oK I need some lens eye piece help please

[Taz]

Decent night tonight and after much fiddling around I managed to find Jupiter ( i think) the eye piece's I have are as follows

1: H6

2: H12

3: H25

Tasco barlow 3.3 x barlow

3x barlow

Now then I managed to get some focus on Jupiter but it was tiny, measureing around 3mm in diameter in the lens, using the H12 eyepiece which seemed to focus best out of all the lens's I own (only just mind)

my question is that even with my best efforts the image was mediocre and not very sharp, i'm on a tight budget so bear this in mind please but please can some one tell me what i need to buy lens/eyepiece wise to

a: get a nice sharp image

b: get a bigger image where i can see a bit more detail

I appreciate that my scope (celestron 114 eq) isn't exactly the last word in telescopes but shurley i can get some thing a bit better out of it ? or am i wasting my time ? what i did see tonight has really got me excited and i really wan't to improve even a little bit what i can see, i did notice if i added any of the barlow lens's the image was more fuzzy even though a little bigger, surley there must be a way of getting a slightly bigger and sharper image ?

please help i'm really hooked now

thanks

[daz]

The H stands for Huygens (I think) which is basic lens design. Aim for Plossl eyepieces, these are waaay better.

You can get Meade 4000's for less than £20 quite easily from here, Astro Buy and Sell or good old fleabay.

Also, take a look at http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fov.htm select your scope (or enter the details if it is not there) and it will show you what the field of view will be for your eyepieces.

Magnification is the focal length of your telescope divided by the focal length of the eyepiece.

And finally, check the collimation of your scope - this can have a huge impact on the clarity of what you see.

Hope this helps a bit

[Doc]

You are going to find it very hard to get a better image size or clarity out of the scope with out buying better eyepieces even then I think you will struggle.

Your specs are as follows

FL 1000mm

Aperture 114mm

F 8.77

Your max magnification is approx x225. But remember this is only with exceptional seeing and here in the uk it's very rare to have this.

A 6mm gives x166 which is really your best size and mag given our poor seeing here in the UK. If you go for a 5mm eyepiece then you get x200 which will incease the image size slightly. IMO barlows only decrease contrast but do save eye relief so the choice is yours.

You are in a bit of a dilema you either invest in better eyepieces to improve the view which IMO will be marginal or invest in a bigger scope to get a bigger view of Jupiter.

As you say money is tight so maybe a better quality 5mm eyepiece to try out.

[peeceeTal2M]

Hi, just a thought but if money is tight why not pop along to one of your local astronomical society's observing meetings( with your scope) and see if someone there can check the collimation if you dont know how to check it yourself, you might also be able to "borrow" a few eyepieces to try in your scope, this way you'll soon know if a new eyepiece will improve your view without having to buy one first.

[Taz]

thanks again, i think the collimation route would be a good idea but i don't know where to start, i can run to at least one decent eyepiece i think looks like i'm gonna need a bigger telescope, hmmmm hunny it's my birfday soon

[Astro_Baby]

The Celestron 114 can be a perisher to collimate becaue of its off secondary mirror adjustments.

You could take a look at my collimation guide at Astro Babys Guide to Collimation for a quick guide - its written with beginners in mind.

[The Warthog]

I didn't realize the eps in your kit were Huygenian. In that case, pick up Plossls in a kit, or buy a 6 and a 24mm, then either a 10 or a 16 - the 10 if you are mostly interested in planets and the Moon, the 16 if you are interested in Deep Space Objects. Or buy all four eps if you can. This will give you a range of 42 - 163x. A 32mm ep would give you a nice 31x for looking at wider objects. You could buy that instead of the 24 and a Barlow instead of the 16, if you wish.

If the eps supplied with the scope are Huygens, the Barlow is probably trash too. Huygens was a genius, but he was a 17th century genius. Eyepiece design has advanced since then.