newbie needs help please

mike75 · Guest

i have recently purchased the meade ds 2080 lnt goto (20087) model scope from you all. I have the super plossl 9.4 and 26 mm eye pieces and the barlow shorty 2x eye piece...my question is all i can see as far as planets still are small dots and no detail really..any more upgrades i can add like a different diagnal prism to get me better views of things or do i need to really sell it and get something different...i am very into the planets and some closer galaxies and clusters id like to see as well...thank you so much for your help

Jne_K · Site Admin Joined: 24 Sep 2003 Posts: 5403

Hi

First, you are never going to see planets in an amateur telescope that will rival the views you see in pictures and magazines. You need to tailor your expectations to what an amatuer telescope can do. An 80mm refractor, though is quite capable of showing details in the rings of Saturn and cloud belts of Jupiter, given the appropriate magnifications and given good observing conditions. An 80mm refractor is quite capable as a planetary telescope.

With your 9.7mm eyepiece and a 2x barlow, you are getting 165x, which is a very common range of magnification for planets with any telescope. A larger telescope can handle a bit more magnification without losing image quuality, say up to 200-225x on a good night, but that is still not going to be a huge gain in in detail seen or image size. Before you rush out and buy a new telescope, I suggest you go to a local astronomy club to see what a larger telescope can do, relative to your 80mm refractor.

As for star cluster, nebulae and galaxies - any telescope, regardless of size can see some of these. The only difference between a small telescope is the number of these deep-sky objects you can see and, to some extent, how much detail you can in them. I have seen a great many such objects with telescopes smaller than 80mm. In fact, I can list well over 100 open clusters, alone, I have seen with just a binocular. If this is your first telescope, I would say you need to give your 80mm refractor more of a chance. You have a very long way to go before you have seen all there is to see with an 80mm refractor.
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