Telescope

[Mroberts246]

I bought a Bushnell 78-9675 from a friend. It's been sitting in his living room for 10 years. I've read the manual but don't quite understand it. I tried to look at the moon the other night, I had it in the 'viewfinder' but couldn't find it when I looked in the telescope. There was a fuzzy light to the left but I couldn't focus on it. I have the weakest lens in it like the manual said to use first. Anyone have any tips? Thanks, Marsha

[Mak the Night]

I bought a Bushnell 78-9675 from a friend. It's been sitting in his living room for 10 years. I've read the manual but don't quite understand it. I tried to look at the moon the other night, I had it in the 'viewfinder' but couldn't find it when I looked in the telescope. There was a fuzzy light to the left but I couldn't focus on it. I have the weakest lens in it like the manual said to use first. Anyone have any tips? Thanks, Marsha

I'm guessing the viewfinder/finder scope isn't properly collimated with the scope. Or the primary mirror isn't collimated properly. 

I found this PDF:

http://bushnell.com/getmedia/c2bf8d78-55de-440d-91c5-50ab13381548/78-9675_Voyager.pdf?ext=.pdf

I don't know which part of the manual you are stuck on. Is it on the PDF?

[Mroberts246]

Thanks. That is the manual I downloaded. I guess I need to study it more. This is a lot harder than I thought!!

[Dave In Vermont]

First thing to do is make sure you don't have a cap on the telescope, and there's nothing inside the tube blocking the primary-mirror (big mirror in the bottom of the tube).

Then try it again in the daytime on a distant object - tree, church-steeple, anything far away. Then turn the focus-knobs in and out slowly until you have a sharp image in the eyepiece - the higher numbered eyepiece that MTN suggested. Look into the finderscope (1. marked as 1. in the manual.). Turn the screws around the finder until what you see in the finder matches what you see in the eyepieceOnce youhave the finderscope aligned with the image in your eyepiece, you're ready to try again at night on the Moon.

Any problems - we'll still be around here!

Enjoy -

Dave

[Mroberts246]

Thanks everyone!! I will do that! I went to school late in life (50's) and I had to take an Astronomy course, I was hooked!

[Mak the Night]

Thanks. That is the manual I downloaded. I guess I need to study it more. This is a lot harder than I thought!!

Yeah, it helps to read the instructions, although the temptation to just want to look at stuff right away is huge lol. I think you need to learn to align the finder scope with the main telescope so that when an object is centred in the finder it is in the centre of the eyepiece view. Bearing in mind at even low magnifications the target will appear to move due to Right Ascension (the Earth's rotation). I'm not sure about the focusing issue. I'd do some daylight tests just to check everything out. 

[Mroberts246]

Thanks. What a nice place! I got lots of helpful advice.

[RT65CB-SWL]

Thanks. That is the manual I downloaded. I guess I need to study it more. This is a lot harder than I thought!!

When I went to secondary school during the mid 1970's and applied for an astronomy course, I was told by the astronomy teacher that I was not brainy/clever enough!

[Mroberts246]

Hi everyone, I aligned the finder scope and the telescope like y'all recommended and it worked!!! But it doesn't once I change to a stronger lens. Anyway, now I need to figure out how to find stars and planets and how to set it so it moves with the objects. I enjoyed looking at the moon last night and once I got a glimpse of Jupiter. I just couldn't find it on the finder scope. 

[happy-kat]

That's great you aligned it, when aligning start with your lowest power then put your next powered eyepiece and fine tune the finder then put your next high powered eyepiece and repeat fine tuning the finder. That way it is accurately aligned for all magnifications.

[brantuk]

When you align the finder with the main tube during daylight - you need to do it with the strongest lens you intend to use in the night time. Then you'll find all the weaker lenses will automatically be centered when you change. Unfortunately it doesn't work the other way round due to the decreasing field of view that comes with higher magnifications.

[BritAngler]

+1 to what happy-kat says, start with low powered eyepiece first then increase the magnification and fine tune

 

[happy-kat]

It is not that you can't start with the highest powered it is just that if the finder is way out it is hard to have a clue in what direction to move it made harder by the telescope being an inverted view. You stand more of a chance doing it the gradual way from the lowest powered first.

[Dave Lloyd]

On 18/01/2016 at 23:09, Philip R said:

When I went to secondary school during the mid 1970's and applied for an astronomy course, I was told by the astronomy teacher that I was not brainy/clever enough!

What a jackass!