Question About Telescope Lenses?
Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at
2:34 am
I own a celestron nexstar telescope. I really don't know much about space and basically got it just so I could peek at the stars. I own three lenses with which I can get an awesome view of the moon but cannot see any other planets sharply, with my most powerfull lense mars is still just a very bright star. So I was wondering if it is possible to get an even more magnifying lens which would allow me to see other planets more clearly. If you have any suggestions or links it would be greatly appreciated
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US $1.00
Not really.
Enlargement is only part of the equation. What you need is more resolving power, not enlargement. If you made anything larger, it would be larger but fuzzier. The most important aspect of a telescope is the light gathering capability, that means the size (diameter) of the mirror.
Sorry if that sounds bad, but that is the way it is. Large telescope do not make things necessarily bigger first, but brighter and sharper. Once you have sharp and bright, then one can enlarge.
Increasing the resolving power means increasing the diameter of the telescope. You cannot upgrade a telescope, you have to replace the whole unit.
You didn’t specify the model of the NexStar so I can’t tell you which eyepiece to use specifically.
Every telescope has a highest practical magnification. This is the magnification you can use without exceeding the telescope’s theoretical resolving ability. If you have the NexStar 60, you can’t use more than 118x magnification. If you have the NexStar 130, then you can’t use more than 256x magnification.
This assumes you are in outerspace though.
In reality you will probably have to use far less. But here’s what you can do to get the best view of planets possible.
1. Choose a night that is very calm and clear and dry. No wind and no haze on the horizons.
2. Let the telescope and eyepieces sit out for at least an hour. The colder it is, the longer it needs to sit, unless it was stored in a place equally cold. This “cooling down” allows the telescope to reach equilibrium with the environment and is a VERY important step to follow to see the planets well.
3. Point your telescope at Jupiter.
4. Start with the lowest power eyepiece and work your way up to higher powers.
5. Even if the view isn’t perfect, watch it for a while, it might clear up for a short moment allowing you to see the planet in great detail.
Mars can offer nice views but often has planet wide dust storms that obscure the surface.
Mars is still fairly far away and is not much to look at right now. Try Jupiter, or, early in the evening, Saturn. To see the maximum of detail on the planets, you need to focus very carefully. Also, if your telescope is a reflector, make sure it is collimated.
As far as which eyepiece to use, it sometimes happens that the atmosphere is too unsteady to take advantage of your maximum magnification. Start your observing at low power and then see how much magnification you can use without the planet getting fuzzy looking. As a general rule, you won’t find any improvement with magnifications of more than 50x per inch of aperture (2x per mm).Watch for those brief moments when the air steadies and everything looks sharp.
Presently Mars is too far away to see more details with any amateur telescope. I would suggest you to look now – this week – at Venus and at Saturn. Venus should look like a waning crescent and at Saturn you should see the ring system. If you can see those two planets in the way I wrote, then everything with your telescope is ok.
A higher magnification is not always showing more details. The opposite can be true. You have less light and more wobbling with a higher magnification.
To calculate the best magnification as a rule of thumb just take the front opening of your telescope in mm – this will give you the best magnification factor. Max useful magnification is sometimes 20 to 30 percent higher.
To calculate your actual magnification divide the focal length of your telescope by the focal lengt of your interchangeable eyepiece.
P.S. I was looking at Venus and Saturn this evening with a magnification of 80x – it was great.
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Why can’t multiple images from multiple telescopes be combined to have greater resolution?
You don’t say what the aperture of your scope is. Nexstar makes some fine scopes and if the image is crisp and sharp, even though tiny, a 2x Barlow lens will magnify the power of any eyepiece by 2. You could also buy a lens with a smaller millimeter opening, thereby increasing your magnification. The thing to remember is, if the small image doesn’t look sharp, the big image will be an even bigger blur. For astronomical observation, the aperature size (the front lens of the scope) is key. Most astronomers want a wide field of view. Mars’ appearance will vary as its distance varies. It has a highly elliptical orbit which can vary from 60 million miles from earth to a little over 20 million miles from earth. Check it out again at its next closest approach. With a Nexstar I imagine you could resolve the polar caps.
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Analyze usage of focal length of your lenses.
You dont have to have astingmatism, your eye doctor or optometrist will let you get a different type of contacts. You dont need parental consent unless they beileve you are too young to buy them or if you get the eye exam & if you get it with insurance & such. Im guessing before you purchases your contacts they’ll suggest to you to get an eye exam, they always do
The sun is the closest star.
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Then don't buy one just for the sake of it and keep saving. There is nothing worse than a poor telescope to kill the desire and drive of an amateur astronomer.
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It ultimately depends on what you want to use the telescope for and HOW you can use it.
Things to consider are:
1) Price (you've done that)
2) Portability (Will you have to move this telescope long distances? Will you have someone to help you lift/move it? Etc.)
3) What do you want to look at with the telescope? (Some telescopes are better for nearby lunar and planetary viewing. Others are better for seeing deep space objects like galaxies and nebulae)
4) Accessories (If you want to get a good selection of eyepieces you will probably need to spend an additional ~75 quid to get 2-3 new eyepieces. Most telescopes come with only on eyepiece. You'll also need star charts, maybe some binoculars, telescope cleaning materials, etc.)
A REFLECTOR telescope will give you better optical quality and resolution. These are better for lunar and planetary viewing. The typically have smaller lens apertures (2"-5") and can only collect a medium amount of light. Hence you cannot see very faint deep space stuff well.
A REFRACTOR will give you the most bang-for-your-quid as far as mirror aperture. Remember: size of mirror = number of objects you can see. You can probably get a cheap-o 6"+ reflector for ~100 quid. Reflectors give "good" views of planets and the moon, but you'll also get better view of fainter galaxies and nebulae. They typically are therefore a bit heavier and larger. Portability is more of an issue.
Use these bits to refine your searches. Meade and Celestron are the best quality brands. Try looking at the Orion brand, too. They're a little cheaper. Something like this 3" reflector from Celestron would not be a bad first telescope:
Good luck!
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Telescopes generally fall into three catagories. Refractors, reflectors, and catadioptrics.
Refractors use lenses. Lenses work by collecting "bending" light by a phenomena called refraction. Reflectors, on the other hand, have an open front with a small mirror mounted near the front in the middle of the tube, and a large mirror mounted in the back. The large mirror in the back collects the light and focuses it to the secondary mirror up front, which bounces it into the eyepiece.
Catadioptrics, light schmidt cassagrains, have generally short tubes, a large mirror in the back, and a glass plate up front with a round area in the middle, which is where the secondary mirror is mounted. They work in a similar fashion to reflectors but the specifics are a little different.
For any telescope, the operating principals are generally the same.
1. Take the cover off.
2. Put in the lowest powered eyepiece…this is your 25mm one.
3. Point the telescope at a ground based object in the distance.
4. Looking through the view finder, adjust it using the adjustment screws on it's bracket to get it to be pointing at the same object you see in the eyepiece.
5. Put in a higher powered eyepiece and repeat.
6.Put the lowest powered eyepiece back in.
Once you've aligned the viewfinder properly you can try pointing the telescope at something inthe sky. I'd start with the moon, and then try a bright planet like Mars.
How to tell eyepiece strengths. Eyepieces are listed by their focal lengths. The largest number is the lowest power, and should be the eyepiece which you will get more use out of. The higher powered eyepiece you use, the more difficult it will be to get a good image because you magnify the atmosphere more, you approach the limits of the physical capabilities of your telescope's optics, and the motion of the Earth becomes far more apparent, making it difficult to keep things in your field of view long enough. They are also generally not very comfortable to look through.
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