Please help. Celestron NPF 60 travel scope - blurry image

[Thatheff]

Hey guys I'm new to telescopes and well I have tried reading up on possible fixes, nothing works. 

First day I used it I was able to get a clear image on the lowest power inserting a 20mm eye piece and it would focus. 

Attempted my first night to look at Mars. Well it was a big blur and nothing worked. 

Next day I was attempting to look at a mountain and no matter what I did or try it remained blurry. Focus dial is free moving but the image stay as a massive blur. With no eyepiece it's still all a blur. If I look through it backwards there is a clear image however looking from the eyepiece it remains blurry. 

Im not sure what to do now. Any ideas?

[mikeDnight]

2 hours ago, Thatheff said:

Hey guys I'm new to telescopes and well I have tried reading up on possible fixes, nothing works. 

First day I used it I was able to get a clear image on the lowest power inserting a 20mm eye piece and it would focus. 

Attempted my first night to look at Mars. Well it was a big blur and nothing worked. 

Next day I was attempting to look at a mountain and no matter what I did or try it remained blurry. Focus dial is free moving but the image stay as a massive blur. With no eyepiece it's still all a blur. If I look through it backwards there is a clear image however looking from the eyepiece it remains blurry. 

Im not sure what to do now. Any ideas?

What kind of telescope are you using? Some scopes are more sensitive to internal heat than others, so that may be playing a part. Also, Mars can be a really awkward customer. It's a tiny world with a brilliant disk, so to dull the image, especially in a large aperture scope, its best to use a reasonably high magnification. However, increasing the magnification also increases the visible effects of atmospheric turbulence, which will wash out any detail. 

You mention that "the image stays as a massive blur!" That sounds to me like the telescope isn't properly in focus. Does the mountain you tried to focus on appear to come close to being focussed? If you're using a Schmidt or Maksutov Cassegrain you may have been turning the focuser in the wrong direction. It might be a good idea to look for a local astro society near by that could take a look and who would be more than happy to help you out. 

Mike

[Pig]

The focus wheel may be turning but is the focuser actually moving in and out as you turn the wheel ?

[Knighty2112]

Are you using a Barlow lens in the system too? With a 20mm eyepiece Mars will will be small, not massive. I kNow some lower end scopes come with a 3 x Barlow, or possibly a 2x Barlow, so if you are using one of these along with the EP then take the Barlow out and just put the EP in the focuser to view with.

[Dave In Vermont]

Shaun has hit upon the likely culprit. So I've gone and pulled-up some pictures of you National Parks edition Celestron. Underneath the focuser should be a metal-knob, a small bolt actually. Tighten this up and then turn the two focus-knobs - one on each side of the draw-tube the diagonal (what you put the eyepiece in so you don't need yoga to look into it). You should see the focuser move in & out as you turn the focus-knob.

If it doesn't, try turning the small-bolt the opposite direction. Once you've got the focuser moving in & out, try an eyepiece and attempt to focus on a distant object - in daylight again. Once you have this down, onwards to the stars!

Let us know how you're doing, please.

Enjoy -

Dave

 

[Thatheff]

6 hours ago, Dave In Vermont said:

Shaun has hit upon the likely culprit. So I've gone and pulled-up some pictures of you National Parks edition Celestron. Underneath the focuser should be a metal-knob, a small bolt actually. Tighten this up and then turn the two focus-knobs - one on each side of the draw-tube the diagonal (what you put the eyepiece in so you don't need yoga to look into it). You should see the focuser move in & out as you turn the focus-knob.

If it doesn't, try turning the small-bolt the opposite direction. Once you've got the focuser moving in & out, try an eyepiece and attempt to focus on a distant object - in daylight again. Once you have this down, onwards to the stars!

Let us know how you're doing, please.

Enjoy -

Dave

when I try to adjust the focus the telescope focuser will adjust however the image I see remain a blur with no change at all. Also the first day I used it the image was projected normally but now it is inverted and doesn't seem to adjust.  Anything from 100 meters to .5 miles away. The telescope I got is a clestron national parks foundation 60 travel scope. Meant for camping and day hikes I loved the concept. I tried to carefully adjust one of the lenses to see if that would do anything but to no prevail. 

[Cornelius Varley]

7 minutes ago, Thatheff said:

when I try to adjust the focus the telescope focuser will adjust however the image I see remain a blur with no change at all. Also the first day I used it the image was projected normally but now it is inverted and doesn't seem to adjust.  Anything from 100 meters to .5 miles away. The telescope I got is a clestron national parks foundation 60 travel scope. Meant for camping and day hikes I loved the concept. I tried to carefully adjust one of the lenses to see if that would do anything but to no prevail. 

If the image was the right way up but now inverted then something must have changed. Are you using the supplied erect image diagonal, which will give a right way up image.

[Pig]

It can only be one of a few issues all of which have been mentioned above, the last being as Peter mentioned above IE the diagonal not seating correctly or the mirrors are not clean....... This may make give the effect of looking clear one way as the view would be so small you do not notice the blur when looking through it in reverse.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Not sure what the problem is but its one of the above most likely. I have a 70mm Celestron travel scope and one thing i found out very quickly is that it doesnt do well at all when trying to observe planets. It, like your scope is designed as a wide field scope which is good for looking at star clusters and that sort of thing. It should give good views of the Moon also. It just cant handle the magnification needed to observe planets. 

A better tripod helps a bit.

[Thatheff]

Ok I am not sure how weird this is. But the national park foundation celestron 60 Travelscope is only focusing with the angle lensepiece (in picture) after pure frustration. I went back to what I could remember worked. And well I guess I'll always need the angle lense. Is this a common thing? Anyways I really do appreciate all the help and feedback. 

[Dave In Vermont]

It's possible it needs that travel and distance to come to focus. So that may be a 'yes' to your question. However as it's a 45° diagonal, it isn't the best for observing objects in outer-space like stars & planets. 45° diagonals are generally used for terrestrial observations. A 90° diagonal are considered best for the purposes of astronomy.

I hope this helps,

Dave