Newbie with problem

[Guest Knoena]

Hi All, 

i have a new Celestron AstroMaster 114EQ telescope. Took me a while but finally found a star, however when I try & focus on it, all I get is the reflection of the centre piece of the telescope.?

what am I doing wrong please.? 

Many thanks

[BXRO]

Hi and welcome to the lounge, your probably not got it quiet focused right keep trying

[John]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

This is not an uncommon issue for those 1st using a scope. As said above, you need to adjust the focus to get the star to look as close to a point of light as possible. Either side of that the image will start to bloat out until it is a disk in which you can see the shadow of your secondary mirror and it's supports. The scope is well out of focus when you see what you are seeing.

 

[ronin]

That means that the eyepiece is positioned too far out from the scope. Don't think you have the option of a 2" eyepiece which in a way helps. Very likely it started out sort of wouund out and when you moved it out a bit more the central bit looked like it became a bit more defined (it would).

You simply need to get a star or something big in the scope and winds the focuser+eyepiece inwards. If the moon is around then try thar, it is sort of bigg(ish) and bright.

Just looked, no moon. But it is clear. Stevenage is not exactly the darkest location I can think of. Always remember seeing the orange glow over it when I drove to work. A10/Buntingford way.

[Guest Knoena]

Thank you for your replies. I have tried to focus in and out, if I don't increase the focus, star looks no different then seeing by the naked eye.? But like I said when I try ang magnify I just get the telescopes centre piece reflected back. I have tried both 20mm & 10mm eye pieces.

[D4N]

Just now, Knoena said:

Thank you for your replies. I have tried to focus in and out, if I don't increase the focus, star looks no different then seeing by the naked eye.? But like I said when I try ang magnify I just get the telescopes centre piece reflected back. I have tried both 20mm & 10mm eye pieces.

Stars should look the same magnified, they are point light sources.  Nebulae, galaxies and planets will give more detail when magnified.

Changing the focus won't increase the magnification, there is one position that the eyepiece will be in focus and that is when the stars are just dots.

Changing the eyepiece does change the magnification, the 10mm will give twice as much as the 20mm.

[Floater]

Hi, Knoena. Welcome to SGL.

I think you may be expecting more than you are likely to achieve. Strongly suggest you read 'What can I expect to see' in the Getting Started With Observing section. 

Stick with it, though - just forget the pictures you may have seen in magazines, etc. You will not see that type of image through any eyepiece or telescope.

[Tim]

41 minutes ago, Knoena said:

star looks no different then seeing by the naked eye

Believe it or not, that is a good thing. To get the best from your telescope when viewing the more interesting objects, you want the stars themselves to be as small and pinpoint as possible, then they wont get in the way

If you can, try to get a look tonight at the nebula part in Orion, known as M42.

Welcome to SGL by the way

 

Tim

[Guest Knoena]

Many thanks all, this has really helped.

I will keep going!!

[Guest Knoena]

Well I know it's not much but exciting for me, I found Sirius within the Canis Major.!!! 

[brantuk]

During the daytime - focus on a distant point like the tip of a pylon or church spire - the further away the better but a mile or two away is good. Get the object dead center in your eyepiece and then adjust the finder so the cross hairs are on the same point. This will align the scope and finder ready for night time viewing making it easier to find stuff.

To focus on an object at night, turn the focuser knob all the way in and slowly turn it outwards. Eventually you'll see a fuzzy circle which is getting smaller and smaller as you slowly turn the knob. If it starts getting larger again you've gone past the focus point so start going the other way again even slower. Eventually the object will appear dead sharp in the eyepiece. Use a 20mm or 25mm eyepiece to start with.

For rough focus start on a star which gives a nice fuzzy circle. Then change to a planet or nebula or globular for more interesting objects. I'd suggest M42, M31, M45, Jupiter, or Mars. Stars are mostly a bit boring unless you're experimenting with light. Try looking for doubles - there's a couple in the plough and Albireo has distinct colour. Also asterisms like the Coathanger are fun to find. Hth

[Dave In Vermont]

You might find this thread (long-thread) helpful:

Lot's of good information!

Enjoy!

Dave

[laudropb]

Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL. You have learned your first lesson. Stars will always appear as points of light. That is not to say that they are not interesting. They can be of different colours depending on their surface temperatures. Many are double stars through the eyepiece. There are large groups of stars, known as clusters. These can be loosely spread, open clusters, or tightly bound together.as spectacular globular clusters. Take your time and you will soon learn your way round the night sky. The main thing is to enjoy yourself.

[Floater]

2 hours ago, laudropb said:

 The main thing is to enjoy yourself.

+1 for that!

[iapa]

16 hours ago, Knoena said:

Well I know it's not much but exciting for me, I found Sirius within the Canis Major.!!! 

A good start. Sirius as a nice target as it is good and bright and well worth a look.

If you can see Orion's Belt, then following the line from Betelguese to Rigel, in the attached, about half way are three stars (actually often used as the pointers to Sirus) and a tad further down, and to the left, is a wee reddish 'blob' that is the M42, the Orion Nebula. Well worth a look.