hi i have the astromaster refractor telescope 114eq

[mart1983]

Hi I have the astromaster refractor telescope 114EQ

I am using to 10mm eyepiece I can see the moon very clearly but when I want to zoom in to see the craters it goes blurry. I'm new to this so maybe its normal. or I mite need a new eyepiece. can some one give me some info on this. or  show me some pictures of what the moon looks like throw a 10mm eyepiece on a astromaster refractor 114EQ thank's

[m37]

Hey! Welcome to the forum.

First up, is this your telescope? When that's sorted we can get you some assistance!

cheers

Chris

[rory]

hi mart.  your 10 mm eyepiece is fixed at that focal length, so it wont zoom in . if you try moving the focuser wheels to zoom ,your simply moving it out of focus . 

 once you have a nice sharp image , that's it . to get a closer look youll need more eyepieces .

 the  smaller the number on the eyepiece , the more magnification youll get .  so a 5mm is twice as powerful as a 10mm .

  however you don't want too much mag .

 what eyepieces do you haveat the moment ?

im a little confused actually . the 114mm ,isn't that a reflector (mirrors) ?

[mart1983]

this is my telescope.

[mart1983]

Hi rory thanks for the info. I have a 10mm and a 20mm eyepiece

[rory]

ah ha, that's a reflector mart .  okay well the way to work out what mag your getting is quite simple .

 you should have a f/ number for your scope , its normally written on the side of the tube something like f/8 or  f /800 ect.

 secondly you have numbers on the eyepiece ,i.e 10mm .  so to work out the mag for an eyepiece you divide the focal length of the scope by focal length of the eyepiece

for example a scope with 1000mm f/l divided by 10mm eyepiece   (1000 / 10= 100) so the 10mm would give x100 magnification .

[rory]

I would recommend this thread here  http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/196278-what-can-i-expect-to-see/

as a rough guide only you can work out the maximum usable power of your scope by taking the aperture size ( 114mm ) and double it =228

that is practical usable power .  again I say roughly as sky conditions play a part too.

hope that helps

[mart1983]

yea I see what you saying rory. thanks for the help mate. I will go out and buy a 5mm as I would like to a closer view of what im seeing