Just starting out andd need a little help!

[Trashmanbb]

My son and I just set up and aligned our Nexstar 130. It looks like we're missing something though as everything we attempt to look at just appears as a bright light. No details for instance on Jupiter. Am I wrong in thinking that we should see more? If so, it's probably something pretty basic we're not doing, but we don't know what. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[Kirscovitch]

What length EP are you using? My 130 came with the stock 25 and 9mm. You won't see much with the 25mm but should be able to make out the banding with the 9. Just an after thought, do u have it focused? You will have to adjust focus when switching eye pieces.

[Trashmanbb]

We did switch to the 9 once we had it aligned. You might be right on the focus, we'll try it again tomorrow night and will send some time with the focus. Thx.

[Alien 13]

Hi as with most issues of this kind its allways better to practice on day time objects something a few hundred feet away same with the initial setup of the finder scope etc.

Alan

[ronl]

As Alan has just said, practice in daylight, keep well away from the Sun, try 

focusing on a far away object with the 25mm, once achieved swap to the 

9mm and re-focus, then back to the 25mm, it's well worth doing, as it gives

you an idea of how much you need to turn the focus wheel, but turn the

wheel slowly, it could take a tiny turn to reach it. 

[red dwalf]

sounds like focus, you should be able to see jupiter and 4 moons very easily with that scope, i`d use the 25mm eyepiece first, gives a better field of view then try focusing,

as mentioned above you can use it in the daytime and focus on an object in the distance, be careful of course not to go in the direction of the sun

[ronin]

Use the longest focal length eyepiece you have at first.

For ease make sure that any finder scope is aligned.

If you try it during the day then you will have to pick something that is a good distance away = a few miles. A scope is not intended really for terrestrial use and you may not be able to focus on anything that is "close". Which is not going to help much.

[Trashmanbb]

Thanks for all the feedback, we'll try it tomorrow afternoon sometime and see how it goes.