Celestron 127eq why so poor quality

[Dean bailey]

I'm just a beginner, my first scope few months back was a tal 65 Russian made telescope which is so good quality for so little money, cost me £80 2nd hand but amazing condition it's very very sturdy it's very small in the meaning it don't take up much space, the tal 65 scope assembles and disassembles very quickly and neatly and packs away in a strong wooden made box with carry handle so can be placed in boot of car or put away protected and safely.

The finder never ever needs adjusting at all, you could roll the scope down stairs the stairs and the sights would still be set up haha..

Now to this celestron 127eq ive just purchased for £50 2nd hand, same again great conditon.

Problem with this scope is im finding it hard to get a good view, seems very blurry and all these dials to turn here there to adjust the scope seem so pointless as the tal 65 you just move scope with your hands easy as anything, does anyone own one of these celestron 127eq scopes that are happy with them and could give me some advice on something if I'm going wrong somewhere as I feel this scope should be better and I'm going wrong somewhere, let me remind you im a beginner in using a scope.

Any suggestions would be great thanks guys

[dweller25]

Sounds like either not enough cool down or collimation needs tweaking

[Chris]

Celestron mirrors are usually pretty good for budget scopes They are from the same Synta factory as Skywatcher and they are good entry level scopes too. 

If you are new to astronomy and using a reflector then I can highly recommend learning how to collimate your scope, it sounds like this could be the issue if the image is blurry. Check out this guide:

http://www.astro-baby.com/collimation/astro%20babys%20collimation%20guide.htm

One quick way to tell is to center a star in the middle of the eyepiece and defocus it, if it looks like a perfectly concentric doughnut i.e the hole of the doughnut is in the centre of the stars disc, then the scope is collimated. You must do this in the center of the eyepiece though else the eyepiece aberrations will make you think its out of collimation when its not.

What eyepieces are you using?

[Dean bailey]

Listen guys I'm a pure beginner just here to get help that's all and I no this site for help will be the place.

So my tal 65 is a reflector so what's this celesteon 127eq ??

And I got the manuals here just going to read through now but thanks for the replys guys and if I need any help I will pm you Thanks.

[Dean bailey]

Using the celestron 20mm erecting eye piece, getting good moon views now but no where near as good as the tal 65 tho.

Are the Russians better quailty scopes than China made scopes?

[Chris]

Listen guys I'm a pure beginner just here to get help that's all and I no this site for help will be the place.

So my tal 65 is a reflector so what's this celesteon 127eq ??

And I got the manuals here just going to read through now but thanks for the replys guys and if I need any help I will pm you Thanks.

Does it have a focuser on the side or on the back of the scope? 127 is the aperture, EQ = equatorial mount.

I need to check if it's a Newtonian or a Maksutov optic, the later shouldn't need collimating. 

collimating is just making sure all the optics are alligned correctly hence my link

[Chris]

Using the celestron 20mm erecting eye piece, getting good moon views now but no where near as good as the tal 65 tho.

Are the Russians better quailty scopes than China made scopes?

I'm not sure about this erecting eyepiece? If you can get hold of a cheap Plossl eyepiece it should give you better views than anything that comes free with scopes generally. Try to stick to low power also, if you get a plossl, don't go lower than an eyepiece with a number 10 on the side. 10 means 10mm.

if you divide the focal length of the telescope by the number on the eyepiece it will give you the magnification. Your better of with lower mag as it's likely to give you sharper views  

[John]

I think the Celestron 127EQ is a short tube design with a long (1000mm ?) focal length. If I'm correct it is whats known as a "bird-jones newtonian" design which uses a lens system at the bottom of the tube the eyepiece goes in to correct the image coming from the main mirror.

These scopes have their difficulties to be honest and one is that they are difficult to collimate, that is align the mirrors / lenses accurately with each other. I suspect this is why it cost just £50.

The Chinese do make excellent scopes but I don't think the bird-jones newtonian design is one of them.

The Russan 65mm TAL, although much smaller aperture, is of high optical quality and fairly bullet proof, which is probably why it's doing better than the larger but possibly uncollimated and of lesser optical quality scope.

[Chris]

I've just Googled for a picture of the Celestron 127eq and it does look to be a Bird Jones Newtonian like John has said. 

I'd stick it back on ebay saying it may need collimating and stick to your Tal

Maybe buy a refractor or Maksutov telescope next as these don't need collimating and are very beginner friendly  

[Dean bailey]

Thanks for all your replys guys and will be sticking to my Russian made tal 65, cheap and very cheat full, take care guys