A few bits of advice

[Dan148]

I finally got my new telescope out briefly the other night whilst it was clear and i was on father patrol. i manged to get a look at the moon through the 25mm wide view but when i tried the 10 mm all i could see was black even with a bit of moving about. i haven't got my finder scope allinged perfectly as the view from my garden does'nt have a view of something minimum 500 yards. does the allignment of the finder scope have to be 100% bang on. trying to look at stars aswell proves very challenging, is this to be expected.

[Black Knight]

The easiest way of aligning the finderscope once you are under the stars, is to centre a really bright and unmistakable star in your 25mm eyepiece, then centre it again using your 10mm eyepiece. Once that is done, adjust the finderscope so that bright star is in the centre of the finderscope reticle. You should be good to go then.

[Smudgeypoo]

On my eq newt I don't even use a finder scope, I just get behind it and align to the general area then sweep around in a pattern I cannot explain!

When changing EP's some will have to have minor refocussing, some quite a large difference....

[onesmallstep]

Hi

Use the 25mm eyepiece to locate the object, when the object is centred swap in the 10mm ep and refocus. You can then manually track the object.

To align the finderscope wait until daytime, locate a distant(ish) object such as a church spire, lamp-post, aeriel, etc in the finder.

Making sure the object is centred in the finder, fit the 25mm ep and then realign the scope so that the object is centred in the ep.

Recheck the finderscope and realign the finder with the tension screws until the object is centred in both the ep and the finder.

Repeat the process using the 10mm ep.

HTH!

[Dan148]

@onesmallstep

ive attempted these tension screws and find them pretty rubbish to be honest, do you have to do them all up to the same tension first and then tighten each one accordingly. And as for finding a bright star using the 25mm and using that as your focusing ponit i couldnt find it. dont know if the other night was regarded as "poor conditions" and i do have quite alot of street lights shining in to my back garden. not of to a good start really. lol

[nicnac]

tighten one and loosen the opposite, it is easier during the day on a distant object but if you dont have a clear viewing path, you can use a bright star

betelguese is great under winter sky, bright and orange, as you look at the constellation of orion, it is the left hand shoulder as you look at it

[Dan148]

@nicnac

Thanks tis all new to me :s

[todd8137]

no it should be in line try take in it some where to align

[Capricorn]

Align the finder and main scope during the day.

Using a star is OK if you can do it all in a few seconds. The damn things have a habit of moving and although in the main scope to start with they will not be by the time you have centered the finder. So still mis-aligned. Polaris is the exception and only real star alignment option.

Also get something more then 500 yards away.

Scopes have a narrow field of view, so getting anything in view requires the finder, or a degree of luck. Picking out a star is going to be difficult, try a cluster (bigger) Pleiades is a good one.

Get some binoculars and a sky map and look for the double cluster in Perseus (use Casseiopia as a pointer). Then try the scope once you know where to look.

Orion nebula is a good one also at present. Then use the belt to locate Aldebaran - follow the belt from Left to Right and carry on. It is a bright red/orange star. Aldebaran is in the Hyades cluster.

Pleiades is found exactly the same just extend the line past Aldebaran to a bunch of stars. That's them.

You may have had the moon in view but by the time you changesd eyepieces it could have moved out of view and the 10mm will have a small field of view.