Jupiter and it’s Galilean moons can be see clearly at just 20x. Your HR 20, probably gives you a magnification of around 35x, which should be more then enough. Jupiter is one of the two bright stars to the South West just after sundown. The brighter star to the West-South-West is the planet Venus.

Posted by n2s.astronomy, on January 24th, 2009, at 9:30 am. #.

N2s is right. You won’t see Mars with that setup and Saturn is just before dawn and can be seen but is currently tilted so we cannot see the rings.
Start with the 20 to find your target and then switch to 12.5.

Posted by David, on January 25th, 2009, at 6:33 am. #.

There’s a very good chance that your lowest power eyepiece is the only one of value for your scope. The barlow is also of little value. Tell us the model, and we might be able to say more. At the very least, we need the focal length of your scope.

Your scope ought to show you the disk of Jupiter, and possibly the bands on it’s surface. It should show you the 4 largest moons, as dots in more or less a straight line through the planet. If you live at around 40 degrees North, Jupiter is in the South at sunset. You might catch Venus then too. You ought to be able to see the crescent Venus – much like a very tiny version of the Moon.

Uranus should turn up as a very small disk. Neptune should be visible, it’s a point. These are up at sunset, but you might want to wait until it’s darker, which happens in a couple hours.

Saturn is currently best around 5:30 AM. The rings are nearly edge on. When they’re tipped over more, you’ll see them. Mars is currently lost in the glare of the Sun – check back in a few months.

A finder chart can help. You can use a planetarium program. There are several that are free for download. There’s also skymaps.com, and heavens-above. Lastly, a local astronomy club can help, even if you don’t join.

Posted by suitti, on January 28th, 2009, at 12:29 am. #.