Celestron Powerseeker 127eq won't quite focus

[Doublek42]

I'm brand new to this site, but I'm having an issue with my Celestron Powerseeker 127eq telescope. It's brand new right out of the box today. I have another telescope, Zhummel Z10, but the celestron just won't focus. It gets so close to focusing and just needs a little more. 

 

Any my help is appreciated thank!

[ronin]

Looking at the Celestron site it seems a slightly odd scope to me at least.

The specification is 1000mm focal length and the body looks a lot shorter so that if correct implies the additional barlow in the focuser which increases the focal length. However the specification also says "erect image optics" so they have in that case added or supplied a prism also into the focuser are to achieve this.

If the above are both correct and the erect image prism is a sort of "fixed" part of the scope then they have added a lot of glass/plastic/whatever to the focuser and unfortunately what is added tends to be not that good. Not sure why Synta have this idea that adding unnecessary bits to a scope make it better as it rarely does.

My presumption is that the erect image prism is placing the image from the mirror just out of reach of the eyepiece image plane. Is the erect image prism unit removable? Thinking it might be an item a bit like a barlow that you can insert or remove as required. If removed or not used then is there a short extension tube included that you need to add in. Thoughts here being the prime image is "pushed" out and the erect image prism is acting partially like an extension tube and so without it you need to add in an extension tube.

Which way, in or out, does it appear to need a bit more movement to achieve focus.

[Charic]

Doublek42, I don't recall having the same issue that your having ( ronin - the erecting prism is removable), but I do recall after the first use, how infuriating and time wasting this scope was for visual observations only, and if your thinking your going down the astrophotography route, the GEM is just too wobbly, unstable.

The manual mentions 'return to factory' for collimation ? In all honesty, I would wrap the scope back up, tell them it won't focus, and refund your money, rather than try and solve this situation, on the basis ( my opinion )  that if it did work, your not going to see much anyway from this scope? If you find that removing the  correcting eyepiece ( I would suggest this is for terrestrial use only )  gives a better view with the longer focal length eyepiece, then you may want to stick a little longer with the scope, but image quality is/was pretty poor,  even after learning more, cleaning, collimating, centre-spotting and better eyepieces! and and lastly, the Jones-Bird construction ( long focal length ~ short tube ) makes for further issues along the way?

Get  yourself a refund, I know this reply is pretty blunt, and is not helping the immediate situation. That scope,  taught me how to setup the mount, and gave me my first view of the moon ( even that image is mediocre compared to my 200P) but apart from that, the scope itself ( my opinion) is about as useful as a chocolate fireguard.

If you just looking for some decent visual observations,  jump to a 150Por 200P you won't regret it.

[beka]

Hi Doublek42,

I have had some experience with this scope some time back. If I recall the image erecting prism is in the lower power eyepiece supplied. You mentioned that you have a 10 inch Dob so I am guessing that you want the PowerSeeker for portability. If this is the case I would agree with Charic and it  would be better to return it and get something else for this purpose. Honestly I do not know why Celestron markets scopes like this. Its fast primary mirror makes it very sensitive to collimation and the mount makes using  the 4mm eyepiece at 250x extremely hard. It is not suitable for beginner or advance users. And a 3x barlow is included - really Celestron!!!

Good luck!

[Charic]

Oops, not sure how I missed the Z10? (cheers beka ).

My thoughts otherwise remain the same.

[k3rz0rg]

I just got the powerseeker 127eq and been doodling around the collimation; quite harder with this one and very unstable mounts and hard to maneuver.

About focusing, I get this after couple of tries. This is about 1/4 mile away through my backyard glassdoor.
Camera: Sony a6000 with t-ring / T2 mount, exp- 4sec, ISO-100.

I will give it another go on the field; the one on my pro pic was taken with 55210mm sony; if I didn't get any sharper outta that, I'd throw that away w/o wasting time. 

[happy-kat]

I expect you are running out of inward focus when trying to focus with a camera.