Stelarium ocular view

[tiredboy]

I was playing around with stelarium last night and discovered ocular view.

I like the principle (if it trulely shows me what I should expect to see). However, I wondered what the effect of a barlow would be. For example I have an meade etx-80 and if I select my 9.7mm eyepiece I can input all the values for it (9.7mm, aFOV 52°) but what would the effect of using the 2x flip barlow (or any other type)be?

Also, how acurate is the imnage from the ocular view as it didn't seem to show me as much as I can actually see (although I'm not sure whetehr this was a result of using it on a small screen netbook)?

[spaceboy]

Hi Tiredboy

I don't think it is all that accurate. When looking at Jupiter I can make out the belts etc but on stellarium it remains a smallish dot. I can only assume it's just for a bit of fun.

SPACEBOY

[m_j_lyons]

If you spend the time to set up your occulars accurately you can expect modest success. I think it works better for stellar locaiton vs detail on planets. I don't think the planetary graphics in Stelarium reflect reality...they are just graphics. But i could be wrong.

Where I find the occular view useful is in finding deep sky objects without GOTO. I can start at a known location and then walk my way to the desired DSO and use Stellarium's occular view to verify what I'm seeing. To that end it works well.

I have a 25mm eyepiece, 6mm eyepiece, and 2xbarlow - so I setup 4 occulars - 25mm, 25mm w/barlow, 6mm, and 6mm w/barlow. Once you know the key commands to change occulars it's easy to figure out what the best eyepiece will be for a given situation. I've also found that it's important to play with the visibility settings to tone down the stars - seeing MAG 7-9 stars through a scope is a different experience from Stellarium...I think Stellarium makes them stand out too much.

Cheers.

[tiredboy]

I have a 25mm eyepiece, 6mm eyepiece, and 2xbarlow - so I setup 4 occulars - 25mm, 25mm w/barlow, 6mm, and 6mm w/barlow.

Cheers.

what settings do you change with/without barlow?

[brantuk]

Try this site - there's two modes - one for camera and the other for observing

http://www.12dstring.me.uk/foveyepiece.php

[m_j_lyons]

what settings do you change with/without barlow?

When using the barlow just cut the focal length in half (or a third if using a 3xbarlow).

Here's some good details on the occular plugin for Stellarium: Oculars plugin - Stellarium Wiki

Cheers

[tiredboy]

Thanks.

When using the barlow just cut the focal length in half (or a third if using a 3xbarlow).

Same aFOV irespective of whetehr a barlow is used?

[m_j_lyons]

Thanks.

Same aFOV irespective of whetehr a barlow is used?

I'm not an expert on optics...but it would appear if you increase the magnification you'll lose some FOV...if so and how much I don't know.

Play with it...after some time comparing reality from Stellarium occular view you'll know what needs to change.