First time Jupiter

[Andymack]

Saw Jupiter last night for the very first time. Absolutely amazing.Before owning a telescope, dummy that I am, I cannot ever remember consciously noticing this great big shining light in the sky before, so to see it and three moons was something else.But what size eyepiece do I need to bring out a bit more detail? I looked at it through the 10mm eyepiece that came with the telescope, and I know as a rule of thumb these are not up to much, but it was still pretty clear. If I looked hard enough I could just make out very (very) feint bands on the surface.But to be honest at first glance it was just a very bright disc. Would getting a Barlow help? My scope is a Celestron 114, which I believe is rated F9. Once again I ask for help from the collective knowledge of the stargazers lounge. Perhaps one day I'll be able to give advice to someone else!

[Andymack]

Doh! If I'd only scrolled down the board a bit before I posted my message, I would have noticed that this has more or less been answered. Sorry for wasting everyones time. ( Slinks away....closes door behind him)

[ashenlight]

Don't worry Andy it is lovely to see your own personal experiences of the gas giant!

Jupiter is fairly low right now, so it suffers from atmospheric conditions. Being lower to the horizon we have to look through more atmosphere to see Jupiter, resulting in poor viewing conditions. When you look at something higher up, you are looking through less atmosphere and so the 'seeing' is better. Seeing can really affect what level of detail you can see on an object.

My advice would be to persevere with observing Jupiter, as the seeing will change over the course of a session as the atmosphere moves and you may be able to pick out fleeting details. I sometimes spend an hour, two hours observing the planet just to get those periods of good seeing conditions.

A barlow is a good addition to an eyepiece collection as it effectively doubles the magnification of your eyepieces. But it won't improve what you already can't see. I would wait a little while til later in the year when Jupiter is higher and go from there. A Moon filter has helped me with observing Jupiter, as it just dulls the glare helping your eye to pick out more detail. This is the one I use. Planetary filters can be a good way of improving contrast when observing, check out Gaz's primer on them for more info.

Sorry I can't be much more help..

[Andymack]

Thanks for that. It's great to finally see things that I'd previously only seen in Books and TV. Glad someone has explained the Barlow to me in straight foward English:) I think I'll give the Moon filter a go. Thanks again.

[ashenlight]

Not a problem, let us know how you get on and just remember Jupiter will be better placed as the year goes on.

Remember with the barlows, a 2x barlow will double the mag of an eyepiece, turning a standard 10mm into a 5mm, whilst a 3x barlow will triple the mag of an eyepiece, turning a 10mm into a 3.3mm. I have both 2x and 3x, probably the best purchase I've made yet.