Can not see jupiter moons ?

[mohammed517]

Hi

All just want to start of by saying thank you all for making me feel very welcome.

I bought a telescope a couple of weeks ago a celestron firstscope. I understand it is not powerfull but I live in a one bedroom flat so space is very tight. The other night it was a partially clear sky so I wanted to look at Jupiter. With my 20mm eyepiece at 15X mag all I could see was a orangey blob no detail what so ever I could not even see the four moons of jupiter. I decided to up the magnification so put my 4mm eyepiece (75x mag) and once again all I could see was an orangey bright blob I could not look for the moons with my 4mm eyepiece as the field of view did not allow me to. Is this all I can expect to see ? or am I doing something wrong on my side ?

Thanks

Mohammed

[Demonperformer]

The short answer is yes you should be able to see the moons of Jupiter. My guess would be you are not focussed properly. What do stars look like? They should be tiny points of light, no blobs or disks. If you are focussed and that is all you can see, I would guess there is a problem with that particular scope and to have a word with the company you bought it from ... Unless anyone can come up with any other ideas?

[Slangers]

Celestron scopes are generally very good. It's a reflector isn't it? One problem may be that the scope is out of collimation (meaning that the primary and secondary mirrors are not aligned). You can fix this yourself and the instructions should have come with the scope.

The other problem may be viewing time. What time were you looking at Jupiter? At the moment it is not visible for long and is low in the sky. When any object is just above the horizon it makes viewing poor due to atmospheric interference. This could be your problem. Try staying up until 11 ish and take a look at Saturn, that will be a real test of how your scope is performing.

[Ad Astra]

Jupiter is extremely low on the horizon just now - even if you get it just at sunset. This makes the telescope's job more difficult because you are looking through lots of turbulent and polluted air.

Try Saturn (it rises a little later) - it will get higher in the sky and should give you a good view.

Also, try the moon - there will be no doubt if it is properly in focus!

Cheers!

Dan

[mohammed517]

Sorry for not replying earlier been working hard 12 hour shifts:mad:

As far as the telescope focusing goes when i last looked at the moon it was crystal clear could see the craters no problem. And yes jupiter was very near the horizon. Will definitely try saturn as i have got 5 days off now. Will report back with my findings soon.

Thanks

[kniclander]

the celestron firstscope is lovely but it is very very small (76mm aperture) - i bought one for my kids tbh the scope itself is quite nice but the supplied e/ps really let it down, especially the 4mm -I tried it with a better e/p and the view was pretty nice (although the eyepiece was nearly bigger than the scope ). Basically, any second hand plossl should be an improvement

but what other say about jupiter being low is also part of the problem.

[mohammed517]

Hi

You are right about the telescopes eyepieces they are very poor but to be honest was not expecting much for 37 pounds. I was thinking about the celestron omni range are these any good ? Still have not had the write weather conditions to test the scope on saturn but hopefully things will change.

[Doc]

Even in basic 10x50 binoculars you can see Jupiters moons, so even if your eyepieces were very poor I'm surprised you couldn't see them. Are you sure you were looking at Jupiter?

[mohammed517]

Hi

As far as jupiter is concerned I am pretty sure it was jupiter that i was looking at. I have got the google sky app on my phone and used it as a referance to locate jupiter position. Many people on this forum have told me brcause jupiter was so low in the sky there were other disturbances.

WOW WOW WOW I got a look at saturn last night to test to see if my scope was working correctly. After locating saturn I first used the 20mm eye piece (15x) I was not able to focus to get a clear picture. I then popped in my 4mm eye piece (75x) I was stunned I saw a yellowish small ball with a disk around it it was clear but the picture was very small never the less I was very happy indeed.

Mohammed