telescope finding jupiter HELP?

Question

this is my last post on how to use this and i will give up which would be a shame wasting 180 bucks....... ok so this is whats up

I look into the sky nice theres this big bright star at night... oh wait I know what this is its jupiter! nice so i get my telescope and use my low powered eye piece but as i zoom in its a blur, nothing just a dot of white getting bigger and blurrer.... what is it ? and when i focus into stars its a boring white blur in my view... what do stars look like in a 4.5" telescope? and how come i cant focus into jupiter?

Answer 1

First, make sure it's Jupiter you're looking at. You can get an online sky map for your observing time and place here: http://www.space.com/nightsky/
Jupiter should appear as a tiny, distinct disc, accompanied by its four big moons looking like little stars in configurations that change from night to night (sometimes one or more of them will be hiding behind the planet). Through a 4.5" telescope you should be able to see two or more bands on the planet, but these features are subtle and you may have to work at it to see them.

Stars in any telescope are nothing more than tiny dots. The only detail you can see is that some of them are actually double or multiple stars.

If everything is blurry, you may have bad seeing (unsteady air), or your telescope may need collimating. With luck, you got collimation instructions with the scope. You can find lots of information online, including a video here: http://www.andysshotglass.com/Collimating.html

Answer 2

$180 spent on any telescope is typically a waste because telescopes in that price range are typically not quality instruments...but, the corner cutting is typically on the mounts and not so much the optics.

Stars are generally borning in any telescope. In refractors they should focus to perfectly round dots, and in reflectors, they should focus to fairly round dots though they may have diffraction spikes.

In a 4.5" telescope, assuming ideal conditions and the right eyepiece, Jupiter can sometimes be seen as a small whitish sphere with hints of cloud bands.

Viewing planets in detail is a difficult thing to do. You need a telescope with good optics, that are properly collimated, the right eyepieces, very calm atmospheric conditions, and you have to allow the telescope to cool properly before use.

Your problem is most likely that the atmospheric conditions aren't calm enough and you haven't allowed the telescope to cool, which means to reach equilibrium with the environment. Even if the atmosphere appears calm at ground level, there could be a lot of turbulence in the upper levels. The less the stars appear to twinkle, the less turbulence is up there. Also, when things are low on the horizon they are difficult to get a clear view of because you have to look through more atmosphere and dust.

So here's what to do.
1. Pick a calm night.
2. Let the telescope sit out, usually for about an hour if it's not absolutely freezing out.
3. Point the telescope at what you want to look at.
4. Put in the lowest powered eyepiece and focus.

You can up the power and see how high you can go but the maximum theoretical magnification of a 4.5" telescope is 225x and in reality you will probably not be able to exceed 60x due to the atmosphere.

A telescope with more aperture will perform better.

Answer 3

As you can see from the answers so far, there are _lots_ of things that could be wrong, and it's really hard to diagnose the problem without actually seeing and using the telescope. That's why the advice to contact your local astronomy club is so important. An experienced amateur astronomer can probably solve the problem in a minute or two!

I'm not sure what you mean by "zooming in." Most zoom eyepieces are very poor quality; a good one would cost more than your whole telescope!

Small telescopes usually come with two or three fixed focal length eyepieces, not a zoom eyepiece. Use the eyepiece with the longest focal length (largest number in millimetres), probably 20 or 25mm. The other eyepieces are usually junk and unusable, as is any Barlow lens which came with the scope.

Stick to the 20 or 25mm eyepiece. Try using this in the scope in daylight to look at distant objects. They'll be upside down, but what you want to make sure of is that they are _sharp_. Try the same thing on the Moon. Then try a bright star (NOT a planet!) The star should be a brilliant point of light, when focused properly. If it's a circle or doughnut, you're not in focus. Adjust the focuser until it's a tiny tiny point of light. Move a little bit in and out of focus: it should be a perfect little circle or doughnut; any other shape means the optics are out of collimation or defective. There should be instructions for collimation with the scope; if not, check out a book like Star Ware by Phil Harrington.

Once you get a star looking like a star should, try looking at Jupiter again. You should see a tiny disk with two to four moons (tiny spots) on either side of it. You _may_ see a single band on the disk; usually there are two, but this year only one.

As someone else said, don't give up. Get local help from a club, and hang in there!

Answer 4

Just a guess, but 4.5" telescopes of any flavor don't go very often for $180. If it's used, the previous owner might have had it misadjusted, if it's new, it could still happen...

Start with stars for your setup. Pick a bright star by itself so it's difficult to confuse it with other objects. Don't aim at Jupiter in the southwest. First center it in your main optics (The high magnification part on the big tube). Might take a little doing if the findersope isn't aligned. Be patient. Once you have your star in the mains, adjust focus until it is a small, sharp point, as small as possible. If you can't make it a small point, make sure the eyepiece is all the way inserted into the focusing mechanism, and that the focusing mechanism is seated correctly on the scope. If it's not all the way inserted/seated, you might not have enough travel with the focus knob to compensate. Try another eyepiece if necessary. If you can't make a star appear as a sharp point, there's no reason to continue.

Once the star is centered and sharp, adjust the three screws that aim the smaller finder scope until the same star is centered on the crosshairs. This aligns the two tubes so that the object in the center of the small scope on the crosshairs is in the center of the main optics. If the star isn't sharp in the finderscope, try rotating some of the threaded parts either on the front or at the rear of the finder scope. If they weren't adjusted correctly or got fouled up, it might take some experimentation.

When you're done, the star will be centered on the crosshairs in the finderscope, and in the mains. Both images will show a small sharp star that twinkles (Twinkling is your assurance that it's a star, not a planet).

Now try aiming at Jupiter. It should appear physically larger than your star, like a disk with fairly sharp edges. Focus until the edges are sharp. With any luck, you'll see bands on the surface, and some moons very close by, more or less lined up with the bands. Good Luck.

Answer 5

If you still have the Manual that came with the scope, go through the "Collimation" procedure.
That's just a fancy word for making sure the optics are lined up. Unless you are doing something which is not obvious from your description, misalignment of the optics is about the only thing that will stop you from reaching focus under all conditions.
To check it, just aim your scope at a star ( any star) put your low power eyepiece in the focuser. (the lowest power eyepiece is the one with the largest Number stamped on it such as 25mm)
Now, move the focuser knob. If the image gets larger, you are moving the wrong way. Back up until the image gets as small as possible.
You should end up with just a tiny point of light, the tinier, the better. Since all stars are very far away, all you will ever see is a point of light.
Using the same eyepiece, look at jupiter. Refocus until Jupiter is as small as possible. You should see a small, but very sharply outlined disc and spread on either side you should see four dots which look like stars but are really Jupiter's Moons. You can actually watch them move in their orbits throughout the night. If you can do any of this, your collimation is Ok, if not, do the procedure. It is a bit of a pain at first, but becomes routine after a while and will take only about a minute to do.
Collimation is a regular part of Reflector maintenance and needs to be done from time to time on all Reflectors.
If you no longer have the manual, go to the Orion Web site at www.Telescope.com and in the "search " box at the top of the page, type in "Manuals" scroll down to the Manuals for one of the 4.5" Reflectors and print out your own copy, it has the procedure in it.
Good Luck!

Adolph

Answer 6

You probably have to refocus as you zoom.

Stars will just be points of light.

You either aren't focusing or you have the eyepiece in wrong or it's a defective eye piece. Fixed eye pieces are better. Get an 10 or 12.5 and a 6mm

OK I looked up the specs, it's Meade, it's not a bad scope it sold retail for $250 and it DOES NOT have a zoom eyepiece, so you must be confusing the focus knob for a zoom.

That knob on the viewing section is for focus.

This scope comes with a 25mm and 9mm.

The 9mm will give you the best view. You turn the knob until the object is as sharp as it can get.

In the case of Jupiter look for the 3-4 moon next to it to become as small and sharp as they can be. Then it's in focus.

Jupiter is half way up in the South at sunset.

Don't go tinkering with the colimation if it's a new scope, that was factory pre-set

It sounds like you just don't understand the concept of that metal rack and pinion focusing set up.

Jupiter will have a very large disk and will be a little soft or fuzzy as it's a gas planet.

If you got a moon filter with this scope try using that, it will help show the cloud bands, of course it will also darken the planet considerably. Red and Blue filters also show the cloud bands better.

Mars is out in the East at midnight and Venus will be up before the sun in a few weeks. The moon is also out, that's a nice object for viewing

The Pleadies is a nice open cluster to see using the 25mm lens.

There are some globluar clusters you can look for. They will look like organish fuzzy spots. So will the Ring Nebula. You need dark skies to really see the Ring. Same for the ORion Nebula. You need dark skies.

Answer 7

Hello again, I answered your previous post on this. All of the above answers are good, but I'm not sure if you should mess with colimation, that can turn into a disaster if you really don't know exactly what you are doing. I agree w/all the above about Jupiter - it should appear VERY small but sharp, a perfect sphere, with very faint light grey bands. You should also be able to see at least a couple of its moons, they should appear as very tiny pinpoint stars, in line with the bands. If this is not what you see, then something is wrong, and you will need to find someone at least somewhat familar with astro scopes to get a handle on it. Your scope, a 4.5-inch f/8.8, 1000mm, is not a big one, so the only thing in the night sky that will appear big is the moon. But the moon should be spectacular in your scope, lots of crisp, sharp craters and features. Stars, on the other hand, are always tiny pinpoints through a properly setup and focused scope, even through Hubble.

Where do you live? There's got to be a club near you somewhere. If you happen to be in the Los Angeles area, email me and maybe I can have a look. Here there is the Los Angeles Astronomical Society, great club. Don't give up, the challenge of astronomy has always been to see as much as can possibly be seen with an instrument that's never big enough and severly limited by physics. Really, it's a challenge that many just don't have the patience for, yet sublimely rewarding to those that do.

If you can't find someone near you, email me and I'll give you my number, maybe we can straighten things out better over the phone.

Answer 8

Stars look through a scope the same as they do in the sky; as points of light (though you may see them resolved into different stars if it's a multiple star).

Are you sure it's Jupiter you're looking at? It may be one of the bright stars, which will not show a disc. Jupiter is in your south-western sky now, and will not twinkle at all.

In any case, when the disc of the planet (or point of light for a star) is as small as you can get it, then it's in focus. If it's Jupiter, it should be a very small disc in low power, but with the moons visible on either side, and maybe 2 thin bands across the planet if you look for a while. Higher power with a barlow lens or shorter eyepiece can then be used.

By the way, the aperture of 4.5" tells me how much light it gathers, but not the magnification. I need to know the focal length for that.

You may have unrealistic expectations of what you can see. Don't give up yet. I've been observing for 4 years and still think of myself as a beginner. Find a local amateur astronomy society. Take your time.

Answer 9

Your problem is probably with the eyepiece you are using.

There are different types out there, but Plossl usualy gives the best viewing, as it uses 4 lenses to give edge-to-edge sharpness at higher magnifications.

Lower quality eyepieces use lesser numbers of correcting lenses, and these can cause blurring, chromatic distortions, etc at higher magnifications.

Stars will appear as pinpoints even in the most powerful of telescopes due to their distance and small size relative to that distance.

I'd try to find a better eyepiece and see if that helps.

Answer 10

My guess would be that you are not leaving your telescope out long enough to get acclimated.

Temperature difference between the air and the telescope can cause condensation or cause the mirror to get steamed up (just like in the bathroom.)

Set up your telescope and leave it alone for about 45 minutes or so. When everything is the same temperature, there shouldn't be any problems.

Note: This is especially important in the winter!

I used to have a Cellestron 9."
.