Skywatchers explorer 200p help!

[AaronLPK]

Hi all, about a month or two ago I bought this telescope as I wanted to get into astronomy, and when it arrived I set it all up with no problem. And then a couple days later I went out side to take a look through and all I saw was a big white circle with the front spike cross going through it. After I had found this problem I decided to go on here and ask, someone said to collimate the mirrors as they may be out of focus, and so I bought a laser and I then focused the two mirrors. But that night when I went out I saw the same thing, what do I do???

And I was just looking at some stars.

[Peter Drew]

Hello Aaron, welcome to this forum. The problem would appear that the telescope is not yet focused. This is usually due to the wrong setup of the focuser. You will probably need to add an extension tube or remove the 2" adapter and use just the 11/4" part, you should have all you need supplied with the telescope. Try this on a distant object during the day. Don't be concerned if the image is upside down and left to right reversed, this is normal for a reflector. 

[ronin]

You take out the 2" adaptor that is in the focuser and put the 1.25" adaptor in there instead.

The scopes are shipped with a 2" adaptor and a 1.25" adaptor, for ease they put one inside the other, and it all looks correct, but it isn't.

What you describe is the eyepiece not being able to get enough inward focus so you see, or start to see, hte secondary and all stars planets are out of focus.

They really ought to paint the 2" adaptor one colour and the 1.25" adaptor another, then we could say pull out the blue one and put the red one in only (sort of thing).

Did no one say this?

It is an almost standard error/oversight.

Collimation is a poor image not no image.

[cuivenion]

The big white circle with the cross means that you haven't focused correctly. Move the focuser in or out until the circle becomes a point of light (Star). I'd suggest leaving collimation until you sort out the basics of using the mount and the scope.

[AaronLPK]

Ok thanks guys I will do this as soon as I can but unfortunately its raining at the moment lol.