Astromaster 130 EQ

[Mogra1]

Have an Astromaster 130 EQ .   Tried looking at Jupiter and Saturn.

Here are the pieces that have been used:

1. 20mm and 10 mm eyepiece (original)

2. 2X and  3X barlow (bought separately)

3. 16 mm and 32 mm plossol.

 

Tried various combinations to get a better view of Jupiter and Saturn.

Get same views no matter what, details lacking in all of them.

Cannot see Jupiter Bands OR the GRS (know this is not always visible) Can see Jupiter and its moons. Jupiter appears as a bright round with no details.

Saturn can see  : tiny with rings but there is a light distortion.

Any suggestions on how to get better views?

We can see the moon clearly with the 20mm and 10mm eyepiece.

Hoping for clearer skies ,

Thanks All!

 

[Freddy L]

I don’t know if this helps, but I used to own that telescope and I don’t remember seeing the GRS on Jupiter, nor the Cassini division on Saturn, not even at the highest useful magnification. 
I was able to see two bands on Jupiter and Saturns rings with a fairly sharp view of both of them though.
 

Because of the light distortion you mention I believe that possibly your primary mirror could be misaligned. Have you Colli mated your telescope recently? 
 

 

[Nik271]

I used to have the same telescope. It's not very good for planetary views, because the mirror (at least in the models made in recent times) is spherical, not parabolic. As a consquence not all of the light comes into focus, I would say  beyong 70x magnification the views start to get mushy.

There are two things you can do to improve planetary views: 

1. Check if the scope is roughly collimated. Can you see the three mirror clips when looking through the focuser without an eyepiece. If yes, you are good.There is no center spot on the mirror, so this is the best you can do for this step.

2. Create an aperture mask: cut a circle or oval from cardboard of diameter 80-90mm and put it over the front opening. It can even be offset to miss some of the central obstruction. This way you lose some resolution but overcome the problem of spherical abberration and the views should be clearer. 80mm is still plenty of aperture to see the bands and GRS on Jupiter. Try 10mm with 2x barlow for 130x magnification.

Have fun with the scope, despite its drawbacks it can still show plenty!

Nik

 

 

[malc-c]

Its a 5" f5 reflector with a spherical mirror that retails at just over £200.  The quality of the optics at this price point, won't give you the resolution you need.  Adding barlow lenses to increase the focal lengths really needs a larger aperture scope as the resolution decreases and the image is darker as the magnification increases, so you loose detail.

Regretfully there is not a lot you can do with the equipment mentioned to improve things.  Niks suggestion may help, but IMO your scope is not ideally suited to planetary work.

[happy-kat]

The planets are low in the sky so are going through more atmosphere which degrades the image seen.

I think I'd try your 16mm with the x2 barlow as the maximum magnification as any more probably just makes a bigger blurrier blob. If it's going well with that try the x3 barlow with the 16mm.

The Moon generally can take more magnification though you'll find some sessions will be better than others.

[Alan64]

Try this method for collimating your telescope...

https://garyseronik.com/no-tools-telescope-collimation/