I have a Celestron power seeker 127 eq... Lense questions

[Lordsnow6969]

What lense should I get to be able to see planets. New to using a telescope, but lifelong interest in space. I would like to see mars, Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn. Of course I would enjoy any other objects in space, but those are first, after the moon.  I have a 20mm lense and a 3x Barlow lense. I also have a moon filter. All of these came with the telscope when I purchased it. Looking for ANY Advice on how to use my telescope and what lenses you have used to see everything you've read about in books. Thank you in advance!

[Pixies]

Hi,

Your scope will get you reasonable views of the bright planets. Bands on Jupiter, the rings of Saturn, the phases of Venus. Mars is to far away just now and you'll have to wait for next year before it comes back round to us. 

Now then - the first thing you will normally hear is that the eyepieces (not 'lenses' btw) that come with these scopes are very much just to get you started and would benefit from replacement.  Normally I'd say you can keep them and see how you get on, BUT (and I really hate saying this) the ones that come with this scope are particularly poor. New eyepieces will really benefit you. 

x100 magnification is a good starting point for the gas giants. They can take more but your scope will really only go up to x150 depending on seeing conditions. Your scope has a focal length of 1000mm, so to get x100 magnification, you divide the focal length of the scope by the magnification wanted (1000/100)  - a 10mm eyepiece.

A decent wide-field eyepiece would be something like a 25mm (magnification = 1000/25) = x40, good for views of star fields and finding objects.

Also, your scope is what's known as a Bird-Jones design. There is a type of barlow lens built into the focuser tube - that's why you can get a 1000mm focal length in a short 500mm tube. A separate barlow lens won't really work for this scope, it'll make the view pretty mushy.

So, ideally look to get some better eyepieces around 10mm and 25mm focal lengths. That'll be a good starting point. If you get into the hobby, your eyepiece collection will grow rather rapidly, and they can be used in different scopes if you ever decide to expand or upgrade!

Worth having a look here to temper your expectations on planetary viewing: