Meade DS-2070AT Assistance

moneytrain8 · Joined: 19 Jan 2006 Posts: 2 Location: Joppa, MD

Hello,

My wife purchased the 2070AT for me for Christmas from Telescopes.com. It's a very nice telescope, and it's my "first" (I had a cheapo one in middle school that never got used).

Anyway, I've been fairly happy with it thus far. I only have the 9mm and 25mm eyepieces that came with the scope, but I am eager to purchase others that might give me better views of objects.

However, here is the "problem." The scope is great for viewing the moon, and I've even used my neighbor's 17mm eyepiece to see the "wisps" of the Orion Nebula, but when I set my sights on Mars or another planet, even with the 9mm eyepiece, the best I get is something that looks ever so slightly bigger than what I would see with my naked eye.

Is this telescope not "equipped" to really see the planets? I don't expect to be taking pictures of Neptune, but I must admit I was a little disappointed that Mars went from being the size of a grain of salt with the naked eye to being the size of the grain of sand in the telescope.

Thank you for your time and advice!

opticsplanet.com · Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 8:23 am Post subject:

Hi

Thanks for posting with us. Good question, one I'm sure many beginners are asking.

Manufacturers usually supply one or two eyepieces with their telescopes to get you started, but they assume you will add more to suit your specific needs. This is exactly the case with the DS2070. The focal length of the telescope is only 700mm. This means you are only getting 77x with the 9mm eyepiece (magnification = telescope focal length divided by eyepiece focal length). This is nice low-mid power range for viewing large objects, but not really what you would normally select for viewing planets.

For a maximum on that scope, I would not exceed 120-140x. You could get this by adding a 2x barlow to the 9mm eyepiece such as Celestron Omni, http://www.opticsplanet.net/celestron-telescopes-barlow-lenses.html This would push you up to 154x - a little higher than I would recommend for that size scope and mount.

A better option for image quality would be to add a 6mm eyepiece such as the Celestron Omni, http://www.opticsplanet.net/celestron-telescopes-eyepieces-omni-series.html This would give you a more reasonable magnification of 116x. If you really wanted to try a little more magnification, a similar eyepiece in a 5mm would give you 140x
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moneytrain8 · Joined: 19 Jan 2006 Posts: 2 Location: Joppa, MD

Joanie,

Thank you SO much for your response and wonderful explanation! I knew I was only getting 77x, but I wasn't sure exactly how much more I could go without sacrificing image quality.

Now I'm excited to go and purchase some of these items! Thanks again... I posted the same question in a number of other forums, but was ignored. I appreciate your attention.