not resolve any details.

Also, being in Bucharest I imagine that it's pretty hot outside these days, so I would avoid concrete surfaces for serious observation. The concrete absorbs heat during the day and then radiates during the night, ruining observations with heat blur.

[ronin]

Window is a definite problem, they are meant to be outside. City will have lots of thermal currents rising from it so again a problem.

The barlow is not much good and the 10mm is not much good, sorry but they are provided sort of because they have to enable you to "see" but that does not mean see well. Teh 10mm will be a cheap Huygens type. The 20mm is a bit better, normally but usually still a Huygens.

So 20mm on a 650 scope is 32x, Jupiter will be small and as it is bright the result is likely to be it is too bright and everything is flooded. So no detail just a bright whait disk.

Suggest you consider another eyepiece, 12mm plossl perhaps, that would give 54x - still a bit low - which brings in the good old BST Starguide at 8mm for 81x. If you go via the TS site it is their NED 8mm.

The scope is at least what it appears, as in NOT a Bird-Jones design.

Will say that nothing ever appears big in a scope, except M31 which is always too big.  So do not go expecting an image that fills the eyepiece.

[Ahgii]

2 minutes ago, kilix said:

1) let the scope cool down
2) don't look out the window from a building, go outside. The heat exchange is insane and ofc your image does not resolve any details.

Also, being in Bucharest I imagine that it's pretty hot outside these days, so I would avoid concrete surfaces for serious observation. The concrete absorbs heat during the day and then radiates during the night, ruining observations with heat blur.

ty

[Ahgii]

21 hours ago, ronin said:

Window is a definite problem, they are meant to be outside. City will have lots of thermal currents rising from it so again a problem.

The barlow is not much good and the 10mm is not much good, sorry but they are provided sort of because they have to enable you to "see" but that does not mean see well. Teh 10mm will be a cheap Huygens type. The 20mm is a bit better, normally but usually still a Huygens.

So 20mm on a 650 scope is 32x, Jupiter will be small and as it is bright the result is likely to be it is too bright and everything is flooded. So no detail just a bright whait disk.

Suggest you consider another eyepiece, 12mm plossl perhaps, that would give 54x - still a bit low - which brings in the good old BST Starguide at 8mm for 81x. If you go via the TS site it is their NED 8mm.

The scope is at least what it appears, as in NOT a Bird-Jones design.

Will say that nothing ever appears big in a scope, except M31 which is always too big.  So do not go expecting an image that fills the eyepiece.

Well i dont know if the eyepiece is bad, which the stock eyepiece usually is, but i have seen what properties an eyepiece has and i think its good. It has an all black interior, i would say the anti-reflective surface on it is good, The 20mm is not that good. But the barlow may indeed be a problem. Thank you!

[N3ptune]

Most of the time the problem is the atmospheric conditions a mix of bad transparency and seeing.

Clouds like high altitude cirrus can suppress details from Jupiter, sometimes it requires a few minutes to even see these clouds.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cirrus_fibratus_and_Cirrocumulus.jpg

[MarsG76]

Not letting it cool and looking out of a window is a detail killer , especially on Jupiter.

Treat Jupiter's detail as something thats as fregile as a soap bubble, to see the details, and the fines details your conditions need to be just right. Go out side, let the mirror cool and watch and wait for the fleeting moments of seeing where the details just pop into view...

Looking out of a window is a bad idea, since the thermal currents from the building will kill all details and you'll end up with a fuzzy yellow ball.