Just got a celestron powerseeker 114eq and need some help would be Nice thanks in advance

[TheNoob star gazer]

okay so the name says it all , i Am A  COMPLETE noob at this and i just recently  Got my first telescope a celestron powerseeker 114eq and for what i saw was just a few stars and somewhat the moon. could someone help me??? like wheres the zooming on this beast of a telescope ??? sooory just never used a telescope b4 an would like to Actully see some plantes an stars .. thanks for the help

[Davey-T]

Hi and welcome to SGL.

Expectations can be unrealistic depending on what you're expecting to see, nothing like those pretty pictures in magazines etc.

I think it's 900mm f/8 so good for viewing planets and the Moon

"Zooming" as you call it is achieved by changing the eyepieces, a 10mm eyepiece will give more magnification than a 25mm eyepiece, if you use your longest focal length eyepiece ( the one with the highest number ) to find something, Jupiter is well placed at the moment, then change to a shorter focal length eyepiece you will get a larger image.

They usually include something called Barlow lens, this inserted into the focuser before the eyepiece to get more magnification but there are limits to usable magnification with all telescopes, probably around 200 X with your scope.

Dave

[Sunshine]

Welcome, since you are so new to the hobby, i will try my best to help you, i do strongly encourage you to read the manual all the while using the internet as an aide to help you understand what you are reading.

A good beginners book on astronomy is a must "Turn left at Orion" is a great start, there is much to learn, but don't be discouraged or overwhelmed, all in baby steps as you go.

How about we start with your new scope, congratulations! you bought a reflecting telescope, meaning it uses a set of mirrors to collect light and brings it to focus at your eyepiece, i am not sure how many eyepieces your scope came with, but they determine your "zoom" or whats known as magnification of whatever object you are looking at.

Your eyepieces will have varying focal lengths, numbers like 9mm, 14mm, 25mm and so on, the smaller that number is the more magnification it will provide, always start by using your least powerful eyepiece to find objects, lets say your 25mm eyepiece, then you can switch to higher magnification afterwards. 

Lower power eyepieces will allow you to see a wider piece of sky, making it easier to spot things, also, the finderscope, that wee little telescope attached to your scope is for targeting and pointing your scope to small objects in the sky.

Using your finderscope is fairly easy, but first you should align it roughly during the day, point your scope at an object on land, just manually aim your scope at a general direction with features like houses and street lights, trees, cars, 

look through the scope and pick a target like a street light. Once you've chosen a target, then use the little screws that hold the little target scope to aim it at the same object you just saw in the main scope, adjust it so the cross hairs fall over the object, now your finder is aligned!

Later at night you will do the reverse, you will use your finder first, to select an object, then once you see it in the finder, your scope will also be aiming at the same object, you can fine tune it after with a star.

Try these steps out, familiarize yourself with your scope a bit more, use youtube to search for answers also, i can't overstate how useful youtube will be for you, try typing in "equatorial mount" in youtube (your type of mount) and you will be amazed.

[TheNoob star gazer]

okay thanks for the replys and as for reading the manuls i simply cant My  brother Gave me the telescope as a Gift ...and it was all set up by him we live in diffrent  towns an maybe see each other 1 or twice a month at the best ... and As  for eyepeaces it came with 4mm.. 3x barlow lens . and a 20mm erecting eyepeace.....and from what i saw with these eyepeaces not much i was wondering if i should invest in some better parts for the telescope ???

[Cornelius Varley]

This is a link to the Powerseeker EQ manual

[david_taurus83]

Hello and welcome.

 

What exactly did you see then with those eyepiece's? Are you sure you were in focus?

 

Have a look below at what you can expect to actually see through a telescope.

 

 

[TheNoob star gazer]

i saw the star thats right next too the moon ... and a few more stars after that .... it was pretty neat ... the first night i saw what seemed to be the moon it was a white line that keep going.. then after that i couldnt see it anymore ...  and what Eye peace should i be using to see more quality ???  Like the actul full moon would be nice too see this summer .. and im really confuesd on this Focus is It  the the one with all the numbers?? soory for all the questions just though it would be easy  the first time using a telescope ..

Edited June 23, 2018 by TheNoob star gazer

[xvariablestarx]

EQ (equatorial) mounts are hard for a beginner to work with; they require you knowing your latitude on the Globe etc.

The focusing knob should be beside where you put in your eyepieces. Start with the eyepiece with the highest number in millimeters on it (your 20mm), it is your lowest magnification eyepiece, then focus it on an object using the knobs. Also you may need to adjust your finder scope/ red dot finder so what the finder shows you pointing to, actually shows up in your eyepiece.

[TheNoob star gazer]

Thanks for telling me all this i really appreciat All of your guys help

[bluegoatwoods]

I'm a newbie also! So I don't have anything really solid for you.

But one of the guys above was certainly correct in saying that youtube can be very helpful to you. "Sky and Telescope", too.

For that matter, if you googled "How do I use a reflecting telescope?" you're liable to find useful blogs and such. I've already learned some great things that way.

Best of luck to you!

[carastro]

I used to own the same scope, it was my first telescope and I never forget the wonderful views it gave me, but I sold it in the end because I found a manual equatorial mount difficult to find things in the sky, but once found and focussed the views were amazing.

If you are seeing the moon as a white profile then you have found it but it isn't in focus.  while you are focussing it will shrink and at the same time the Earth is rotating, so if will be difficult to keep in the FOV.  Probably best to "fill" the field of view with the Moon while you slowing focus it.  

If you only have a 4mm eyepiece and an erecting eyepiece (presuming this is a diagonal), then you have a missing eye piece, you should definitely have a less powerful one such as around 20 - 25mm.  If you don't then this is the thing you should acquire as trying to use a 4mm eyepiece only will be far too difficult given the fact that you are a beginner and the mount is not tracking.  I would not attempt to lose the Barlow until you have had some success with using the (soon to be acquired) 25mm eyepiece.  

I would ask you brother for the manual and read it up, if its the same one I had it was very useful as it also explained the celestial sphere and taught me much about how the sky and telescopes work.   Also ask him if he has forgotten to give you the 25mm eyepiece, I can't believe this scope was sold with only a 4mm eyepiece. 

Carole 

[beka]

Hi TheNoob...

I also had a very similar scope (Firstscope 114 EQ) but then it had a better mount EQ2 and came with 10mm and 20mm eyepieces. The 20mm eyepiece that came with yours has a built in prism to provide an erect image. I also have experience with your particular model. Its a tough scope for a beginner but if you really persist you can see a lot. I purchased the Celestron eyepiece and filter kit that has eyepieces from 32mm to 4mm and a 2X barlow (The filters and barlow are not really useful). With these I manged to see the Great Red Spot of Jupiter, Saturn's rings (including the Cassini Division), polar ice caps on mars at opposition and more. The brighter Messier objects (The Messier Catalog is a listing of some deep sky object including clusters and Nebulas) can look very good with the lower power eyepieces. The problems are that at the higher powers the shaky mount will make focusing really hard and you may have to learn to collimate the mirror to get the sharpest views (Collimation is described in the manual which as mentioned above you can download). The finder is also quite bad (the red dot finder that came with the old model is much more usable). Because the mount is manual you will also learn your way around the sky well with this scope. I think if you want to make the most out of this scope you should purchase the eyepiece and filter accessory kit and a red dot finder. Then with a lot of patience and dedication you can squeeze the most out of the scope and decide how much you want to pursue astronomy as a hobby, as well as be well informed on the equipment you might want in future.

All the best!

[TheNoob star gazer]

i have some pictures i took of what too mee looks like the moon an last night i saw saturns rings  and Omg it was amazing  ill post them here they are not great cause i took them with my iphone 5s i plan on gettina an adatper soon  .. tell me what you guys think i should look at this coming up weekend thanks for everything 

Edited June 24, 2018 by TheNoob star gazer

[Rob frank]

Hi i am also a newbie to above powerseeker and was wondering why the finderscope showed objects upside down when looking into it, and also why i was only getting a partial view at an angle when looking into the celestron 20mm eyepiece provided,?

 

 

[Cornelius Varley]

5 hours ago, Rob frank said:

Hi i am also a newbie to above powerseeker and was wondering why the finderscope showed objects upside down when looking into it, and also why i was only getting a partial view at an angle when looking into the celestron 20mm eyepiece provided,?

 

 

The image in the finderscope is inverted because it is a refracting telescope. Refractors tend to give an inverted image. There are other types of refracting type finders that are corrected to give a image that is the right way up.
Unless you look through an eyepiece correctly (not at an angle) you tend to get what is called a "kidney bean effect". 

[DarkLane]

I´ve been playing around with the Powerseeker 114eq for a little bit as well and I´ve had some pretty good views come out of it. I´m at the stage where I think it needs a better finderscope and that´s on my list of improvements. I´d also like to get better eyepieces for it since the included ones are fairly basic.  For a long time i struggled with idea of using the eq mount but I found a good tutorial online from Michael Bernardo on how to use the Equatorial Mount it showed me how to better understand getting to the objects i wanted to see. Also, i gave up on using the circular settings on the mount as a way to find objects, the Powerseeker just doesn´t have the precision in that department. I mainly just use star maps to see where to go next. it can be difficult to find things with this telescope because of the lack of precision on the dials/knobs etc...