celestron 12eq power seeker

[ShaunyC]

Hi. I'v recently broke out my telescope after a short blip with it when i 1st got it..

Its my 1s scope a celestron 127eq power seeker.. I pretty much rushed in thinking i was getting a good deal second hand off ebay think i paid about 90quid..

When it came it was all dusty as hell so obvious been sttod out unused for a long time which gave me doubts on its performance.. Then i joined here and the reviews filled me with more doubt..

The eye pieces wernt up to too much cop so a i invested in a half decent set of plossls 9,12,15,20,32mm's a 2xbarlow and i think a camera adaptor along with some filters foget the name of the set but look the part in a shiny box, lol. Hopping these would make all the fifference to the scope but knowin i can advance with them when necessary...

Long short of it they never made much difference

So it all got packed away for crimbo 2013 as taking up room..

I took some pictures hoping to sell it and investe in a better scope but but over a year later its out the box again.. lol..

This time i tried getting some glass cleaner on the the view finder to clean up, which wasnt easy getting down the neck of it i also left the legs short to try keep mount sturdier..

Managed to find a few things looking for c/2014 lovejoy but as we have a SW view it was a while before anything else came into view and by then the cloud had moved in

So sorry to bore you all with my recent life story.. But can any body share any tips i can try to improve the view??

I understand theres a built in barlow which is half it prob byvthe sounds of it can i do away with it effectivly halfing its focal legth? Or can i remove and polish up to near new finish as i say itcwas covered in fust when i got it..

What about also removing the primary mirror and polishing that back up? And the secondry? I understand that will prob play havoc with colimination and from what i remmember tgats impossible to reset.. But ive jst read something on removing the ribber gromets whith spring and the philps screws with thumb screws and its possible.. Something in there aswell about a bottle cap but i cant get back on the site to re-read..

So any views from any body whos managed to improve the scope whould be much appreciated or any views on what i've mentioned being possible to help or anything i might of missed off which is a good upgrade..

Thanx again n sorry for all the gibberish hehe

[ronin]

The built in barlow lens HAS to stay in and it has to stay where it is. So forget all ideas of removing that.

If it is removable within reason then it may benefit from a clean but you need to replace it the same way round as it came out.

That component although a cause of much trouble is an integral part of the system.

The main mirror may need a clean, but they can take a fair bit of muck. If you do then get a proper cleaner or IPA, also get suitable material to clean with, lint free cotton wool or the microfibre cloths.

The barlow you got will be of little or no use, with that in and the built in one and then an eyepiece there is just too much mediocre glass. You will likely have 8 glass elements that were not specifically designed to operate with each other.

The filters again forget, filters filter stuff out they do not add anything in.

The scope should be able to do a half reasonable job if it is setup right.

Keep the magnification down, the presence of the built in barlow causes that.

You do not say what the eyepieces were - plossl or other ?

[beka]

You will probably have to adjust the collimation to get any decent view through this scope. Stock eyepieces are also quite bad.

[stepping beyond]

1st off collimate your reflector, you can't remedy what you cant see. 2nd reflectors are demanding on the type of glass you use Low mag. wide field eyepieces TeleVue plossls only , ES , Badder etc...  don't try to push the limits until you're comfortable with your scope and the seeing is awesome. 3rd get you a chair , comfort rules in viewing. As for imaging you need a eq  mount with 2 motors RA and Dec the mount is the most important in imaging. Like Ronin said they can take a lot of dust and dew, my Z10 dob primary mirror hasn't been cleaned for 2 yrs. and 4yrs. before that , all the mirror does is gather light nothing more and let it cool down and air dry after each use. I really can't comment on DSLR imaging , I'm a video imager. LUCK on your Journey

[ShaunyC]

Thanx for your replies:)

I removed the built in barlow lense earlier and gave it a clean with glass cleaner and a microfiber cloth, replaced it the right way round and was quite happy with the results...

Tried to get a view of mars before it went down but wasnt much good even with my 9mm just looked like a bright star, not sure if the light from sunset might of not helped? Had a good view of the moon but couldnt really tell if it was any clearer.

Then waited till pleiades came into view as i only had a southen sky to look at.. Got a faily good view of the orion nebula, which i think i found hard to view before.. then waited again till jupiter came into view which i could just about make out the bands and 4 of its moons i think.

Then just had a roam around the sky, tried looking for the satellite cluster using beatlejuice as my start point but not 100% sure if found it..

All in all not too bad considering i never had finder scope..

My plossl set is "revelation astro" and was wondering although there practically brand new (just been hid in the box a year, lol) is it a good idea to wipe/clean the eyepiece's?

Look forward to getting a collimator from some where and seeing how far out it is and hope for more improvment:)

[ShaunyC]

Got a collimator on the way so look forward to seeing if that makes much of a difference..

Whats the best aprouch with a bottle lid with a notch cut out or removing the barllow?

Also center spotting primary mirror.. Best aprouch.. Paper same diameter folded in 4 nipping bit off point then opening out or is there some sort of formula to create 3 axis 120 degree apart and marking where they cross? I imagin the latter will produce lines all over finding the cross over point..

Once center spot is marked and back in place the aprouch is with lazer collimator in place adjust secondry mirror till laser lines up on center spot then adjust primary mirror till it bounces back and lines up on the bullseye of the collimator...

Theres more lol

Had a llok into rebulding with longer tube to remove built in barlow but as it has spherical mirror abriviation still want be right... So whats the difference between spherical and parabolic mirror? I get that a parabolic is curved in such a way that all light reflected meets at the same focal point.. So does that mean in general that a parabolic has a deeper concave to a spherical?

Has anyone done the stud thing on the back of a spherical mirror to draw a deeper concave? Is it possible or would the stud itslef where mounted with apoxy etc cause distortion to just cause more problems?

And more lol i imagine this beeing shot down instantly but is there any possibility of replacing the barllow with a stronger one ie it has 500mm tube with x2 built in barllow to give 1000mm focal length so if say i managed to get a x3 barllow/corrector lese would it give a 1500mm focal llength?

Cheers

[ShaunyC]

Have i said something wrong??

[ShaunyC]

Well collimator come today so will have a play to see how out it is