Viewing & Imaging with Celestron Nexstar 130 SLT

[ellezo]

Hi everyone,

I recently was gifted a Celestron Nexstar 130 SLT which is my first telescope. I’ve been out every night since attempting to view planets, stars and the moon and have only been successful so far in viewing the moon clearly. Everything else seems very distant e.g. mars honestly looks like a small dot so I am confused as to why it isn’t bigger when using my telescope? It seems to be the exact same size as the naked eye can see. I also can’t work out the tracker, it was telling me a Star was the moon when it clearly was NOT the moon! I basically am manually moving the telescope to get objects in view at this point.

 

In addition to this, I have a Nikon D3400 and have attempted to take photos of the stars & planets that have been in view. My DSLR never displays anything bar a black screen although when removed, I can clearly see the planet / stars through a 25mm lens.

 

If anyone can help me in regards to focusing, tracking, seeing objects bigger than with the naked eye using a Celestron Nexstar 130 SLT as well as astrophotography with a Nikon D3400, I would be so grateful! 

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to read. Hopefully I can get into some proper viewing & photography soon!

[happy-kat]

Welcome

1 - The date format when setting up needs to be in American format.

This is a great thread on what can I expect to see.

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/196278-what-can-i-expect-to-see/

2 - Are you trying to get the camera to focus on your eyepeice image?

Or have you removed the lens from your camera and are trying to image with the telescope acting as a big lens?

If it is the latter then as fasik your camera will not reach focus as the focus point is too far in and you ran out of inward focus distance. You might find in the short term adding a barlow which will bring the focus point out will help.