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I was reading about M87 and how it is possible to see it's relativistic jet with an amateur telescope.

About a year ago i impulse-bought a telescope (model: Celestron CE21049 powerseeker 127EQ).

I'm not an expert and do not really understand how i should calculate if i will be able to see it or not.

I live in northern italy, my zone is really light polluted but i usually can see mars, venus, saturn with it's rings and jupiter with some of it's moons.

I can get to a location where, with naked eye, can see faintly the milky way, so i think that's a good start. There will also be the problem of where to point the telescope, but i think i can manage.

So, will i be able to see something other than a light dot in the sky?

And in the future, how to go about calculating if an object si visible with my current setup?

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If you manage to collimate it then that telescope should show you, under dark skies, a fuzzy light patch which is the core of the galaxy. You won't be able to see the jet with that telescope, that needs a much higher aperture.

I'm sorry to tell you this, but the telescope you bought is notorious for being not very good. The powerseeker line has a whole sub-reddit devoted to it

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    $\begingroup$ converting comment to answer $\endgroup$
    – James K
    Jun 7, 2021 at 19:03
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks James, I'll delete my comments now $\endgroup$
    – Aaron F
    Jun 7, 2021 at 20:22
  • $\begingroup$ Yeah i impulse bought it without doing much research, but i think that for the price is not that bad. I will give it a try! $\endgroup$
    – Yeeter
    Jun 8, 2021 at 7:10
  • $\begingroup$ @Yeeter that's the spirit! Any telescope is better than no telescope, after all. Be aware that, if you have trouble collimating it, low-power views don't need the collimation to be as good as high-power views do; so enjoy what you can get out of it. Also be aware that an EQ mount can be turned into an Alt/Az mount simply by setting the longitude to 90°, and that way might be easier to get started. Have fun! $\endgroup$
    – Aaron F
    Jun 8, 2021 at 17:54

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