What am I doing wrong

[Ang]

Hi all,

i need help please, I am brand new to astronomy, I bought myself the skywatcher startravel 120eq, I saw the moon superbly in the morning.

i used it last night with the eyepieces provided, 10mm and 25mm. With the Barlow lense. I looked at Venus, mars and had a go on Orion. All that came up was what I describe as they all looked very dark and like a cd disc as I zoomed in with a perfect circle with smaller circles in the centre. Also a lot of squiggly bits like I was back at school looking through a microscope.

do I need to buy better eyepieces?.

Thank you in advance for any advice given.

[domstar]

Hi, just keep focusing until the little circles become dots- stars should be as small as you can get them. I would say forget the barlow for the moment. The 25mm gives the widest and brightest views. Have a look at the orion nebula in the 25mm and you will be hooked. Good luck. 

[Guest Tuomo]

Hi!

 

You must remember that you cannot zoom with telescopes. After you insert your eyepiece in to the telescope, you just need to rotate focuser knobs (black knobs both sides of scope focuser) to find focal point. Easiest way to figure this out is to practise this in daylight. Find target far far far away and insert either 10mm or 25mm eyepiece. Then start turning knobs and soon you will have crisp image in eyepiece. Now fast forward to night time and use this same method with stars. You have red dot finder with your scope. Use that, it will help you to point bright star in night sky. 

[Cornelius Varley]

Hello and welcome to SGL. What you describe sounds like you are not adjusting the focus correctly. Normal telescope eyepieces have a fixed focal length and do not "zoom" . The magnification for a given eyepiece is calculated by dividing the focal length of the telescope by the focal length of the eyepiece. eg focal length telescope (600) / focal length eyepiece (10mm) = 60x magnification.

[happy-kat]

If you practice during the day do not look at the Sun, this could cause permanent eye damage.

A very distant tree might be used.

[Davey-T]

Hi Ang and welcome to SGL, nice choice of first scope should keep you happy for a long time.

As said probably just a focussing thing, best to start with the 25mm eyepiece until you get the hang of it, the more you magnify the view with either 10mm or barlow the smaller and dimmer the view gets and the harder it is to focus.

Dave

[laudropb]

Hell and a warm welcome to the SGL. When you focus on a star it will only be a point of light. It will not be a disk or show any detail other than colour. Try Venus again. Like the Moon Venus shows phases and will appear as a crescent. It is difficult to see details on Venus because it is covered by a thick layer of clouds. Unfortunately at the moment Jupiter does nor rise until the early hours of the morning, but later in the year it will be visible at night. You will be able to see its main belts and also its 4 large Moons.

[alanjgreen]

Ang,

As above, set your scope up in the daytime and try looking at a distant object (chimney, TV aerial, leaves on a tree)

Try the different eyepieces starting with the larger number, the 25 (which is the low power).

Then try them in conjunction with the barlow. See how the barlow doubles the magnification.

Thr advantage of daytime testing is that it makes it easy to get an understanding of what is happening as you change eyepieces and barlows. You can also get familiar with how the focuser works.

JUST DONT TRY TO LOOK DIRECTLY AT THE SUN!!

Alan

[ronin]

What you describe is exactly what happens if the star/planet is not in focus and is a fair bit out of focus. What puzzles me is that on a refractor it is sort of intuitive to wind the focuser all the way in and all the way out to find out hat is going on. I wind them in and out just to check they are smooth and that they go all the way in each direction.

Start with the 25mm and go aim at say the Pleiades, or Aldebaren with the Hyades (2 reasonable sized clusters). Then slowly adjust the focus and hopefully they should come into sharp(ish) view.

Then swap to the 10mm and adjust focus, again should focus.

Half thinking the barlow may be moving the image out to a position that the eyepieces cannot create a good image and it remains out of focus.

Just recalled you said the moon was sharp. What barlow lens ? As the FLO site does not indicate that one is supplied, Just wondering if you have bought one that is too much for the scope.

Where in Herts are you? Couple of clubs around that may help.

[Ang]

3 minutes ago, ronin said:

What you describe is exactly what happens if the star/planet is not in focus and is a fair bit out of focus. What puzzles me is that on a refractor it is sort of intuitive to wind the focuser all the way in and all the way out to find out hat is going on. I wind them in and out just to check they are smooth and that they go all the way in each direction.

Start with the 25mm and go aim at say the Pleiades, or Aldebaren with the Hyades (2 reasonable sized clusters). Then slowly adjust the focus and hopefully they should come into sharp(ish) view.

Then swap to the 10mm and adjust focus, again should focus.

Half thinking the barlow may be moving the image out to a position that the eyepieces cannot create a good image and it remains out of focus.

Just recalled you said the moon was sharp. What barlow lens ? As the FLO site does not indicate that one is supplied, Just wondering if you have bought one that is too much for the scope.

Where in Herts are you? Couple of clubs around that may help.

Hi,

i have the 2x Barlow that was supplied with the scope.

this is how new I am I don't understand the pleiades and  aldebaren. How do I find where to look for objects, planets, nebulae.

This will sound funny I suppose, but I am using my night sky app on my iPad lol.

i am just outside Hertford.

[Davey-T]

You can use Stellarium to see what will be visible on any given night from your location http://stellarium.org/

Once you start learning your way around the sky you can use your red dot finder to locate the right area, you need to make sure it's aligned with the main scope.

Dave

[ronin]

There is a club at Hertford, used to meet close to the QE2 hospital in WGC. However they moved (I think) and not exactly sure where they are now - but they are somewhere. Another club at Letchworth, not too sure how they are on people turning up for help. Finally a bit of a drive but a club at Cambridge and they work with the Institute of astronomy and have a "public" night every Wednesday. If you drive and wanted to head up there they will explain it all to you and if clear show you around the sky.

On a Wednesday you get a free talk and coffee/tea as well. I know it is a trip but I equally know how easy going the place is. Just if you go take the scope and get there a bit early say by 6:30 so people have time to help.

Right, Pleiades and Aldebaren+Hyades.

Find Orion. Find Orions Belt (the 3 bright stars in the middle in a row), tracking along the Belt from Left to Right and carrying on in a straight(ish) line you sort of bump into a orange/red star - that is Aldebaren, if you look at it you will see it is amongst a small bunch of stars, they are The Hyades. Carry on going a bit further and you find a bunch (technically a cluster) of stars that are brightish and white/blue, those are the Pleiades cluster.

[Mr Spock]

Hi Ang, welcome to SGL

[popeye85]

1 hour ago, Ang said:

This is how new I am I don't understand the pleiades and  aldebaren. How do I find where to look for objects, planets, nebulae.

This will sound funny I suppose, but I am using my night sky app on my iPad lol

Don't worry about being new! We have all been there and on here you will find all levels of astronomers. The whole point of this forum is to help each other out and share information.

Nothing wrong with using a app on your iPad, I'm pretty sure most people on here will have more than one on their phone and I use my app every time I go out. Other places to find targets are of course stelarium plus the book 'turn left at Orion' will be recommended to you on multiple occasions and with good reason!! I also find that magazines are a great source of finding inspiration of things to look for. I tend to find that  'sky at night' magazine has more of a beginner's feel to it and they have a monthly guide of targets of all levels. ( Of course in the interest of fairness I should point out that there are many more excellent magazines all worthy of your attention ??)

Hope this helps!

Popeye.

[JohnSadlerAstro]

Hi,

I would recommend the book, Turn Left at Orion. It lists over one hundred objects, how to find them, and sketches of what to expect.

John

[Dave Lloyd]

Hi Ang, welcome. The gang on here will soon have you sorted.

[JamesM]

Hi Ang and welcome to the forum

Clear skies

[carastro]

I haven't done much visual astronomy for some time as I do astroimaging these days, but I do recall finding the barlow causing me problems and could never see anything through it.  I think the trouble is not only do you lose focus when you first add the barlow, but often the target too which is often now out of the field of view.  I would forget the barlow until you have a bit more practice.  You will get better focus and definition if you don't try to magnify too much.   Try the lower powered eyepiece first, and only add the more powerful eyepiece when you have the target dead in the centre of the field of view.

Enjoy.

Carole 

[glowjet]

Hi Ang and welcome to SGL, I would second John Sadler`s recommendation to obtain a copy of  the book TL@O, invaluable to those just starting out to the seasoned Astronomer, enjoy the forum

[carastro]

By the way, I found the use of a planisphere very useful when i started out.  You can of course use Stellarium, but if you don;t have a computer with you, a planisphere will tell you what's up there any time of the year, any hour.  

Carole 

[Racey]

Ang

Take it slowly and a step at a time. Soon you'll find you are walking and then running...

Step 1 as I'd see it would be to not worry what you are looking at and learn to appreciate and enjoy your scope. Both during the day as some have suggested to learn to focus on trees and chimneys. Learn with the eyepiece with the highest mm number on it. 

Then move on to doing the same with the eyepiece with the lower number. 

Worry not about what Orion, Pleiades or anything else is. (They are interesting areas of the night sky, but you'll learn about them in time). Just start with the higher number (lower magnification) eyepiece. Have a look around. Learn to focus. Note the colours of the stars. Do you see any stars really close to one another ? (Doubles). Do you see some are Yellow / Orange rather than white..?

Now you're making progress. That's how all the great astronomers started  

Now get a program like Stellarium on your laptop or desktop and on cloudy nights have a look at that. 

Be aware if you get stuck that Hertford Astronomical Group

http://www.skiesunlimited.co.uk/HAG/

Has a night on 4th March to help people get to grips with their scopes  

maybe check out the Bayfordbury Observatory which has public open nights that are great for all skill levels  

And, if really stuck, PM Susie or me on here  we're in Weston. Near Baldock...

 

[Pete Presland]

Hi welcome to SGL from Pete in Bedfordshire :-)

[tony210]

Hi and welcome - seeing has a lot to do with results - many nights I have observed wiggling images in the UK due to poor seeing we always hope for that one good night- keep going there, are great views ahead - best wishes Tony

[triton1]

Hi there and welcome to SGL