Planets all fuzzy - any recommendations

[new_etx_user]

Hi there,

Ive been looking at a planet through my ETX-125, even on very clear nights, and its always way to fuzzy to make it out clearly. It definately isn't light pollution because i'm in the middle of nowhere and only light is from my house (which I turn off).

Just received my Televue 3x Barlow as well and its just making it a bigger fuzzy ball

I've tried multiple eyepieces in it, 26mm and 9.7mm SP and a random 4mm one.

Any advice?

Is it just clouds or do I need some sort of filter?

Also any ideas what planet it is? Yes I am a noob :?

Its the one thats always visible between 4-6pm really bright

Im in Scotland btw

Thanks

[Kai]

You are looking at Venus

Its very difficult (if not impossible) to make out any detail on Venus.

Wait a few hours and have a look at Saturn , then you should be able to make out detail

[Greg]

What Kai said and....

Have you allowed you scope to cool down properly?

Is the front lens misting up??

[dark knight]

Hmmmm, sounds like a case of over magnification to me coupled possibly with poor atmospheric conditions :scratch:

[dark knight]

Multiply the aperture of you scope (in mm) by 2 to get the maximum possible magnification for your telescope. OR for every inch of aperture multiply by 50. there are online calculators where you can then input eyepiece details to see what magnification will be achieved, if it is more than what the scope can manage then your gonna have problems.Hope this helps

[geoff_k]

Ditto what Dark Knight says about magnification. With a 125 aperture, 250x would be the highest usable magnificaton, but this is rarely achieved in our wonderful climate whether you have dark skies or not.

Saturn will take higher magnification but even then there is a limit. My scope has a theoretical optimal magnification of 500x but I can only recall one instance in the past few years where I was able to rack it up to anywhere near that on Saturn.

The view was fantastic on that occasion, but not for very long.

Venus is far too bright and reflective. Specialised filters are available for viewing and imaging the planet. This link shows some of the best amateur images and there have been some good ones on this forum but paradoxically they show the problems encountered with Venus due to the clouds covering its surface.

http://www.venus.wisc.edu/amateurdata.html

[dark knight]

Ok just done a quick calc for you. the max magnification for your scope is approx 250x. we can now work out what magnification each combination of eye piece and Barlow will give, like so.Focal length of your scope (1900) divided by eyepiece, thus for example,1900 divided by your 4mm eyepiece gives 475x which is way beyond the capabilities of your scope.Even the 9.7mm eyepiece gives 195x magnification, . And we haven't even factored in a Barlow yet :shock: . An 8mm eyepiece with no Barlows is about as good as it gets I think with your scope. Sorry if I'm the bearer of bad news.