Skymax 127 - can't see planets!

[LucciD]

Hi,

I got a Skymax 127, and use the 28mm eyepiece that it comes with. The setup was brilliant to see the moon with. But what puzzled me was the result I got on the planets (mars and Jupiter appeared really bright in the sky for a period.) - I would catch the planet as a bright blob in the viewing field, and then turn the focus. The blob gets bigger...should be going in the right direction...then it becomes a RING of light!!! 

I'm a complete novice, and would really appreciate any suggestion/advice on what went wrong.

 

Thanks! LucciD

[JOC]

16 minutes ago, LucciD said:

I got a Skymax 127, and use the 28mm eyepiece that it comes with. The setup was brilliant to see the moon with. But what puzzled me was the result I got on the planets (mars and Jupiter appeared really bright in the sky for a period.) - I would catch the planet as a bright blob in the viewing field, and then turn the focus. The blob gets bigger...should be going in the right direction...then it becomes a RING of light!!! 

Sounds like you focussed in the wrong direction.  With only  a 28mm I doubt a planet is going to appear much bigger than almost a star.  You should be resolving a planet as a very small but sharp mini circle of light.  I suspect you needed to make the circle of light smaller not bigger!  You were making them less focussed not more so - turned in the opposite direction I very much expect you would have achieve a pin sharp, though much smaller focussed dot on a black background.  With Saturn you would probably have seen the ellipse shape of the ring system - unless it was tipped square onto us, However, with Jupiter you should also see a lovely set of moons around it at the right time and these will  move night to night, as in the thread below.

Even if you don't read - look at then pictures on the first two pages here and lower your expectations.  If your Skymax 127 has a 1500mm focal length (which seems to be the case online) and you use a 28mm that is only 56 times apparent magnification, which is far less than in the pictures in that thread, which, if memory serves, are at about x 200-250

 

 

Edited February 27 by JOC

[Stu]

20 minutes ago, LucciD said:

Hi,

I got a Skymax 127, and use the 28mm eyepiece that it comes with. The setup was brilliant to see the moon with. But what puzzled me was the result I got on the planets (mars and Jupiter appeared really bright in the sky for a period.) - I would catch the planet as a bright blob in the viewing field, and then turn the focus. The blob gets bigger...should be going in the right direction...then it becomes a RING of light!!! 

I'm a complete novice, and would really appreciate any suggestion/advice on what went wrong.

 

Thanks! LucciD

Actually it is the opposite! The planets and stars are in focus when they are at their smallest. The 28mm still gives quite low magnification so Jupiter will appear very bright with little detail, perhaps try to get hold of a shorter focal length eyepiece?

[PeterStudz]

Normally when bought new the Skymax 127 comes with 2 eyepiece - a 25mm & 10mm. Was yours new or secondhand? 

In your telescope you really want something at or near 10mm in order to see detail on a planet like Jupiter.

[Louis D]

The US version comes with a 2" visual back, diagonal, and 28mm eyepiece.

[dweller25]

7 hours ago, LucciD said:

Hi,

I got a Skymax 127, and use the 28mm eyepiece that it comes with. The setup was brilliant to see the moon with. But what puzzled me was the result I got on the planets (mars and Jupiter appeared really bright in the sky for a period.) - I would catch the planet as a bright blob in the viewing field, and then turn the focus. The blob gets bigger...should be going in the right direction...then it becomes a RING of light!!! 

I'm a complete novice, and would really appreciate any suggestion/advice on what went wrong.

 

Thanks! LucciD

The focus knob does not zoom the image larger as you turn it, it just makes the image come to focus when you go the right way.

As others have said, If the view of the object gets bigger when you focus just turn the focus knob in the opposite direction 👍

For the planets you need at least a 10mm eyepiece to give x150 magnification.

Edited February 27 by dweller25