CELESTRON NEXSTAR 130 SLT

[PATRIOT SKYNET]

Hello everyone,

I'm new and just starting with my new telescope -  Wondering what eye piece magnification use with 2x Barlow would I need to view the details of Mars, Saturn, Venus, pluto

I bought a kit with various eye pieces and accessories

I have have 6mm, 8mm, 9mm, 13mm, 17mm, 25mm and 32 mm. Barlow x2 and various filter lenses green, yellow, orange etc...etc.

 

Please help with good advise for I'm new at this...

Thanks

 

[RT65CB-SWL]

Hi @PATRIOT SKYNET and welcome to SGL. 

I tend to do avoid buying a kit/set of eyepieces and buy individual. Eyepiece design like photographic lenses
include wide, zoom, etc., and can cost more than the kit/set you have. Apologies it it sounds negative.

To get any decent detail from the planets you ideally need...

• clear dark skies
• dark adapted eyes
• larger aperture 'scope... for Pluto... bigger still... average magnitude 14.0...
  and even then it is only a pin-point of light.

[happy-kat]

The phases of Venus will be visible I think

Jupiter, Saturn and Mars will be visible with some detail in descending size.

The rest will be very very small.

It's better to have a sharp image then a bigger blurry one so be careful as you chase magnification when observing. Stay at the eyepiece observing and more may become apparent.

Start with your lowest powered like the 32mm to locate a planet, aim for bigger ones to start, then raise the magnification though with the planets low in the sky they'll be not very stable so may wobble lots some nights.

Edited October 19, 2020 by happy-kat

[jonathan]

I think my advice would be not to get too hung up on observing the planets just at the moment, Mars is very good right now but Jupiter and Saturn are low to the horizon, they are definitely not at their best.  Catch Jupiter and Saturn as soon as it turns to twilight outside, Venus is currently a morning object I think but you should aim to reduce the brightness (same for Mars at the moment), if your telescope front cap has a smaller cap that you can remove then make use of that feature - leave the big cap on the telescope and the smaller aperture should reduce the brightness nicely; use a neutral density or 'moon' filter if you have one, or try the colour filters one at a time, see what effect they have when viewing the planets.

The planets will be favourable some years and not others, if you stick with the hobby even if it takes a few years then the wait should be well worth it to get those great views when the planets rise high in the sky.  There are plenty of other fantastic sights to get distracted by in the mean time, for inspiration check out the various astronomy websites or seasonal observing guide books (I'd say yours counts as a small telescope, there are plenty of great views to be had through it), if you're in the UK then The Works has the 2020 and 2021 monthly observing guide books in at the moment, well worth grabbing at a mere £3, or invest in one of the monthly astronomy mags (I tend to only buy one if it has something I'm interested in).

 

Edited October 31, 2020 by jonathan

[beka]

Hi PATRIOT SKYNET,

Your scope is not the most ideal for planets. You will have to use your highest power eyepieces to get good views of the planets and you should be able to see some detail on Mars, Jupiter and Saturn when the conditions are favorable. Uranus and Neptune will be tiny disks with no detail and you would be lucky to see Pluto at all. However you will have to learn how to collimate the scope to get the best views as this instrument is quite sensitive to misalignment. It is an excellent scope for wide field low power views of star clusters and the Milky Way so I would suggest you try this aspect of as astronomy which you may find to be very interesting. The kit eyepieces (assuming they are from the Celestron kit) are not really too bad. I used them for a long time before purchasing better quality eyepieces. The 6mm and 8mm may be difficult to use because of there low exit pupil so I suggest you use the longer focal length ones with the barlow. You can buy better eyepieces later if you decide you want to get more serious with the hobby.

Best!

Edited November 1, 2020 by beka
Added comment on kit eyepieces.