First attempt at astronomy...

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**Flashman**

I'm guessing a few Dakkanauts must be into stargazing and was hoping someone could answer a couple of questions...

I bought Mrs Flashman a telescope for her birthday today and we've just been out in the garden pointing it at random bright objects in the sky. Did the moon for a bit and then I spotted a really bright star which I assumed was Venus. Eventually got it in the view finder and it was definitely a planet. I just wasn't sure which one. We were using x 50 magnification, so it wasn't that big. However, I could tell it was a kind of a cream brown and every so often I swore I could see lines across the surface, which made me think Jupiter. There were 4 white dots around it (i.e. the moons), but they could have been stars.

So then, questions...

1. Was it Jupiter? For anyone in the UK, it was fairly low (just above roof top height) in the north west at about 10:30 - 11pm

2. I want a better view. The reviews suggest the telescope (Skywatcher Mercury 705) can handle x 140 magnification, but I'm not sure which eye piece to get. We have 25mm and 10mm at the moment. The 10mm gives us the x 50 magnification, so I'm guessing I looking for something smaller than 10mm. Is that right? I'm also aware that you shouldn't go too mad, as the higher the magnification, the dimmer and more blurry the view.

Anyway, regardless of what we were seeing, it was an awesome sight. Totally hooked

**Ouze**

I don't know anything about this, but I asked a friend who does:

For the astronomy thread:
The object you saw was Jupiter and the 4 moons originally spotted by Galileo.

If you view them on successive nights you will see the positions of the moons change. If you have the time and can check on Jupiter after about 4 hours, you will be able to see the moons will have changed position in just that short a period of time.

Getting more clarity to see the bands on the planet is more limited by the conditions of the atmosphere than it is by the magnification you use. A good pair of binoculars can see the banding on Jupiter during good seeing conditions. Those conditions are usually determined by how much light pollution (the orange glow from streetlights), how much humidity is in the air, and how turbulent the atmosphere happens to be.

The best viewing conditions are away from as much light as you can manage, on calm clear nights.

The aperture of your telescope is 70mm. This will limit the effective magnification you can use to around 120x, at the most. Trying to magnify things beyond this level with that scope will result in worse views, not better.

With your scope and the two eyepieces you have you can achieve 20x magnification using the 25 mm, or 50x magnification with the 10mm.

Your most economical purchase would be a 2x barlow lens. This is a lens that will double the magnification of each eyepiece that you own. Using a 2x barlow with a 25mm lens effectively makes it into a 12.5 mm lens. Using it with the 10mm lens will make it a 5mm lens.

25mm = 20x
25mm + 2x Barlow = 40x
10mm = 50x
10mm + 2x Barlow = 100x

Buying the Barlow is a good investment, it can be used with any future eyepiece you may buy, giving you 2 different focal lengths for each eyepiece.

Hope this helps.

**Flashman**

Fantastic Ouze, many thanks

**Eggs**

If you have a smartphone, star walk is a stunningly helpful app to find out what you are looking at. Just point your phone's camera at the area of sky you are looking at, and it will list the stars, planets, constellations etc. first useful bit of augmented reality I've come across. It almost made me splurge on a telescope.