HELP!

[Yorkshirestargazer]

Hi.

I was delighted when someone bought me a Skywatcher EQ-2 for my birthday. However, firstly I had to recruit someone else to assemble it for me, and now I am having no luck with stargazing. I accept that I seem to be technically hopeless, which is so frustrating given how clear the sky was last night, especially. The main problem is that while I can find things in the telescope in daylight (upside down trees mainly), I can see absolutely NOTHING through it at night. My boyfriend said this 'scope was idiot proof but he's clearly wrong! I can't even get the red dot finder to work for me to help identify things: for example, where are you supposed to stand (how far back from REF) when you're looking through it? The instruction manual assumes far more knowledge than I have, which is annoying. I have tried different lenses - 10mm, 25mm, a wide angle with the Barlow, and last night stood for two hours moving the scope around into the night sky but failed to find a single thing to look at despite the moon being crystal clear to the naked eye. WHAT AM I DOING WRONG? The sky is a greyish mush when I look into the telescope. Can anyone help? (Please avoid technical language and bear in mind I am an ignorant rookie)..........Thank you for reading.

[brantuk]

Hi and welcome to SGL.

Did you align the finder with the main tube? This should be done in the daytime using a distant small object like the tip of a church spire or top point of a pylon - maybe a mile or so away. Get the red dot dead on the center of what the scope is looking at. Use the 25mm eyepiece first - then change to the 10mm without moving the scope and you'll see how far out the red dot is. Readjust till the dot is dead center.

Ensure the adjustment is retained until it goes dark - then just line up the red dot with the object you want to see and it should appear in the eyepiece. You will have to know which object you want to look at and where it is before you start trying to observe. Hth

[Cornelius Varley]

Hello and welcome to SGL. The Skywatcher EQ2 is an equatorial mount, not the actual telescope. The usual problems are not focusing correctly, not removing the whole of the front telescope cap, this usually also has a small hole offset from the centre to reduce the brightness of the moon when viewing it at its fullest or not aligning the small finder scope. From your description of the problem I suspect it is not adjusting the focuser.

[pipnina]

I would keep your eye fairly close to the RDF (Red dot finder) else you will find it harder to actually find the dot (I know from experiance). Make sure it's calibrated with your scope (point the RDF at something like a lamp post 20m away and see if it's there at the eyepiece, if not, find it in the eyepiece and move the red dot using the adjustment thumb screws (the ones that look like the on/off/dim switch) until it lines up with what you're seeing through the EP. (eyepiece).

If you can already find the moon, though and it's just looking really blurry, you either have your focus out, or the scope will need major adjustments to collimation. (Don't bother trying to move the secondayr mirror on that... I tried on mine (I have the same one as you) and it nearly broke my screwdriver ) Collimating the primary is easy though, you just need your scope's instruction manual on the topic (to know which screws to turn) and this guide which is a sticky: http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/197640-collimation-and-star-hopping/

Of course, you might be seeing things blurry if you need glasses. If you're just long/short sighted then you won't need to wear your glasses at the EP, you'll just have to use a different focus, but if your glasses (if you have any) correct for astigmatism you will want to wear your glasses at the EP.

If you are in a city, the greyish mush will probably be light pollution, what exactly does this much look like? Mush doesn't tell me much...

Either way, I hope this helps you, and welcome to SGL!

    ~pip

[kalasinman]

All great advise. These are the first things to do with a new scope.

Don't even think about collimation right now, it's probably close enough for start.

Focus, focus, focus!

[xtreemchaos]

well i cant add anything apart from wishing you all clear skys..charl..

[happy-kat]

Hi

Could you provide what it says your telescope is please?

It is likely to be a label on the side of the telescope somewhere.

If lining up the RDF during the day be very careful NOT to look at the sun. You need special solar film for that.

[ronin]

If seeing the red dot is the first problem then I half suspect that you are looking at the RDF. Fairly normal thing to do but that is not how they operate (strange little beasties).

What you have to do is put your head/eye somewhere behind the RDF, 6 to 12 inches say. and look at the sky in the distance beyond the RDF, then a red dot should appear sort of hanging ariound in space doing nothing other then getting in the way.

Once that has fallen into place you need to align the main scope and the finder.

That is a case of aim scope at something in the distance - 1 or 2 miles away, using the 25mm eyepiece centre this object.

Then gently adjust the finder so the red dot also coincides with the object.

Minor problem maybe that there is insufficent adjustment in the finder, just becasue they supply a finder does not (unfortunately) means they can be adjusted sufficently.

I would leave it then as you then have a scope and finder pointing at about the same thing and get out for a bit of viewing - you seem to be in a dark location.

Presently Saturn is in the South and a bit low but try it. Start with the 25mm,

Moon is big and bright so give that a go.

As the moon is full (more or less) I cannot think of a great deal else, also need to know which constellations you know.

[Owmuchonomy]

Do not despair. All but the very brightest objects will elude you until the nights get longer. Don't expect a great deal until mid August inwards. Regards from Yorkshire.

[Astro Imp]

As Ronin alludes to above red dot finders don't work quite how you expect. Keep both eyes open and move the scope so the image in one eye lines up with the red dot seen in the other eye.

Good luck and don't give up, starting out in this hobby is a steep learning curve but the effort is more than worth it.

[Yorkshirestargazer]

Thanks so much, everyone. I will persevere and look forward to the next starry night. Happy stargazing.

[ronin]

Should have mentioned there is a club at York, althiough it looks like they are a little quiet at present with respects to observing, fairly normal at this time of year as the nights are short and people go away.

http://yorkastro.org.uk/