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Complete novice saying hello

RichD

By RichD
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RichD

RichD

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Hi there,

I'm 45 and I've just bought my first telescope. It's a Skywatcher Explorer 130 with a motor drive.

I haven't got a clue what I'm doing so I thought I'd join a forum for some tips.

So far I've managed to line up my red dot finder fairly well and I've found Polaris and aligned my scope then tried a bit of Jupiter watching.

I must have aligned it right first time as I only needed to adjust RA to follow Jupiter so I've surprised myself already.

I'm looking for advice on getting the best out my scope, eye pieces, filters etc as I did get quite a good view of Jupiter although I could only just make out markings. I could see the four largest moons.

Maybe this is the best I will get with this scope?

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E621Keith

E621Keith

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Hi Rich

Welcome to SGL.

Personally I don't have much experience with a Newtonian, but I'd say with a 130mm telescope, you should be able to see the 4 Galilean moons and Jupiter's belts. However, beyond that, the atmospheric condition will become a limiting factor. While higher power eyepieces may help on the details in good condition, I am not sure whether your scope and mount can handle the magnification.

Hope you enjoy your the night sky

Keith

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RichD

RichD

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Hi Rich

Welcome to SGL.

Personally I don't have much experience with a Newtonian, but I'd say with a 130mm telescope, you should be able to see the 4 Galilean moons and Jupiter's belts. However, beyond that, the atmospheric condition will become a limiting factor. While higher power eyepieces may help on the details in good condition, I am not sure whether your scope and mount can handle the magnification.

Hope you enjoy your the night sky

Keith

Thanks for the advice :)

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Davidv

Davidv

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Hi Rich, I've never found it easy to see detail on Jupiter apart from the two main belts. As you may know, one of them is missing at the moment so astronomers everywhere are eagerly awaiting its return. But back to your scope and Jupiter… Though the detail is there it can be subtle and it may help to just keep looking and eventually you can see it. It may also be fleeting as the seeing can come and go. A power of about x150 should be fine. Don’t try and ramp the power up too much as it won’t show any more detail.

Another planet which is on view at the moment and will look very nice is Venus, visible as a morning star in the East before dawn. Good luck with you new telescope. Dave.

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RichD

RichD

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Hi Rich, I've never found it easy to see detail on Jupiter apart from the two main belts. As you may know, one of them is missing at the moment so astronomers everywhere are eagerly awaiting its return. But back to your scope and Jupiter… Though the detail is there it can be subtle and it may help to just keep looking and eventually you can see it. It may also be fleeting as the seeing can come and go. A power of about x150 should be fine. Don’t try and ramp the power up too much as it won’t show any more detail.

Another planet which is on view at the moment and will look very nice is Venus, visible as a morning star in the East before dawn. Good luck with you new telescope. Dave.

Thanks Dave. I could just about make out 1 belt, I'll keep looking to see if I can spot a little more detail. Didn't know Venus was visible before dawn, I'm not a good early riser but I'll have to make exception for this as I'm looking forward to seeing Venus. I've been advised to use a moon filter for Venus so I'll give that a go too.

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bcfcciderhead

bcfcciderhead

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Hi and welcome, i have the same scope and yes you can see Jupitar's moon and 2 of it's belts (when they are there lol), at first you might not but after a few goes your eyes will get use to it and the more you look the more you will see, it takes a while to get use to seeing things (well it did for me) and of course the weather makes a big difference, some nights are good some not, but you will have fun

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brantuk

brantuk

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Hi Rich and welcome to SGL :)

Some things that will help you see more detail on Jupiter - catch it high in the sky before it starts going down so you aren't viewing through as much atmosphere, use a really dark place to view from, make sure your eyes are dark adapted, ie don't look at white light for at least 20 mins (including ciggy lighters and torches) - use a red torch only, cool your scope to ambient temperature to reduce air currents in the tube, choose a really clear night, keep ep's in your pocket before using, use only good quality ep's, and finally use a higher power.

You could get a decent 4mm ep for around 162x magnification, or an 8mm ep with a decent barlow. A s/h Hyperion 8mm with a Tal 2x barlow is what I'll be trying tonight - I'll let you know what happens :)

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anth

anth

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Hi

I'm a novice too and have read a lot of post in this forum. Read the one about eyepieces as i think you will get the most out of viewing if you choose the right one. Do the maths, focal ratio etc and you wont go far wrong. Good luck!

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