Best EP for observing Jupiter?

[GordonWT]

Hi folks.

I recently purchased a Skymax 127 with GOTO. The alignment is a question for another day as I just get by for now!!

My burning question is what EP should I use to get the best view of Jupiter? It is quite visible these nights at my location but I have tried wide 35", standard 25", 15", 12"", 10" and even 4" and best view was with 15 but I still couldn't really make out much detail and image was quite small. Tried 15" with Barlow x2 and it was bigger but blurry.

Do I need better quality EP's, new eyes or should I have bought a 10" Dob instead??

Cheers

Gordon

[PARTY MARTY]

Hi mate!!

You can have best eyepieces around with FOV from 52 to 82 and costing many hundreds of pounds, however they will show you nothing more than a normal plossl eyepiece.

You might be experiencing bad seeing conditions, where the earths atmosphere is unsteady and seeing conditions are extremely poor.

Try your telescope another night and conditions might improve.

Also try coloured filters, these are a cheap and effective way of seeing hidden detail on planets, and they do work!!!

You should invest on a set of coloured filters, you can get a set of colour filters around £20-£30, see what you think???

I'm sure many other's would agree with me on this???

[Ags]

Jupiter's getting low, and only visible in the early evening, so seeing might be poor. I also found it took a few sessions to 'learn' how to look at Jupiter. Spend a bit of time watching it at around 150 magnification and see if some fine detail pops into view for a few fleeting moments.

When looking at Jupiter, avoid dark-adapting your eye - if you are dark adapted, your eye loses color sensitivity.

Juptier is a bit fuzzy and it can be hard to focus on - to get focus right, focus on the moons - when they are points, you know Jupiter is in focus too.

[dweller25]

As AGS says Jupiter is very low now BUT to maximise the views try to find Jupiter as early as possible after Sunset. This time of the evening often has much better seeing.

For best results you must make sure the Mak is fully cooled down and it's collimation is good.

A good 9mm Orthoscopic eyepiece giving x167 with your scope will give a 0.7mm exit pupil which is just about perfect for the planets.

HTH

[pvaz]

I suspect seeing conditions as well. Jupiter is getting really close to the horizon and it's very hard to get a sharp view with this conditions.