Alignment help

[andazamanka]

Hi everyone.

I have a question and need your help.  I got a Celestron 6 inch telescope  and with the skies finally clearing I tried to align it.  as per the instruction guide, as the first step I tried to align the finder scope and the eyepiece.  I centered my finder scope on arctrus and then tried to center my scope but I could not see anything from my eyepiece.   I do not know what I am doing wrong.  I know for sure that protective cover is not on the lens. I will try again tomorrow morning to align scope and the finder scope by aiming it at a building  but please help me am I doing something wrong? should I be using celestron skyalign method? .

 

I am  in Toronto,  Canada, please help me and guide me.  I am a newbie and will really appreciate all your help.

 

Thanks

[John78]

1) welcome

2) it might not be in the eyepiece if the alignment is bad, try setting it up in the day time using a distant roof apex or to aerial

3) it might be badly out of focus in the EP so there but try running the focuser through full travel while looking

4) use your lowest power eyepiece for this activity to help find your alignment target

[cloudsweeper]

Yes - the 'scope and the finder need to be aligned, otherwise when you try it with a star, they might be "out".  Aim at something like a distant aerial or chimney pot, then adjust the finder to get it in the middle of the finder's view.  Then when you get a star in the finder, it should also be seen in the eyepiece, subject to fine adjustment.  

Also, when trying to get your star in the eyepiece, use low power (high focal length EP), since at high mag the field of view is smaller and it's easier to miss the target.

Good luck - you should crack it quite easily!

Doug.

 

[NovaTJ]

The first time is tricky.  Use the lowest power eyepiece in your collection, which would be a 20mm or maybe a 15mm, not the 4mm they always give you. Use the scope, not the finder, and move it around slowly eyeballing it till you find that bright star, Jupiter, or the Moon. Then adjust the finder to match the scope. After that, the finder can be used to lock in on other objects of interest.  Oh, and welcome!

 

Greg

[AWR]

As said above, this is much easier done in daytime first; you can then easily fine tune using a star later.  Pick a distant object away from the sun such as a TV aerial or a pylon.

1. Using a low power EP (25mm?), align the telescope at the distant object first.  Get the object right in the centre of the field of view.
2. Now adjust the finder to centre it on the same object.
3. At night you can repeat this using a star.  You will need to adjust your focus.  Centre the star in the telescope first (you can use the finder to help with this - it should now be nearly lined up) and then adjust the finder.  Repeat with a higher power EP if you have one.

Andrew

[ronin]

During the day and with no tracking aime the scope at something distant, 1 or 2 miles, then you adjust the finder to have the same thing in the centre.

Then go back and check the scope still has the same thing in the centre and readjust as necessary. Have to get used to the idea that it is the finder that is not aligned to the main scope. Everyone speaks of the star is in the finder but not the scope, as if it is the scope that is out, it is not the scope that is out it is the finder. Just in case you cannot adjust the finder sufficently you may need to shim one foot of the base a little.

If you are going to attempt this at night as well I suspect that you could have problems as your field of view will be fairly narrow and unless the goto aspect is well set up and tracking accurately. anything like a star will drift out of view - or you use Polaris as it is fairly stationary.

I think it is Totonto that has a fairly large club at an observatory that was donated to the club. The whole lot is in a park. I guess the city and light pollution encroached more and more so it was not used, about a year back it was handed over to the local astronomy group. If all else fails you could try them - if the memoryof the observatory+Toronto etc is correct.