It takes me at least 2 ... 3 minutes to start seeing the really fine stuff there. Loosening the locking knob by turning it counter-clockwise. Terrestrial and celestial viewing functionality. Sunspot structures (with a solar filter). Because of that, your eye cannot see details or colors. Low and medium magnification work well - but it depends; e.g. But I doubt your scope would do well above 200x, even though the theoretical limit is 260x. Shadows of Jupiter’s moons. DSOs, are different. Get a book called "Turn left at Orion" - it's a guide for beginners showing how to find many DSOs. Celestron AstroMaster 130EQ – What Can You See? I've watched M13 many times from the middle of the Silicon Valley. Even then, you need several things to see Mars well: Seeing will affect all solar system objects (Moon and planets). Seeing also doesn't matter much. I've looked at Saturn from a sidewalk under the bright lights downtown (city center), with cars and people passing by - no problem. What does affect them is light pollution - the light from all sources around you, glowing in the dust, water drops, etc in the atmosphere. Even when light pollution is very high, the Moon and the planets still look the same. Rings & several moons of Saturn. Phases of Mercury Lunar rilles (surface depressions) & craters. High magnification zooms into particular details. Justtop1.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn advertising fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. How to locate nebulas visible through AstroMaster 114 telescope without device assistance? if I did? Taking the Equatorial Mount into account, you’ll have to go for. What magnification is required to see detail on Mars / other local bodies? Three-terminal linear regulator output capacitor selection. If you can see the rings, the shadow of the rings on the surface of the planet, and the main split inside the rings (the Cassini division) then you're doing fine. By lens in this case I presume you mean eyepiece. Now don't go ahead and buy some fancy expensive eyepieces - keep them proportional in price with the scope, and the original ones should be fine for now. Martian polar caps & its dark surface features. Definite presence of Uranus & … This is why it's hard to see DSOs from the city. Very weak red light will not destroy your dark adaptation. rev 2020.11.24.38066, The best answers are voted up and rise to the top, Astronomy Stack Exchange works best with JavaScript enabled, Start here for a quick overview of the site, Detailed answers to any questions you might have, Discuss the workings and policies of this site, Learn more about Stack Overflow the company, Learn more about hiring developers or posting ads with us, Recommend closing as too broad, which is as close as it comes to "you need to learn a lot more about what a lens is", Pick up a free smartphone app (Sky Safari AR is free, there are premium editions which are not free, but the free version would great to get started). Mars - don't even bother unless it's at opposition. How to solve a linear problem A x = b in PETSC when matrix A has zero diagonal enteries? Is it important for a ethical hacker to know the C language in-depth nowadays? Another thing that helps: if there's a large temperature difference between inside and outside, leave the scope outside for a while to catch up with the air temperature. Do not use flashlights. I have got a Celestron Astromaster 130EQ telescope, which lens should I use to see the various planets and nebula? Nebulae, galaxies and the like require low power eyepieces (in general) and dark skies, the aperture of the main mirror (6" for you) is much more important here. Heavy-duty materials for overall framework. What really does help here is eyepieces with a wide field of view, because it makes it easier to find the objects. The trick is how to find these objects. Usually you don't need high magnification for DSOs. Finally, make sure your eyes are dark adapted before looking for DSOs. Collimation and seeing affect fine details, but you can't see fine detail in DSOs. When seeing is bad, high magnification is worthless (the image is fuzzy and keeps shaking like jello). Venus at the moment is easily visible in the Western sky before around sunset, it shows phases like the moon and you should be able to see those, it is currently half full. Convert x y coordinates (EPSG 102002, GRS 80) to latitude (EPSG 4326 WGS84), How to look back on 10 years of photography. Estimating the direction of true north based on the magnetic north pole. Bright imaging with 12.8 limiting magnitudes. Lunar rilles (surface depressions) & craters. Slow-motion control knobs for adjustment. If you live in North America, the Clear Dark Sky site can give you a prediction of a few parameters including seeing. DSOs are often difficult to spot and referred to as "faint fuzzies" because you can be looking right at them and not notice (they are often very faint unless you are in excellent dark skies with no moon). As an amazon associate, we earn affiliate commissions from qualifying purchases. Extended 1000mm focal length with the lens. Which eyepieces I can use it for best viewing experience using my existing telescope? Do not use anything with a screen (smartphone, computer) because that destroys your dark adaptation. Okay, so that's a 130 mm newtonian with an f/5 focal ratio. It also helps to keep your eye at the eyepiece, keep tracking the planet, and let your eye adapt - in time your brain/eye system will start pulling more detail out of the image. Examples of back of envelope calculations leading to good intuition? It only takes a minute to sign up. Please note that light pollution has absolutely no effect on solar system objects (see below re: light pollution). Aluminum coated 130mm optical glass lens. By using our site, you acknowledge that you have read and understand our Cookie Policy, Privacy Policy, and our Terms of Service. Rugged, pre-assembled & stable tripod stand. Once the scope is collimated, you could try to push magnification even higher, by using a 2x ... 3x barlow with either of the eyepieces - that would double ... triple magnification. Adjusting the latitude by turning the back-sided screw. Probably not worth trying anything beyond the high 1XX values - that is, for your eyepieces, a 3x barlow. Jupiter is a bit tricky. Good collimation is critical. The next Mars opposition is in July 2018, so there's a bit of wait until then (will start to look good a few months before that). Please be aware that more magnification is not always better; for any observation there's an optimal magnification, not too big, not too small. You can learn a technique called "averted vision" which does help (this takes advantage of the fact that the monochrome "rods" in your eye are mostly around the periphery of your eye and these are more sensitive to dim light. Jupiter is a bit tricky. It has enough fine detail to justify high magnification, but it has low contrast - and then as you increase magnification it gets more washed out, more dark, and hard to see. Setting the telescope tube right above the German Equatorial mount. I made it a habit to check collimation every time before I use the scope; I'm so used to it that it only takes 5 minutes now. Low magnification gives you broad images with lots of stuff to see. How could I align the statements under a same theorem. These are objects with low brightness. Deep sky objects (nebulae, star clusters, and galaxies), a.k.a. Even if you are unfortunate enough to get a sample with mediocre to poor optics, the AstroMaster 130 can show you a lot of deep sky objects – provided you obtain a better low-power eyepiece than the one included with the telescope. ), Which planets, nebula, and other objects can be seen using Celestron Astromaster 130EQ, MAINTENANCE WARNING: Possible downtime early morning Dec 2/4/9 UTC (8:30PM…, “Question closed” notifications experiment results and graduation. If you can see the rings, the shadow of the rings on the surface of the planet, and the main split inside the rings (the Cassini division) then you're doing fine. Also you could google "how to find the Orion nebula" (or M13, etc) and you'll find online guides which are sometimes helpful. Get a good planisphere (star chart) like this one and keep it next to the scope when you're observing DSOs. That's also true for solar system objects, but it's even more important here. I'm still learning new things after years in this hobby. Figuring out from a map which direction is downstream for a river? You could also improvise a red flashlight, but make it as weak as possible (or put a dial button on it). Observe from a dark place, and stay in the dark for at least 15 ... 20 minutes before observing. For the Moon, any magnification works. All Rights Reserved, Celestron itself is one top manufacturer of high-quality astronomical devices.