How do I focus a celestron ps1000?

[Claraarthurton]

I was given a telescope for Christmas, we've set it up all correctly and it's just not focusing! On a clear night we lined up with the north star but the picture is fuzzy. Any advice?

[nightfisher]

Put the eyepiece with the highest number i.e 20mm or 25mm in the focus draw tube and turn the finger wheels back or forward till its focused

[rwilkey]

Try looking at he Moon first and turn the focuser slowly until you get absolute focus, it should be pin-sharp but may take a little while at first, as said above use the highest number eyepiece (lowest power!) first until you get focus, you should be able to get the whole Moon in your view.

[noah4x4]

I echo what Jule's says about starting with low magnification. Everybody starts with too high magnification then wonder why they can see little.  Practice  by daytime focusing on (say) a church spire at least one mile away.  Note how many focuser turns are required to go from one extreme to the other. The focus for different eyepieces will lie between these wide extremes. Now get your finderscope aligned with the eyepiece using the church spire. Remember a long focal length telescope is unlike binoculars. Your targets are almost infinitely further away and that may take many turns.

Next notice how a movement of merely one degree moves the church spire outside of your field of view.  It's like a gunsight. Now imagine that 'error' extrapolated over a billion miles. The chances are that on the clear night you were either focusing on a vacant area of sky (or cloud?) or perhaps so out of focus that you were observing the doughnut created by the secondary mirror.

Now go and find the Moon, still with your lowest magnification EP (which has  the biggest number).  Don't underestimate the power of your telescope or the speed of rotation of the earth. It's not easy to keep even the Moon centred in your field of view. You will progressively learn how  (polar alignment etc) but this first lesson is about learning to focus using prominent targets. Next target, aim at Orion's Sword and find and focus on the Orion Nebula. Don't use any of your high magnification EP's until you have found and focused upon a number of larger objects. This website (also a book) will assist.

http://www.cambridge.org/features/turnleft/

[Claraarthurton]

1 hour ago, nightfisher said:

Put the eyepiece with the highest number i.e 20mm or 25mm in the focus draw tube and turn the finger wheels back or forward till its focused

Thanks for the help!

[Claraarthurton]

56 minutes ago, rwilkey said:

Try looking at he Moon first and turn the focuser slowly until you get absolute focus, it should be pin-sharp but may take a little while at first, as said above use the highest number eyepiece (lowest power!) first until you get focus, you should be able to get the whole Moon in your view.

Thanks for the help!

[Claraarthurton]

43 minutes ago, noah4x4 said:

I echo what Jule's says about starting with low magnification. Everybody starts with too high magnification then wonder why they can see little.  Practice  by daytime focusing on (say) a church spire at least one mile away.  Note how many focuser turns are required to go from one extreme to the other. The focus for different eyepieces will lie between these wide extremes. Now get your finderscope aligned with the eyepiece using the church spire. Remember a long focal length telescope is unlike binoculars. Your targets are almost infinitely further away and that may take many turns.

Next notice how a movement of merely one degree moves the church spire outside of your field of view.  It's like a gunsight. Now imagine that 'error' extrapolated over a billion miles. The chances are that on the clear night you were either focusing on a vacant area of sky (or cloud?) or perhaps so out of focus that you were observing the doughnut created by the secondary mirror.

Now go and find the Moon, still with your lowest magnification EP (which has  the biggest number).  Don't underestimate the power of your telescope or the speed of rotation of the earth. It's not easy to keep even the Moon centred in your field of view. You will progressively learn how  (polar alignment etc) but this first lesson is about learning to focus using prominent targets. Next target, aim at Orion's Sword and find and focus on the Orion Nebula. Don't use any of your high magnification EP's until you have found and focused upon a number of larger objects. This website (also a book) will assist.

http://www.cambridge.org/features/turnleft/

 

Thanks for the help!