Confused!

[Tex]

Hello everyone I am a newbee to Stargazers and to Astronomy. I live in Atlanta Ga. and just bought a telescope. I have had some realy cool looks at the moon before it got full and almost blinded me. But I have been trying to figure out the what lens magnification I need to look at the planets. Maybe some one could help? My scope is a Ds-2030 130mm, 1020f/l , 7.9 f/r . I have 3 lenses 4mm, 12.5mm, 25mm and 3x barlow lense. I am getting a fuzzy image with the secondary mirror and spider vane in the way. what would be the right lense to use?

[John]

Hello there,

For the planets you want some magnification so you use an eyepiece with a shorter focal length. Your 4mm eyepiece will give 250x magnification - a bit too much most of the time with a 130mm scope. An ideal eyepiece for the planets in your scope would be a 7mm which would give 150x. The nearest you have to that would be your 25mm used with your 3x barlow lens which gives 122x - that should work quite well too, until you can get a 7mm eyepiece.

John

[Tex]

thanks I will give that a try when the clouds clear.

[george7378]

Hi and welcome Tex,

Just wondering - are you the Tex from the Orbiter Forum?

Good luck observing.

[Tex]

No! but thanks for the heads up. I did know there was another Tex out there.

[michigander]

Welcome to SGL, Tex!

Dana

[Brunty12345]

Welcome to SGL!

[yeti monster]

Ye harr Tex, howdy!

Welcome to SGL, the sane astro forum, for sane astro forumeers..............

[Scott Tilley]

Hi Tex, welcome to the forum!

Scott

[glowjet]

Hi Tex,

A warm welcome to SGL it seems our cloud is even spreading to you, enjoy the forum.

John.

[oceanheadted]

Welcome to SGL Tex. If you're getting a fuzzy image with the spider visible it sounds like your focus is way out. Try racking the focuser in and out some more to see if the image gets better,

cheers

Alan

[Rusty Strings]

Hi Tex, welcome to SGL

John

[Starjumper]

Hi Tex,

Welcome to SGL.

John

[IanC11]

Hi there Tex and welcome.

Ian

[Doc]

Hi Tex welcome to SGL

I agree it sounds like a focus problem. Just try adjusting the focus slowly in case you are missing the sweet spot.

[johnh]

Welcome Tex, the spider vane and secondary will not blur your image as obstruction will only affect low contrast detail slightly for visuals. It sounds like a collimation issue.

Magnifications are usually 20x per inch of aperture or less for deep space and 40-50x for Moon and Planets but poor seeing will not allow the 40-50x to work well.

JohnH.

[Talitha]

Hi and welcome to SGL, Tex.

[ron.s.g]

Hi Tex and welcome,

good luck with the problem lets hope its just the eyepiece being used.

regards ron.s.g

[SpookyKatt]

Welcome to the forum Tex.

Kathleen