Neptune and Uranus will look like small, featureless, bluish or greenish disks through any telescope. In a moderate telescope Venus and Mercury will reveal their phases (a crescent shape) and Venus can even show hints of cloud details with a right filter. There are several visible moons around the Saturn as well. Jupiter also has easily observable 4 Jovian moons which rotate around it, occasionally transiting and casting a shadow over the planet's disk. Also these three planets will display time varying weather related phenomena - such as clouds and dust storms on mars or cloud bands on Jupiter. There are 8 planets in our solar system you can observe, however only three of them will show notable surface details: Jupiter, Saturn and Mars (mostly during opposition). So no, you won't be able to see the flag or the Apollo spacecraft. Note that even through a very large 20" amateur telescope the resolution will be about 0.35 arcseconds, which means the smallest object you can see on the lunar surface is over 500 meters. Moon through a large, quality telescope at high power (350x) But a larger, more quality instrument will allow you to "zoom in", and reveal countless craters, rills and mountains. At low magnifications it will look approximately the same through any telescope. Our Moon is the easiest and the most impressive observing target. While these images may illustrate the level of detail you can expect to see, they do not accurately show the perceived brightness. Based on observing experience - I have used some real photos and processed sketches in order to simulate these views. The following sections will illustrate how various objects appear in different telescopes to a visual observer. For deep sky objects the opposite is true - a cheap 200mm dobsonian reflector will usually outperform a top notch 80mm refractor. For Moon, planets, double stars and Sun it is better to have a small but quality 80mm refractor rather than a large 150mm reflector with poor optics. By "large" I'm refering to telescopes up to 12" aperture (obviously there are larger amateur instruments, which won't be covered here).įor observing different types of objects there are different optical requirements. The prices are referring to the cheapest options of the specified apertures. For example a 250mm Newtonian reflector, a 250mm Schmidt Cassegrain, or (for planets) a 120mm refractor (i.e: 1, 2). For example a 150mm Newtonian reflector, a 130mm a Maksutov Cassegrain, or (for planets) a 100mm refractor (i.e: 1, 2, 3). For example a 80mm reflector or a 70mm refractor, with mediocre optical quality (i.e: 1, 2, 3). - Small and cheap (price range 50-200$).In this article there are 3 telescope categories, which will be referred by tags: Optical quality is a general therm which describes the ability of a telescope to transmit unaltered image. Aperture is the diameter of the objective lens or a mirror - it defines how much light the telescope gathers and its maximum resolving power. Types of TelescopesĪ telescope's optical tube has two important parameters: "aperture" and "optical quality". The amount of observable celestial objects and their details will depend on several factors: The size and the optical quality of a telescope, sky darkness, atmospheric conditions, the observer's eyesight and experience. The subjects covered here are: Moon, Planets, Sun, DSO, Comets, Stars, Light pollution. When someone considers buying a new telescope - the first question will usually be "what can I see through it?" In this article I will try to illustrate the views you can expect through different instruments, and perhaps help to decide which one to choose. What Can You See With Different Telescopes
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