Another newb with questions

[wils07]

Hi all im paul from lancashire and have just bought a sky watcher 130p and im very pleased with it but do have some questions.

1st being that i can see jupiter almost every night and can get a good round focus on the planet and see its moons but i seem to be getting no detail of its gas clouds as it seems to be too bright. (light yellow/white colour)

Now on the other hand when i look at the moon all is well and i get very good detail so the scopes i think has no problems with focusing.

I am using the 2 x barlow with a 10mm eye piece so is this enough to see what im after? Also i have tried with and without a moon filter but still no difference. Just so you know this was tried last night and tonight so maybe it was just bad conditions or do i need a higher eye piece or a different type of filter?

Cheers Paul

[richbyers]

i have a 130 and yes jupiter is too bright at first to make much out- try looking at it for a long time and your eyes will adapt. I find that the barlow is very low quality, degrading what you will see, if you have a higher mag. eyepiece then use this as it will cut out some of the brightness

rich

[brantuk]

To reduce the brightness of moon and planets replace the tube end cap and take off the small offset cap leaving a smaller hole. This will make them much easier to look at and no eye ache

[brantuk]

Hi Paul and welcome to the group

A barlowed 10mm will give you 130x magnification in your scope which has 650mm focal length. You should be ok up to around 200x on a very clear night but the "seeing" has to be good.

Unfortunately the 10mm and barlow supplied aren't up to much and will produce "fuzzy" views - you'll need better quality ep's to see the detail you're after. I'd recommend a Celestron Ultima barlow (very popular) and a decent 8-10mm eye piece (e.g. a Hyperion, or a TV plossl). These would set you back around £160 but you might get them "used" for around the £100 mark. Or there are cheaper makes but still better quality than what you have.

The 25mm should be ok - even with your barlow - Jupiter will be clearer but still quite small. Hope that helps

[pvaz]

The lack in detail seams to be caused by some factors:

- Poor atmospheric conditions. Some people on another thread said the seeing in the UK was poor tonight, although it may vary locally. Bad seeing causes objects to shimmer and detail is lost.

- Jupiter doesn't take high mags too well. (Compared to Saturn or Mars)

- The stock SW barlow and 10mm EP seam to get bad reviews.

To improve the view have you done this tasks?

- Check collimation on the scope.

- Let it cool down for 30 min before observing.

The brightness may be distracting too, but if you can handle the moon then Jupiter should be no problem.

EDIT: brantuk beat me to it!

[brantuk]

Lol Paulo - thanks for adding extra detail - I just had to go to bed it was so late

[wils07]

Thanks guys for the good info and now i guess i should try out all what you said and report back, its just ashame its daytime.

Now altho im new to this im very hands on with things and tend to take them apart and mess/mod them with no other reason than just being that type of person.

However how do i konw if my scope needs the collimation checking as i have read some info on the web but not really sure but im willing to have a go with the correct info in hand.

Many thanks Paul

[Polar Bear]

Hi Paul ,

Good advice from the other posts.

I used to have a Celestron 130 (similar spec to the Skywatcher) and found with good seeing , using average eyepieces it gave the best views of Jupiter at about 120x magnification.

Sometimes less magnification is better with inexpensive gear, Last night I got some wonderful views of Jupiter with a 76mm reflector at 50x mag and could make out the banding crisply , with the moons perfect spots of light. Seeing last night was better in the early hours as Jupiter got higher and the air cooled. Earlier on the sky was 'boiling' quite a bit as my efforts of imaging the moon were thwarted.

Welcome to the forum.

Paul

[wils07]

Ok i have made myself very familiar with my telescope but i do have one question...

With my scope it came with 2 x EP a barlow a 2" - 1.25" converter and something else that looks like a bigger version of the 2" converter but im not sure what it is. It has two grub screws with it and a removable cap?

Can any one help

Cheers Paul

[wils07]

Well i have just collimanated my scope and OMG at one point i thought i would never get it back to how it was lol. I used a cheshire collimation tool and after 30 mins or so i managed to get the hang of it and im glad i did use it as my telescope was out.

Oh and that extra bit i was on about is a 2" ep ring so i dont really need that with what i use the scope for.

[brantuk]

Well done on your first collimation exercise Wils - we've all been at that point where you think it's not going to work - then suddenly it just drops into place lol