New telescope user.

[fattyjohnst]

I just bought a Celestron Advanced Series Schmiddt-Cass 9.25 with GoTo. I have the GEM mount and I bought a couple of eyepieces in a kit. They are the Plossl brand and the sizes are 32mm, 15, and 9mm. Also included was a Barlow 2x.
I've gotten the alignment process down, and have started to view different objects in the night sky. My questions are as follows:
Where should the Barlow go? Is it before or after the star diagonal?
How can I make the planets appear bigger in the eyepiece? I've tried many different combinations of setups with the eyepieces. Is it even possible from Earth, with my telescope, to see the moons of Saturn?
Lastly, how detailed should I be able to see the planets from Earth through the telescope? I've heard I should be able to see polar caps and what not on Mars. Any help is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

[budguinn]

Hi John,

You should be able to easily see the moons of Saturn and Jupiter without the barlow.
The barlow usually goes after the diagonal.
If you get good seeing you should also be able to see some detail in Mars...perhaps the polar caps. They will show up with a stacked set of pictures from a webcam, but not that often through an eyepiece.

Saturn and Jupiter are really nice targets...and Deep Space stuff such as M42, right now...and many others

Just to get you started...point it at the moon......you can spend hours looking at this monster and it's a great way to get comfortable with your new scope.

[fattyjohnst]

Thanks Bud. About seeing the planets in a larger view. I know they are millions of miles away, but is it possible to have them appear larger than...say a dime, in the eyepiece? If it is...how would I achieve that type of resolution?