Not sure what’s what

[Andy1972]

Hello everyone 

ive got a sky watcher that has come with these lenses I’ve guessed the Barlow doubles what ever other lens I’ve put in it but I’m not sure what is stronger with the other two. I looked at Mars last night just looked like a brighter star I’m waiting for the moon lol I would also love to be to take a photo but I only have my phone 😢 any advice or pointing me in the right direction or better lenses would be appreciated 

thanks 

Andy

[rickwayne]

Hi, and welcome!

For eyepieces, the magnification is given by the focal length of the telescope (900mm) divided by that of the eyepiece (25mm or 10mm).  So a smaller number on the eyepiece means more magnification. Of course you don't get something for nothing, more magnification means more optical problems and more trouble with air turbulence. That is confusingly called "seeing", you'd think that term would refer to how well you can see things -- cloudiness, or transparency -- but no, it's how stars wave around when you try to photograph them.

Planets are pretty tiny so you have to magnify them a lot to see more than a spark of light. Jupiter and Saturn do amazingly well with quite small telescopes but sadly you've just missed them, they're really close to the Sun in the sky now. You may be able to catch a peek just after sunset though.

[rickwayne]

You are correct that the Barlow magnifies the view.

The Andromeda Galaxy is high in the sky and great for viewing, and there are some terrific bright nebulae near the belt of Orion that would be fun to look at.

It's funny how often the recommended solution to an astronomy problem is "spend money", but you might want to see if you can find a holder for your phone to keep it still while you're taking pictures.

The Moon is going to be a great target for smartphone work, and you might get some pretty exciting shots of Saturn when it's visible again. If you buy the right filter for your scope, you can even shoot pictures of the Sun, but that is super-dangerous if you don't know what you're doing so for the love of Bog please read up on it first!

Orion might also be doable. Other deep-sky objects will be a lot more challenging. There's a reason seemingly sane people spend thousands of dollars on this stuff, after all.

May you find joy in the journey!

Edited January 9, 2021 by rickwayne

[Andy1972]

Thankyou very much I might just get up early one morning on a clear night so if I’m getting it right the Barlow and the 10mm would be my strongest lens option to use I did try they last night my eyes were hurting after a while lol

[Andy1972]

2 minutes ago, rickwayne said:

You are correct that the Barlow magnifies the view.

The Andromeda Galaxy is high in the sky and great for viewing, and there are some terrific bright nebulae near the belt of Orion that would be fun to look at.

It's funny how often the recommended solution to an astronomy problem is "spend money", but you might want to see if you can find a holder for your phone to keep it still while you're taking pictures.

The Moon is going to be a great target for smartphone work, and you might get some pretty exciting shots of Saturn when it's visible again. If you buy the right filter for your scope, you can even shoot pictures of the Sun, but that is super-dangerous if you don't know what you're doing so for the love of Bog please read up on it first!

Orion might also be doable. Other deep-sky objects will be a lot more challenging. There's a reason people spend thousands of dollars on this stuff!

May you find joy in the journey!

Thankyou is there any chance of being pointed in the right direction of a phone holder

[rickwayne]

Right, the 10mm is the most magnification. You can get other eyepieces relatively inexpensively, but you're unlikely to get much more out of them. With my relatively giant 280mm reflector, I can utilize a 9mm eyepiece effectively and maybe a 6 when conditions are ideal.

I haven't ever tried to mount a phone on a scope, so I'm just doing a search. Here's a page of adapters on Amazon:
https://smile.amazon.com/smartphone-adapter-telescope/s?k=smartphone+adapter+for+a+telescope&_encoding=UTF8

The search also turned up this how-to article:
https://nightskypix.com/smartphone-astrophotography/

And this video tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrtnnMIpUGI

I would also highly recommend that you hang out on this SL forum, since it's dedicated to precisely this topic:
https://stargazerslounge.com/forum/279-imaging-smartphone-tablets/

Fair warning: this is really addictive stuff. I started out shooting some pictures of night landscapes with the Milky Way in them and kept wanting to go a little deeper, a little better...now I have five telescopes, a thousand-dollar equatorial mount  with a $2500 one on the way, and a wife who is exceedingly patient with someone who will literally dream about how to fashion a bracket for an autofocus motor and then wake up and want to talk about it.

At length.

 

[Andy1972]

20 hours ago, rickwayne said:

Right, the 10mm is the most magnification. You can get other eyepieces relatively inexpensively, but you're unlikely to get much more out of them. With my relatively giant 280mm reflector, I can utilize a 9mm eyepiece effectively and maybe a 6 when conditions are ideal.

I haven't ever tried to mount a phone on a scope, so I'm just doing a search. Here's a page of adapters on Amazon:
https://smile.amazon.com/smartphone-adapter-telescope/s?k=smartphone+adapter+for+a+telescope&_encoding=UTF8

The search also turned up this how-to article:
https://nightskypix.com/smartphone-astrophotography/

And this video tutorial:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrtnnMIpUGI

I would also highly recommend that you hang out on this SL forum, since it's dedicated to precisely this topic:
https://stargazerslounge.com/forum/279-imaging-smartphone-tablets/

Fair warning: this is really addictive stuff. I started out shooting some pictures of night landscapes with the Milky Way in them and kept wanting to go a little deeper, a little better...now I have five telescopes, a thousand-dollar equatorial mount  with a $2500 one on the way, and a wife who is exceedingly patient with someone who will literally dream about how to fashion a bracket for an autofocus motor and then wake up and want to talk about it.

At length.

 

I know all about addictive I did a tandem skydive in 1995  25 years and  1K jumps later 😁