I really need help

[shortyvenus]

Hi everyone right I got a new telescope at xmas. Which is a seben f70076 reflector. I need help at stargazing as I have seen the moon through my telescope but tonight it's a clear night I can see thousands of stars with the naked eye but I can't see anything through my telescope I need help with using my telescope correctly as I can't seem to find anything. As when I used the eye pieces I could see the stars but they just looked exactly the same as when looking at the stars with the naked eye. I just need help with all of it it's stressing me out lol cause I really want to see some of the amazing stuff other people have seen. Like other planets and nebula hopefully. Thanks in advance for the help

[Thalestris24]

Hi

I'm afraid the stars do look the same - they are so far away that they are always point sources through any telescope. You may need to carefully adjust focus slightly. There is a free planetarium program - Stellarium - which you can use to navigate the skies. There is also an Android tablet version. Look out for star clusters and other Messier objects

Be patient! Good luck and have fun!

Louise

[laudropb]

Stars look the same through a scope as they do to the naked eye, only brighter and you will see a lot more of them. You may also see different colours of stars. They are just points of light. The brighter planets will appears as disks through your scope. With Jupiter you may be able to make out the dark equatorial belts and you will be able to see the 4 largest moons. Sat urns rings should be visible. Unfortunately these planets are not visible in the evening sky at the moment. They rise around 5 am. They will be viewable in the evenings later in 2016.

To see nebula you first have to know roughly where they are to find them. You have to use a star atlas or an app such as Stellarium and you have to learn the night sky. Around about midnight the constellation of Orion should be due South. Travel down from the 3 belt stars and you will find a fuzzy cloud. This is the Orion Nebula. It depends on the seeing and how dark your skies are as to how much detail you will see. But it it is unlikely you will see much colour and it will certainly not be as detailed as you see on the photos on this site.

[Staffs Oatcake]

a good place to start is by aiming at Orion.'s Belt This is currently in the south east. Use the eyepiece with the highest number to set up the scope concentrate on the middle of the 3 stars. Try changing the eye pieces to see if the star gets bigger. You may even loose the two outer ones. Most of all don't be disheartened.

[brantuk]

Hi Shorty and welcome to EMS

You're right - stars look the same in a scope as they do naked eye - just point sources of light cos they're so far away. They do get interesting however when they're grouped in clusters - eg globular clusters (like M13) and open clusters (like M45). They can also be colourful like Albireo which is a gravity bound double star. Other stuff to find includes nebulae and galaxies. Orion Nebula (M42) is quite current and easy to find - so to is Andromeda galaxy (M31). Jupiter, and Mars and the moon are also popular first objects.

Where you need to start is the sky - rather than the scope. You need to get orientated with where stuff is - and that starts with some knowledge of constellations, the pole star (everything circles round it), the ecliptic (path followed by planets), the meridian (north/south line in the sky), and where stuff rises in the East and sets in the West.

Just for a quick start - here's a couple of links showing how to find some of this stuff:

Orion: http://www.space.com/13924-orion-constellation-nebula-skywatching-tips.html

Pole star: http://www.naturalnavigator.com/find-your-way-using/stars

Andromeda: http://www.wikihow.com/Find-the-Andromeda-Galaxy

There's roughly 5 constellations you need to recognise for that lot - so use tonight productively - if you have a pair of standard 10x50 binocs they will help.

You'll also need to know how to use your telescope - during the daytime is best for this. Align the finder with the center of the scope. If it's equatorial you'll need to point the tripod north then move the scope on it's ra/dec axes to find objects in the sky. If it's alt/az mounted then it will be easier to set up - but that should help you get going and alleviate a little frustration. Others will comment I'm sure. Good luck.

[Alan64]

Is this the telescope... http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Seben-700-76-Reflector-Telescope-New-Big-Pack-/330401482786?hash=item4ced768822

Scrolling down, I see that there are four eyepieces bundled with the kit, ranging from 20mm to 4mm.  You'll not get much use out of the 6mm and 4mm, I'm afraid.  The 20mm(35x) and 12.5mm(56x) will tide you over until you can get an additional one, perhaps a 17mm(41x), which would be much more comfortable for the eye, and that could be used with other telescopes in future...

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-eyepieces/skywatcher-sp-plossl-eyepieces.html

A 32mm(22x) would make for an excellent "finder" ocular, and enable you to scan the sky and look for things of interest.  When found, you simply pop in the 17mm, or a 12.5mm Plossl, and for a closer inspection.  A Plossl shorter than 12.5mm is not as comfortable as the rest.  Barlowing a 12.5mm will simulate a 6mm, for a magnification of 117x, whilst retaining the eye-comfort of the 12.5mm; and at the telescope's limit perhaps.