Meade 90az-ADR? Noob!

[mistergalarza]

Hi everyone first time posting here. Hope to become acquainted with you all soon.

I just got my first telescope my lovely wife gave me for Christmas. I love staring at the sky and have always wanted to get a telescope. Finally did.

I'm a newb and set up my Meade 90az. I don't know much about scopes but I pointed my viewfinder at Jupiter last night (with the help of starwalk iPhone app) and managed to get a good view of it and a few of its moons.

My problem is that it had no detail, no gas clouds just a white disc mostly.

I switched from the 25mm eyepiece to the 5mm.

Not sure if I'm doing something wrong or the scope is very limited.

Thank you all!!!

[John]

You should be able to see the main equatorial belt across Jupiter's disk and maybe another couple of faint belts in moments of good seeing.

To see more detail with a 90mm scope you need really good seeing conditions and quite a lot of time spent at the eyepiece. Shadow transits of the 4 brightest moons should also be visible under good conditions, when you have had more practice.

The 5mm eyepiece is probably a little too powerful unless the conditions were superb and the 25mm does not give enough power. You might want to think about getting something like a 9mm eyepiece to give you more flexability.

In case you are doing this (apologies if you are not !) don't try viewing though windows - they not good for astronomy !.

Welcome to SGL !.

[mistergalarza]

I sat outside on my balcony last night so no windows . Oh and the eyepiece was actually 9mm not 5mm sorry.

So you don't think I'm doing anything wrong? Skies were clear as can be, should I move the focus knobs? (that move the eyepiece in and out lol sorry I really am new)

[perrin6]

Did you know the scope needs at least 30 minutes outside to cool to the outside temperature, otherwise high-magnification images will be a bit blurry ?

[mistergalarza]

Nope had no idea

Thanks for the tip! Going to see if I can get a more detailed image tonight.

[Capricorn]

Only one reference to a Meade 90AZ but lots to Celestron 90AZ, guessing they are the same.

OPTICAL DESIGN: Refractor

APERTURE: 90 mm (3.54 in)

FOCAL LENGTH: 1000 mm

FOCAL RATIO: 11.11

Guess Meade supply different eyepieces.

A 25mm eyepiece would give 40x magnification and with Jupiter being bright the whole lot could get swamped by light. Small image lots of light.

If the second is 9mm then you get 111x magnification. If all was well I would have expected this to have given a pretty good image of Jupiter.

Two thoughts come to mind, perhaps a 12mm would be better, not a lot of difference but easier on the scope and 83x is fine for jupiter. wonder if he 9mm is simply poor and you may never get a good image through it.

For whatever reason the "normal" 10mm eyepieces (9mm is close) supplied are generally close to garbage. Strange as the longer ones 20/25mm are often OK.

If Orion wanders into view, try that.

Think you may need to invest in an alternative eyepiece to determine what the scope is capable of. If the alternative gives improvement then add others when possible. Do not aim for lots and lots of magnification, you'll just get frustrated. The 9mm is about as small as I would suggest, however a good 8mm may be OK but not that often.

Equally Jupiter is getting low and that does not help, tried the other night at 30x and could se the moons but same as you just a small disk, no detail. Wasn't expecting any however.

Will say one thing, at least you have found something. Many will have failed on a first go. May not have been as good as you will have hoped for but locating Jupiter and seeing it's moons is a fair start.

P.S. Stick a location in your profile, it helps when requesting information or people suggesting things.

[John]

I sat outside on my balcony last night so no windows . Oh and the eyepiece was actually 9mm not 5mm sorry.

So you don't think I'm doing anything wrong? Skies were clear as can be, should I move the focus knobs? (that move the eyepiece in and out lol sorry I really am new)

You balcony is better than inside but will still be affected by heat coming from the building so it's not ideal. It may be the best you can do though.

Yes, you should use the focus knobs to move the eyepiece / diagonal slowly in and out until you reach sharp focus.

Unfocussed, Jupiter just appears like a white disk.

[mistergalarza]

Wow thanks for all the input guys. I'm from Miami, FL lots of light everywhere.

I didn't realize my eyepiece would be low quality.

[Capricorn]

Best to consider that the eyepieces given with a scope are there simply to allow you to use the scope when you unpack and assemble it.

Eyepieces can ultimately be expensive, not sure of US prices but a rasonable but basic plossl here will cost from £20-30, so say $35-40, two of those is a fair proportion of the scope.

The two with the scope one will be for a wide view of low magnification and the otehr for a reasonable degree of magnification. If you stay with it then you will add to your eyepieces. Simply as you will find that you need additional ones for different purposes. A fair amount of what you want will be personal.