Quote:
Originally Posted by duppeydude
I'm using a 25mm to get the object into view and then using a 10mm eye piece. Managed to see Jupiter's bands last night! Do you recommend getting a laser collimator?
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No, waste of money. Most are not collimated themselves and when you get your eye in you can easily collimate by sight but you're still a novice, you'll grow to learn. Forget the gadget traps for now, most people never use them but if you want to throw money away on something you cant use be my guest.
Congrats on seeing jupiter! It never gets boring to look at, always spectacular. Likewise saturn. You may want to consider getting a Telrad to help with getting your scope pointed at targets in the sky like Mars. As others pointed out the planets should look bigger in the eyepiece (NOT NASA pic huge, and NOT pinprick points either. Stars Never increase in size in the eyepiece and the more magnification you use the harder it can become to catch a specific target in your eyepiece. For eye visible objects a telrad really helps, and you need it for a good starting star for star hopping to those fainter targets too.
I think you'd do well to save for a good 32mm eyepiece (baader) plus a baader zoom eyepiece. The eyepieces supplied with scopes are typically poor quality really, good ones will last a lifetime and you'll notice an instant improvement with your viewing. Eye relief will be better, the view will be much sharper with more contrast. Baader eyepieces are very good at a good price, though seemingly costly for beginners they are well worth the price. Down the line you can upgrade to Teleview eyepieces if you like. The baader zoom is possibly the best zoom eyepiece around and saves you having a heap of eyepieces and its easier to keep your target in the view when zooming in then when swapping eyepieces around. it covers 8mm-24mm range which does most of what anyone ever needs. to use higher magnification (yepieces under 8mm) you need a well collimated scope plus good atmospheric seeing conditions. So if you find yourself needing a bit more magnification for planets later on best to go for a high quality eyepiece for those rare occassions.
good luck on your sky journey