need help

[alexz p]

got a POWERSEEKER 60AZ its all blury tried all lenses zoomed in out wit all of them would not focus was told any light in the dark makes it blury isthat true

[alanjgreen]

1. Setup and test it in the daytime, much easier to see what you are doing than in the dark!

2. Try to focus on something at least half mile away

3. Make sure you put the star diagonal into the back end of the scope then one of the eyepieces 

4. Ignore the Barlow lens until you have the scope working. Use only the 20mm lens (low power) until you have it working.

Finally, NO, light at night does not make it blurry. You may be trying to view something TOO CLOSE. The scope is setup to view the moon/stars and they are a long way distant  

[Doc]

You are most likely focusing to quick and going past the sweet spot where the image comes into focus.

[alexz p]

thank you doc and alanjgreen for the advice i will try it

[alexz p]

it works in the light

[JohnSadlerAstro]

Great! It's amazing how large the difference in focus between even far-away objects can be with a telescope! I hope you can get some clear skies for trying it out at night....

John

[alanjgreen]

1 hour ago, alexz p said:

it works in the light

Great. Now you are ready to view the moon with your 20mm eyepiece (x35 magnification).

looking at the spec for your scope 

https://www.celestron.com/products/powerseeker-60az-telescope

The 4mm (x175) will be too powerful for your small scope and you will not be able to focus clearly with it. (Leave it in the box).

the x3 Barlow is also no use at all, so leave it in the box too.

Your 60mm scope may manage up to x80 in reality. I do not know why manufacturers supply accessories that will not work - go figure?

if you are viewing stars then turn the focuser until the stars are seen as a small dot. That is all stars will ever be in a scope. You may see different colour stars!

If you want more magnification than the 20mm can provide then you should consider a 12mm (x58) or 9mm (x77) eyepiece to see more detail on the moon. Anything less than 9mm will not work in your scope (too much power for it - you would need to increase aperture from 60mm to a larger scope)

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/celestron-eyepieces/celestron-omni-plossl-eyepiece.html

Enjoy your scope and get the hang of observing. When you are ready to upgrade, post on here for advice before you buy again... 

Alan

[JOC]

It might be worth knowing that in some weather conditions condensation can form on mirrors and eye pieces, this will cause the image to deteriorate or even disappear.  Fine and scarcely seen clouds or water vapour in the sky will have a similar effect.  An inability to see need not be the fault of the mechanics of the telescope, though as mentioned too much magnification will cause problems.

[Chefgage]

Glad you are getting somewhere with your scope.  This was my first telescope that i had.  With a bit of patience and fairly light poluted skies i could make out the two main bands of jupitor.  On one memorable night i got a good look at saturn and could just make out the division between the ring and the planet.  The 3x barlow is useless with the 60az scope, leave that in the box.  The 25mm eye piece is actually quite good and i use it in my 8" reflector.  The 4mm eye piece is usefull as long as the seeing conditions permit it.  Make sure you line up the finderscope with the telescope properly as this will help you find targets much easier. I didnt to start with and soon became frustrated.  It is recomended you do this in the daytime (NOT pointed any where near the sun) and focus on a distant object. I do this by focusing on a church spire (this is only about 1/4 mile away but its the only thing at distance i can see from my garden).

[alexz p]

tried it last night got a good veiw of the moon but i figured out it,s a 70 Az not 60 Az

[alexz p]

and with the 10mm and 4mm it seems to zoom out on an object rather than zooming in on an object i can see the stars bigger with my naked eye is that normal

 

[Galen Gilmore]

2 hours ago, alexz p said:

and with the 10mm and 4mm it seems to zoom out on an object rather than zooming in on an object i can see the stars bigger with my naked eye is that normal

 

The longer the focal length of the eyepiece the wider the field of view, meaning..

(10mm) 700/10 = 70x magnification

(4mm) 700/4 = 175x magnification

The size of the stars will not increase in a telescope because stars are pinpoint lights, they have (for all intensive purposes) no angular diameter. Meaning that they only get brighter in the 'scope, not bigger. 

As for seeing them bigger with the naked eye, it could have something to do with atmospheric refraction?

[JOC]

If hou take the 10mm and 4mm EPs and moon as an example.  With the 4mm EP you will apparently get closer and appear to see a bigger white disc in the view on less black bakground than you will see with the 10mm EP.  As explained above the same won't happen with a star as you can't zoom in on a pinhead of light.  It should work OK on Saturn and Jupiter if you want to wake up early though.

[Rocket_the_Raccoon]

On 4/3/2018 at 08:09, alexz p said:

and with the 10mm and 4mm it seems to zoom out on an object rather than zooming in on an object i can see the stars bigger with my naked eye is that normal

 

Do you mean your 20mm and 4mm? I think the Powerseeker 70AZ doesn't come with a 10mm. Besides, if you are into DIY, I can suggest a few "upgrades" to make your scope better. :-)

[LukeSkywatcher]

An unwritten rule is that in general the most useful magnification of any scope is 1-1.5x of the aperture. So with a 70mm scope you should keep magnification down to between 70-110x.

Of course, with many scopes say 100mm+ this rule kind of flies out the window and you can push the magnification up. With smaller scopes, its best to stick within the 1-1.5x rule. small scopes just cant deal with high levels of magnification.

A lot also depends on local sky conditions. "seeing" and "transparency" can greatly effect how well you see things through a scope.

I agree with others..........put the 4mm and the 3x barlow back in the box. They wont work with 70mm scope. Too much magnification.

[domstar]

Actually, the 3x Barlow was usable on Jupiter with my 70mm scope and H20 eyepiece. I even saw the bands. Not the best views I've ever seen but at the time it (literally ) knocked my socks off.

[LukeSkywatcher]

1 hour ago, domstar said:

Actually, the 3x Barlow was usable on Jupiter with my 70mm scope and H20 eyepiece. I even saw the bands. Not the best views I've ever seen but at the time it (literally ) knocked my socks off.

I guess it depends on what 70mm scope, possibly. 

[Rocket_the_Raccoon]

On 2018-05-12 at 02:40, domstar said:

Actually, the 3x Barlow was usable on Jupiter with my 70mm scope and H20 eyepiece. I even saw the bands. Not the best views I've ever seen but at the time it (literally ) knocked my socks off.

It could be the barlow has increased the focal ratio of the telescope to a point that the H 20mm performed obviously better than on its own. When Christiaan Huygens designed his eyepiece in 1662, telescopes had far slower focal ratios than the f/10~f/15 of today's long archomatic refractors.

[John]

With a 70mm scope of 700mm focal length (which I believe is the one in question) the 20mm eyepiece and 3x barlow combination is delivering 105x which, on a decent night, would be quite useable on Jupiter. I used to observe Jupiter at 133x with my old 60mm refractor and when the seeing settled I got quite nice images

The Skylux refractors (the ones that Lidl used to stock) had quite good objective lenses in them I believe.