My first observing night

[dreamliner]

Hello Guys!

A few days ago I finally received my 8" Skywatcher dob and yesterday night/early morning I had a chance to semi-use it. There was lots of broken clouds and the reflection from the snow made seeing conditions even worse but despite all of that I could fairly easily find Mars. It was a very bright star fairly visible from where I was standing. Now, I don't know whether this is normal but by using the standard 10mm eyepiece which was included in the package I could just see the red planet as a very small disc/dot. It had a distinguishable orange colour and I am very positive that I was looking at Mars and not a random star. I also double checked with Stellarium to confirm the finding.

Is this something that I would normally expect to see of Mars through this kind of equipment and eyepice? Perhaps Mars is currently too far away to see anything better...especially in the city and bad seeing conditions. Or should I do something differently? I have read about barlows and think that getting a 2x BL would enlarge the image. Could someone comment on this?

Otherwise, because of clouds there was nothing else to see and judging by the met. report I will have to wait at least 2 more weeks before we can expect clear skies. I get so depressed with this weather...there hasn't been a single starry night for more than a month now and my need to explore the sky is so great ...I'm just so curious to finally see M31 and M42

Thanks for your comments.

J.

[DarkerSky]

Excellent stuff. You've done well to get some clear sky. It's been appalling where I am the last few nights. Mars does appear as quite a small disc at the moment. When the seeing is steady with a 10mm eyepiece on your scope you will likely see the white arc of the north polar cap at the bottom of your eyepiece image, perhaps with a darker collar around it, and maybe some dark markings on the disc towards the top. Mars is the sort of planet where you have to 'get your eye in' to really see some detail. I can spend a good hour at the eyepiece just waitnig for those moments of steady seeing - those are the moments that details start to pop out at you. A selection of colour filters can help - red and yellow filters help bring out the darker markings.

[dreamliner]

Oh...I see. But I bet you see the planet much more clearly with the awesome 16" Lightbridge!

Yesterday I couldn't distinguish any detail except for the orange colour...it was really like a star but with a certain disc shape. I am still wondering whether a Barlow would help in this situation

Oh, and compared to Mars...will Jupiter be better seen at this time? The planet is much larger than Mars but it is also quite a distance further than the red planet. ...aaarghh, I just can't wait to get another view of the starry sky...just hate those annoying low clouds. + there's snow all over the place

[pvaz]

The 10mm gives you 120x on your scope. I find it very hard to see detail on Mars at that mag cause it's so small. The best I can see at 120x is a tiny white arc on the pole.

I use 240x on Mars to get a bit more detail. If your up again before sunrise take a look at Saturn in the East. It holds magnification better and looks sharper then Mars/Jupiter even when the atmosphere conditions aren't very good.

[dreamliner]

Hi Paulo,

Thanks for the feedback! But what would be the best way to achieve the x240 magnification? Should I use a 6mm eyepiece or go for a Barlow?

J.

[pvaz]

My experience on that is limited. When I started I bought a very cheap barlow. I was going for the orion shorty but it was out of stock for 4 weeks so I made a last minute replacement for a barlow of an unknown brand... It was a big mistake!

I was so disapointed with the quality that I quit barlows altogether and got myself a decent EP collection so I wouldn't need one. I never tried any other barlow.

Lots of members have a good opinion on their barlows and reviews say good things on the Orions Shorty, Celestron Ultima and the TAL, to name a few. So it's really up to you.

[Talitha]

Another thing to consider is that increased magnification also magnifies the atmospheric disturbances. Those pockets of better seeing which DarkerSky mentioned are crucial, as is the patience to sit and look, and look, and look. At first you may not see too much, but your eye will eventually train itself to detect things.. that's when the fun starts.

[dreamliner]

Thanks again for the hints Guys!

So...from all of the above I gain that the best course of action for me is to buy a 5mm or 6mm EP and move to a darker observing site?! I will not bother with barlows for now then.

Though I am still quite amazed by the lack of detail I saw through my 8" dob. The M31 was just a faint smudge with very little contrast (I could't even distinguish a rough shape...it was like a faint star...nothing more) and Orion was a bit better but still extremely faint. I was switching between a 25mm and 10mm EP's. And I also cought Jupiter on it's "way out" and the only extra detail I got when compared to naked eye observing were 4 moons alligned with the planet, Jupiter itself was just a disc shaped bright star...does one really need at least an 16" scope to see any planetary detail? Don't get me wrong...I am still fascinated with what I saw and will continue to build up experience and practice but I really must learn how to get out the max from what I have...I just won't be able to afford buying a larger scope within the near future.

Thanks for the help, really appreciate it!

John.

[pvaz]

You don't need a big scope for planetary. It's been hard to get detail out of Jupiter now. If you want a better chance of success try right after sunset.

To make sure it's not the scope causing the lack of sharpness check collimation and let it cool down for at least 20 min. You can observe while it cools, if the difference in temperature is not that big, but if you use high mags at that time everything will seam out of focus.

If your did all that then only the seeing conditions can affect your view.

Try staying some time at the EP on each target. Take a pencil and a piece of paper and a red light. It may sound silly, but when you try to sketch something you really notice those tiny small details you usually don't see.

[dreamliner]

Thanks again Paulo. To be honest with you then I have no idea how to check whether my scope needs collimation is there a simple way of doing this or do I need expensive instruments? One thing I noticed was that when looking at objects my head/eye needs to be tilted at an angle...when I look through the EP at a 90 degrees then everything is blurry...but when I tilt my view a bit to the right then everything becomes sharper.

I always try to cool the scope for about 30 minutes because at nights it's about -15 to -20 degrees outside...hope this is OK for the scope, because I freeze my butt off after 20 minutes

I think I now need to start a new post asking which EP should I get...the 5mm or 6mm

J.

[pvaz]

To check collimation point at a star around mag 2. Polaris is one of them.

Slowly bring the image out of focus. You'll see a donut of light with a black circle inside. As you bring it more and more out of focus you should have perfect circles, if the shape is oval then collimation is off and you need to align the mirrors.

Here are some useful links that explain it in detail:

Astro Baby's Guide

Video