JamesF Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 I took advantage of a few breaks in the cloud earlier this evening to have a look at the moon and Jupiter with the children (who are fascinated I'm using a Skywatcher Startravel 80 with the supplied 10mm EP.The view of the moon was astonishing -- incredibly sharp images of the craters, especially those in partial shadow. In fact, it was almost too bright to look at comfortably.When we turned our attention to Jupiter however, whilst we can see the moons clearly and given a few minutes I can make out a couple of slightly darker grey bands across the surface of the planet, the image of the planet was surrounded by a slight red haze.Is that likely to be down to the limitations of the optics, or my lack of skill, atmospheric effects, wear and tear on my eyeballs from my rock'n'roll lifestyle (hah!), some combination of all of them or something else entirely?I have a Philips webcam and adapter that I might drop in to see if I can do a better job when I'm looking at the image on a screen if the weather allows this weekend. The children will love it anyhow. I'm raising such a family of geeks James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 I suspect the 80mm of aperture working at F/5 is the limiting factor here, plus perhaps the observing conditions. These scopes are nice for low-medium power views but the false colour they produce (quite normal for a fast achromat) does limit their planetary capability.What you are seeing on Jupiter is what I'd expect more or less. The red haze is the false colour showing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nightfisher Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 to be honest the startravel is not an ideal planet scope but keep at it, play about with the magnification a bit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonshane Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 Hi JamesWelcome to SGL and congrats on getting a scope! This is a decent enough scope but is really designed for low power / wide field scanning of the skies. As you have found it will be great on the moon and you could get a bit more power with different eyepieces but just enjoy the ones you have for the time being.The red haze you mention could be chromatic aberration / CA (although I have more often seen it yellow one side and purple the other (might be different with your optics though)). If you increase power a little (try the 10mm in the supplied Barlow although the quality might not be high) then this may improve things.The scope you have is a fast f5 (lower this number the faster the scope) achromat so they are a bit prone to CA on brighter objects.However, enjoy it and it's a good starter scope Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ollypenrice Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 You can get a Fringe Killer or Minus Violet filter from Baader Planetarum which hels with this issue.Olly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesF Posted January 14, 2011 Author Share Posted January 14, 2011 Hi JamesThe red haze you mention could be chromatic aberration / CA (although I have more often seen it yellow one side and purple the other (might be different with your optics though)). If you increase power a little (try the 10mm in the supplied Barlow although the quality might not be high) then this may improve things.The scope you have is a fast f5 (lower this number the faster the scope) achromat so they are a bit prone to CA on brighter objects.However, enjoy it and it's a good starter scope I did try briefly with the Barlow, but couldn't get the image focussed. Unfortunately the cloud came over before I'd had much time to tinker so I've had to abandon further experimentation for the moment. Unfortunately the weather forecast isn't looking great from that point of view for the next few days.James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moonshane Posted January 14, 2011 Share Posted January 14, 2011 yeah, weather. nothing makes seeing worse than cloud! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesF Posted January 15, 2011 Author Share Posted January 15, 2011 Well, all is not lost. I noticed the sky had cleared around 10:30pm so quickly nipped out for a play despite the brightness of the moon and the outlaws in the granny annexe having the place lit up like a christmas tree. I was concentrating on Orion because it was right opposite the door. Had a look around the main stars and then tried to find M42 which I may have done, but I wasn't sure that the hazy glow I thought I could see was actually there or just wishful thinking. Dropping the Barlow in made it completely unfindable so I went back to Betelgeuse and got everything in focus once more only to have the cloud come back in heavily before I could go back to the nebula for a second look.Such is life. At least I've managed to see something this weekend.James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave S Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 If you could see a small cluster of bright stars in the middle of the haze then you got m42. They are the the young stars formed out of the nebula and the group is called the trapezium.Dave... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NGC 1502 Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 Hi James. Jupiter is way past its best this apparition, so none of us are gettingthe good views of last Autumn. Your scope will be great on objects like M45 and M44 ( Pleiades & Beehive clusters )Regards, Ed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milkyjoe Posted January 15, 2011 Share Posted January 15, 2011 Hi James.I have exactly the same problem as you. I have the Skywatcher Startravel 102 telescope and I cannot get good views of Jupiter either, but as everyone has mentioned, fast scopes (ours being f/5's) are not best suited for planetary viewing unfortunately.On the plus side, our scopes are very good for wide views of the sky so that includes looking at things like galaxies/nebula/star clusters etc etc. I've got myself a dSLR camera, which I am going to attach to my scope and (hopefully) start taking some images of these beautiful objects.I've also gone down the webcam route, but have not yet managed to take a decent picture of either the moon or any planets, so I guess I will need to invest on something like a mak to get better views. Good luck and clear skies. Richard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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