Weird stuff obstructing the view in my telescope - Help!

[Lord Nibbler]

Hi There All,

New to posting on your forum but we have enjoyed reading up on topics while we have been getting used to our new telescope. Thank you to everyone who has helped us without even knowing it

We have a Meade (ARC) LX200 GPS  with autostar II, which is second hand to us. Still having fun and confusion working it all out. I have two troublesome questions for today -

1) When we look at Jupiter (o-Mazing!) we notice two light flares? that run horizontally on each side of the planet outward and go all the way to the end of the eyepiece. I wondered if it is because it is so bright? Having googled like a madwoman, I have been reading about spider vanes / diffraction spikes etc but no one else's sounds like ours. Any ideas?? It's very distracting and disappointing. Happens in all eyepieces (Meade series 4000), so we are wondering if their is something wrong with the scope's optics, which are not 100% (bit of pitting on correction lens) but mirrors look good from what we can see and we believe it looks collimated. If we upgrade to lovely big 2" eyepieces, does anyone know if you still get this??

2) We also notice a weird thing in the view as we look also. Don't know how other to describe it as like when you can sometimes see weird bits moving about on the surface of your own eye?? Except these don't move and I would describe the pattern as like real human spider veins or even worms (ewe!) - does that make any sense to anyone. It appears right in the centre of the view and  is like someone scribbled in a lead pencil. It's not the eye pieces as we turned them to see if it moved, so I can only presume it's in the other optics. Anyone come across anything off like this before? Initially I thought this was what they meant by spider vanes but sadly discovered this was not the case.

We are completely stumped. All help and advice greatly appreciated.

[Thalestris24]

Hi there

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with your scope but a few general points to think about:

1) I trust you are not trying to view through glass? It's surprising how many people don't realise that you can't do that without causing weird image distortion!

2) Any dew on the optics will obviously mess things up - http://www.meade.com/manuals/lx200/apxe.html

3) Have you collimated the scope? http://www.sctscopes.net/SCT_Tips/Maintenance/Collimation/collimation.html

4) As it's second hand you could possibly have a dirty/damaged mirror or correcting plate

What were atmospheric conditions like when you were viewing Jupiter? Maybe you could try using in daylight and see if you can focus on a distant object and check how clearly you can see the object.

Hth

Louise

[ronin]

You shouldn't be getting a horizontal line either side, so I would start to suspect something wrong in the scope. Possibly collimation of the corrector. Not sure if anyone can check this for you in your area.

The slight pitting on the corrector will not cause anything, it is in the wrong place optically to be the likely problem. It may be reflection from something inside.

The weird bits in your eye are (unfortunately) called floaters, they get worse/more numerous as you get older. I will not ask your age. Also high magnification tends to highlight them more, so if you use a lower magnification I would expect them to be less of a problem.

[michael8554]

If the flares are due to a bright image they should change if you position Jupiter in the centre, at the edge, or just outside the field of view of the eyepiece.

Collimation at its simplest can be checked by focusing on a star, it should be round and not oval or "seagull" shaped, and the star should remain round but enlarged when very slightly either side of fully focused.

Do you have a star diagonal in the light-path? A right angled attachment on the rear of the scope that places the eyepiece in a more convenient position. There might be dust or fungus inside.

ronin - he says the effect is like floaters.

Michael

[michaeldurban]

sigh..

this means I'm getting old...

[Peter Drew]

The only thing I can think of that could cause the bright line effect you are seeing with Jupiter is if you are using an erect image diagonal. These employ a roof prism, for daytime use this is not a problem but for night  time the roof edge can provide a bright line on bright objects such as Jupiter.  

[Lord Nibbler]

Hi All,

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I apologize for my reply, internet connection has been interrupted while we had work on the line done. It did however give me a good opportunity to test some of the points which were offered. Thank you for your suggestions and advice.

Seems the lineal lines we experienced observing Jupiter where infact caused from the prism diagonal. Something I had not anticipated, but am relieved to have narrowed down to a bit of kit and not the scope itself - phew!

As for odd floaty bits, well this just gets stranger. We have narrowed down that they are in the eyepieces........ or in the peepers themselves, again, relieved it does not appear to be the scope but this is where it gets really strange. We held up each eyepiece to the moon and you could see them in every single one, pretty much the same pattern - then I thought it must be my eyes (Sigh!....I'm only 38 - so now a bit concerned), but my hubby can see them too! Now awaiting delivery of a brand spanking new eyepiece to see if they appear in this too.  Not sure what else to do but figure brand new and uncontaminated is the only option left to test. Very peculiar indeed and highly annoying. At a bit of a loss to figure this one out. Eyepieces are clean and I didn't think eye's themselves were knackered. Will let you know how we get on at earliest opp.

[Wetsparks]

I recently brought an eyepiece with cross hair in it, it also had some of what looked like semi translucent worms in it. Turned out to be excess silicon from where the lens had been glued in. Obviously it went straight back to the shop!

[Peter Drew]

Try rotating the eyepiece, if the marks also rotate then they are in the eyepiece, if not then it is something to do with your eye. Could be eyelashes, they sometimes show, you both have them.