How to use the eye piece

[MarkyB83]

Hi All

Total newbie here. I have bought a skywatcher 130p and have had one night using it. Didn't do too bad but a lot to learn and get used to.

One of the things that bothered me is actually putting my eye in the eye piece. If I kind of hover my eye just out of the rubber cup I get a fairly clear view. But hard to keep still and a bit painful on my neck. But if I rest my eye into the rubber cup, it feels comfortable- but everything just goes black! The odd [removed word] of light maybe but nothing clear. 

What at am I doing wrong??!

thanks

mark

[Cornelius Varley]

You are doing nothing wrong. There is a certain knack to looking through an eyepiece, get too close and things go black, too far away and see nothing. The distance between the eyepiece and your eye is called the "eye relief" . 

[pipnina]

There is a sweet spot when it comes to eyepieces. Too close and you get vignetting/kidney-beaning, too far out and you start to lose the FOV. Ideally you will be sat at exactly the point where you can just see the whole FOV.

For someone with glasses, eye relief can almost never be too big (20mm is still a squeeze!) but for those with good vision long eye relief can make using eyepieces uncomfortable as you describe, forcing them to "float" above the eyepiece. Some get around this by extending the eye-guard. (I believe a common practice for Nagler owners).

If you're using the Super 25mm or Super 10mm that comes with the scope: the 25 has an eye relief of about 16mm~, the 10 of about 7mm~ I think.

 

Hope you get used to the eyepieces or find a way to mod them to become more comfortable!

    ~pip

[Physopto]

Try turning the scope in the clamps to get a more comfortable position for your neck at any position the mount ends up at.

 

[MarkyB83]

Thanks all. I guess I just need to practice to find the right position for me.

I usually wear glasses for distance viewing, I took them off last night for comfort in the eye piece - would you recommend keeping them on?

[MarkyB83]

3 hours ago, Physopto said:

Try turning the scope in the clamps to get a more comfortable position for your neck at any position the mount ends up at.

 

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by this - sorry, I'm being dumb!

[Physopto]

The scope is fixed in the clamps onto the mount. By loosening the clamps you can turn the scope so that the eyepeice is in a more accessible position. Just be careful when doing it as you do not want to have the scope move out of the clamps or jog your position off target.

Just a thought are you using an Explorer in an EQ mount  or Heritage DOB. If the dob then that is not an option.

Derek

[brantuk]

What mount do you have the 130P on? If it's an alt/az e.g. Supatrack or AZ4 - then it won't have tube rings - just a dovetail bar screwed onto the scope. The equatorial mounts tend to use tube rings to hold the scope onto the dovetail and allow circular adjustment of the tube to position the eyepiece.

[MarkyB83]

8 minutes ago, Physopto said:

Just a thought are you using an Explorer in an EQ mount  or Heritage DOB. If the dob then that is not an option.

Derek

Ah - I have the Heritage DOB. Thus the confusion! 

Thanks anyway ?

[Physopto]

You could try a 90 degree prism.