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Old 28-10-2011, 02:09 PM
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barx1963 (Malcolm)
Bright the hawk's flight

barx1963 is offline
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Mt Duneed Vic
Posts: 3,978
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cupp@ View Post
Thanks for the encouragement Malcolm! I'll definitely get a star chart as I've got no idea what's what up there. I lined the scope up on the brightest star I was able to see outside the garage and the scope focused on it quite well.

The star still looked tiny in the scope but looked like it had a couple of lines running through the middle of it. Hard to tell, it was a bit hazy. There were 3 much tinier stars next to it, one in the top left corner and two down the bottom right corner.

I'm thinking I should get a Barlow lens and perhaps a better eyepiece as well, everyone seems to talk about Plossl EP's ?
Paul, that is definitely Jupiter and its moons. A lovely sight! If you revisit it an hour or so later you will see that the moons will move as they orbit the planet. It's fascinating watching them if they are close to the planet as they move in front or behind it.
Plossl eyepieces are almost certainly the ones that came with the scope.
They are inexpensive basic EPs with a moderate field of view but can be hard to use at shorter focal lengths. You probably have a 25mm EP with the scope? If so that is the best one to use for most purposes to start with.

Malcolm
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