How clear is it on planets in our solar system? or even bright star clusters?
214744
It all depends on the eyepieces. However, you can see Jupiter and Saturn in good detail with the supplied eyepieces. Naturally, the better eyepieces you get, the better images you will see. Keep in mind, however, that this is a very good entry level/novice telescope. But, I can say that it is perfect for my 12 year old junior astronomer. We are fortunate to live in a college town that has an observatory, so we are able to visit it to see higher quality images. But, I'm very pleased with this telescope and would purchase it again -- the only "upgrade" I would get would be the motorized, GPS based tracking system to make finding objects easier. It all depends on the eyepieces. However, you can see Jupiter and Saturn in good detail with the supplied eyepieces. Naturally, the better eyepieces you get, the better images you will see. Keep in mind, however, that this is a very good entry level/novice telescope. But, I can say that it is perfect for my 12 year old junior astronomer. We are fortunate to live in a college town that has an observatory, so we are able to visit it to see higher quality images. But, I'm very pleased with this telescope and would purchase it again -- the only "upgrade" I would get would be the... » Read More It all depends on the eyepieces. However, you can see Jupiter and Saturn in good detail with the supplied eyepieces. Naturally, the better eyepieces you get, the better images you will see. Keep in mind, however, that this is a very good entry level/novice telescope. But, I can say that it is perfect for my 12 year old junior astronomer. We are fortunate to live in a college town that has an observatory, so we are able to visit it to see higher quality images. But, I'm very pleased with this telescope and would purchase it again -- the only "upgrade" I would get would be the motorized, GPS based tracking system to make finding objects easier. « Show Less
214745
Zach, the only planet I have visted is the moon, its been so cold here not spent much time outside. Canˋt wait for warmer weather.
214746
Using the stock eyepieces (20mm and 10mm) Saturn's rings, Jupiter's cloud bands and moons are clearly visible on a clear night. I have only had this for a few weeks but as my first scope it's great and would highly recommend it. There are also more eyepieces that can give you even greater visibility.
1552328
Well just a bright light like a mini moon since it's cover with gas clouds but I consider it clear, which is enough for me.
1895080
Hello Douglas,as a matter of fact, you can! The larger bands on Jupiter are in fact easy to spot; the 26mm eyepiece will show them very clearly. The same goes for the pole caps on Mars, but those are very hard to spot with the 26mm. The 9.7mm eyepiece would be a better choice. Much depends on the clarity and stability of the atmosphere of the night, and on the amount of light pollution. But the ETX90 is definitely capable of delivering those images!
386673
You can see all 5 of the naked-eye planets. Mars is small so even with the highest magnifications (about 190x with this telescope) you can't see much detail. But let me tell you, Saturn and Jupiter are spectacular! With the 4mm eyepiece you can see the winds that stripe Jupiter and the rings that surround Saturn! You can also observe deep-sky objects that include galaxies, nebulae, and even binary star systems.
1719016
You need a filter for looking at the planets during the day. At night try a moon filter, or visit your local astronomy shop.
1895077
Yes, however, this is not a large aperture telescope so don't expect it to look like the photos you may have seen. But, the darker the skies where you observe from the better you will see everything. You can see the bands on Jupiter and the Martian poles (in season there). The south pole of Mars is much clearer because its ice pack is larger. As I write this May 16, 2014 Saturn and Mars are the two planets of choice. Saturn is very pretty in this scope and you can see it's large moon Titan very well with this scope.
212527
The moon was very nice through this telescope. Other planets were less impressive although Saturn blew my son-in-law away (He had never seen the rings.). That said, the additional lens sets have made impressive into spectacular as the moon now fills the scope and other planets are very distinguishable in a clear sky.
1552329
Venus is very bright and due to its thick cloud cover its difficult to see anything but the light. But it is neat to focus on it and watch it go through its phases as the year goes by...similar to the moon phases. I have also gotten excellent views of Jupiter with the storm bands and 3 moons clearly visible, as well as Saturn and its rings. Moon viewing is amazing. Its hard to see a lot because of all the artifical light at night now, but i did take it to an Army field exercise where it was at least significantly darker, and actually got a glimpse of the Andromeda galaxy and the orion nebula. For the price...I have seen some incredible things with this telescope. Venus is very bright and due to its thick cloud cover its difficult to see anything but the light. But it is neat to focus on it and watch it go through its phases as the year goes by...similar to the moon phases. I have also gotten excellent views of Jupiter with the storm bands and 3 moons clearly visible, as well as Saturn and its rings. Moon viewing is amazing. Its hard to see a lot because of all the artifical light at night now, but i did take it to an Army field exercise where it was at least significantly darker, and actually got a glimpse of the Andromeda galaxy and the orion... » Read More Venus is very bright and due to its thick cloud cover its difficult to see anything but the light. But it is neat to focus on it and watch it go through its phases as the year goes by...similar to the moon phases. I have also gotten excellent views of Jupiter with the storm bands and 3 moons clearly visible, as well as Saturn and its rings. Moon viewing is amazing. Its hard to see a lot because of all the artifical light at night now, but i did take it to an Army field exercise where it was at least significantly darker, and actually got a glimpse of the Andromeda galaxy and the orion nebula. For the price...I have seen some incredible things with this telescope. « Show Less
2121893
You'll be able to see globular star clusters, such as The Pleiades and The Hercules Cluster. Under really dark skies, you'll be able to see some of the brighter deep space objects (DSO), such as the Orion Nebula, and the Andromeda Galaxy. However, you will not see much in the way of details, as 70mm is a bit too small to resolve them. While star clusters will be fairly easy to see, the brighter nebulae will basically look like barely visible grey smudges, as will Andromeda. Here is a link to a discussion thread on Cloudy Nights that discusses what you can see through a small telescope: http://tinyurl.com/llw4jb8
1069996
it may not be a issue of focus it could be an issue of filters, to view planets yes you will need good lenes and a barlow adapter but there are color filters that enhance what you are looking at, I suggest you search the web for Planetary filters to see which filter is best for the planet(s) you are trying to view. Clear Skies :-)
1961934
There are several issues that could be here, depending upon your experience with telescopes and such. First question: could you see the moons in a more or less straight row on one side or the other of Jupiter? If not, it would seem you possibly aligned on a bright star like Castor or Pollux rather than Jupiter? The finder has to be aligned to the mail optical tube on a real object. I find the Moon easier as you can always find it by shadow, glare or just plain luck. Have someone hold the image in the scope while you tweak the finder knobs to get the red dot centered on some feature of the moon and have that feature centered in the eyepiece field of view. If you could see the moons, but no detail on the planet there could be a couple of issues. The more complex of which is that if your eyes are like mine, I need a bigger image to pick out detail. Yet observing buddies can see plenty of detail in small images. Go figure I guess. If you were using the eyepiece with the longer focal length number, the one with the scope might be a 20 or 25-mm I forget. Then once you have the planet centered or off to the leading edge of the field, switch to the higher power or the lower focal length eyepiece and refocus. Hope this is helpful!
2280905
Yes. Now I don't know whether the provided eyepieces will give you the best results, but with a good 17mm lens you can see the stripes of Jupiter and, of course, the rings of Saturn. Moons of Jupiter easily visible as well.
1069762
U can burn your eyes out looking at the earths moon with this, u can barely see Jupiter and it moons are like little star dots around it. No way u can see Saturn without a Barlow lens with this and even with Barlow were talking barely visible. I suggest getting the xt6 definitely worth the money, Jupiter is smaller than a pea u can barely make out its stripes
709356
It does well on the moon but not so good on planets. It also lacks a finder type tube to look through to locate the stars and finding the planets is challenging. It's not a bad question. I do use mine primarily for spotting when shooting.
2126639
Really depends on your location, the further you are from light pollution the better. This scope will see brighter deep sky objects, such as the Orion nebula, crab nebula and ring nebula, and these will appear as smudges, not as dots (stars appear as dots, nebula are free floating gasses illuminated by nearby stars). Even in larger scopes that are designed for deep sky 8 or 10 inches in aperture or more, you won't see that much detail but will be able to detect dimmer deep sky objects. Not until you get a scope which is 14 inches or more in diameter and minimal light pollution do you get good detail in fainter objects while viewing.
72105
I have recently purchased a NexStar SLT 130 with the hope of seeing a planet. Nowadays every evening Mars is visible but can not see any detail through the telescope. The planet looks like a small orange disk. I am new to using telescope so do not know if Mars can be visible with any other telescope. Not able to see any deep space object yet. May be from a city it is not possible, Overall NexStar 120 SLT seems to be ok. There is too much vibration sometime.
1186830
It is just about clear just tint of a color not much . Should be pretty close to clear