Beginners questions

[Pete_inthehills]

Hi

I have a number of questions that have probably been answered before so feel free to point me to any relevant threads.

1. Clear nights up here are usually very cold -5 to -10C I noticed some condensation on the outside of my scope when I brought it in from a viewing. Do I need to worry about condensation inside the scope? Is there anything I can do to prevent it?

2. When I was looking at Jupiter a couple of nights ago I could see five moons four in the classic line and one off set in front of it. Was this fifth one really a moon or something else?

3.I found it difficult to look through my 4mm lens for a sustained period. Is there a trick for this or does practise help?

Thanks for your help.

Pete

Inthehills

[Ian123]

I think Uranus is in close proximity to Jupiter at the mo so could of been that, 2 planet's for the price of 1, not bad

[rowan46]

hello pete welcome to the forum

1 condensation; to avoid it fogging up the optics use a dewshield, dew band or both whren bringing it in just leave the caps off and let it dry naturally, if you are using a reflector point the scope slightly down so it doesn't drip on the mirror

2 you can see four moons through your scope the fifth moon was something else

3 practice helps in looking through an eyepiece.

let us know what you're using and we can give better advice

[rowan46]

I doubt that its uranus you can see in a 4mm eyepiece when looking at jupiter

[cgarry]

Hi

2. When I was looking at Jupiter a couple of nights ago I could see five moons four in the classic line and one off set in front of it. Was this fifth one really a moon or something else?

You can check what you saw in Stellarium. Just set the date and time to when you saw five moons and zoom in on Jupiter.

Cheers,

Chris

[tuc]

Hi Pete,

I`m pretty sure the fifth `moon` you saw was the star, 20 Piscium. It`s very close in magnitude to Jupiter`s moons. Although Uranus is less than one degree away from Jupiter, it would require an eyepiece with at least a two and a half degree FoV to fit in the two planets and four moons. And if you were using that FoV then you would be asking if you saw six of Jupiter`s moons!