How To Get THe Best From My Telescope

[Sunshine Maddness]

Hi all

Just wanting some advise on how to get the best from my telescope.

I have a 'Meade 4504' scope. I haven't been able to use it to its full potential yet as I don't know how too. Not sure if its due to the eye pieces I have or not, im finding it frustrating at the moment.

Ive been able to see the likes of Venus and Mars with the naked eye, but I don't see them as any different through the scope either. Ive not even had the luxury of seeing Saturns rings

Any help and advice would be most appreciated. Please keep any advice simple as im a simple kinda gal, not very good in the academic department.

Many thanks

Regards

Sunshine Maddness xxxxx

[MikeP]

Just looked it up since I'm not familiar with the telescope. Is this the manual you have? http://www.meade.com/manuals/TelescopeManuals/Reflectors/4504.pdf

What eyepieces have you tried? When you looked at the planets, were they in focus? Could you see a disc rather than just a point of light?

Mike

[Whippy]

If it's the one that Mike has linked to, then I guess the first thing would be to see if your optics are collimated (that the mirrors are in alignment), have a look at this: http://www.andysshotglass.com/Collimating.html . Once you've got this sorted (if of course it needs doing!), then perhaps you could look into some upgrades like eyepieces and the like.

HTH

Tony..

[themos]

Hello, my Celestron 114EQ has the same configuration as yours, although you have a lot more electric/electronic gadgets on yours. I would advise you to wait for the Moon as it's a very easy target to find and you can learn all the tweaks then. The Moon is a new crescent now and getting bigger, it's visible near the west in the evenings.

[russ]

I gave my parents a scope to try with my younger sister. For weeks they kept saying they couldn't see anything, that Mars looked like a star etc. It turned out to be the finderscope (little scope on the side) pointing somewhere completely different to the main scope. And they were making matters worse by starting with the smallest eyepiece (9mm) and working up (it seemed natural) to the 25mm.

So just check your finderscope is pointing to the same point. Best to do this in the daytime on a distant object. This should improve your situation no end.

Next up will be collimation. The most daunting prospect for anybody who hasn't done it before. But there's some very easy tutorials around to help.

And finally start with the eyepiece that has the highest number, something like a 20mm or 25mm, to give the lowest power and widest view.

Lastly, try it all out in the evening on Jupiter low in the South.

Regards

Russ

[waynezilla]

I have the same scope. I have a 9mm, 25mm and 2x barlow that came with it. I think these eyepieces are pretty poor although I don't have any others to check against. The gears on mine have play in them so the "goto" isn't the greatest either.

Optically, it seems okay though. Its quite a long focal length for the aperture, so not too good at DSO, but if its certainly possible to see saturns rings, jupiters moons/bands and make out the disk of mars.

As mentioned, the finder scope isn't too hot, and difficult to align accurately with the main scope.

Wayne