Hi Stebai,
There is alot to talk about! Wow.
First, there is no chance of viewing the rings around Jupiter. Not unless you have access to the King Kong of all professional telescopes, and then just. Its ring system is really only a token ring. Faint & thin. Even space probe photos have trouble detecting them unless they specifically look for them.
Your telescope is a fine instrument. It should be able to give a max. magnification of 400X without breaking a sweat. However, the atmosphere has more to do with how clearly you will see. In fact, rarely does it allow more than 350X, regardless of the size of the telescope or the quality of the eyepiece. To give you an idea, I've viewed Jupiter with my 17.5" scope, say, ten times in the last two months. Only once have conditions been good enough to see well at 350X. Usually only 100X to 150X is all that can be routinely used. 350X is a rare & special beast.
A barlow will double the magnification, but a precautionary note. If the barlow you are using isn't a quality unit & combined with an EP of the same rank, you won't improve things. The one you bought is very good though. Just be aware that it also makes the dob top heavy with the extra weight. I don't really like barlows, that's me though. They put too much glass between me & the universe. I rather a good quality, shorter focal length EP.
The filters you have serve different purposes. Lets start with the nebula filter. It is also called a light pollution filter because it filters out nearlly all wavelengths of light except for those at which nebulae are seen at. You may have noticed that nebulae are either red in colour or blue. The reason why is not important here, but what is is that it is these particular wavelengths that the filter transmits. When you use them in an urban or dark sky site, they allow the nebulae to be seen more easily. The darker the sky conditions are in the first place, the better they are seen.
These filters don't work on galaxies, however, because the light from galaxies is formed from the entire spectrum, & only a tiny amount from the wavelengths nebulae glow at.
The specific coloured filters you have will allow specific features to be more pronounced on all the planets. What features they will reveal is best sought from a specific listing on the topic. Someone else here in IIS may be able to give a link to such a list. Blue, especially would allow the Great Red Spot be be more clearly visible on Jupiter.
Using these coloured filters with the nebula filter is not necessary & a useless. The specific wavelengths transmitted by nebula filters does not match that of the coloured ones, & only makes the whole image darker.
Mental
|