nat geo 114 900 unusable

[Wasim60557445]

hi i have purchased a 114/900 nat geo telescope

 

and the find on it is useless so when i did manage to find the moon only the 25mm lens was working the other ones i could hardly see anything. the find scope is  rubbish

[Grotemobile]

I am afraid U have wasted all that money. All the blurb said it was very good. 

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-200p-dobsonian.html#

This is the type of thing that people go for. Double the price U paid , but U can get some 

serious use out of a scope like this. Just fit for the bin I am afraid.🙄😜

[Ships and Stars]

Nah, don't chuck it away! Make sure it's collimated. The mirror needs to be cooled down to the outside temperature, or higher magnification will be blurry. The included 25mm eyepieces tend to be a lot better than the 10mm. Lower power is also sharper. I'm sure it's fine for lunar, just make sure everything is adjusted/collimated/cooled down. And don't try too much magnification, lower power to start with. Maybe later try a better high power eyepiece like a BST starguider eyepiece, perhaps 12-15mm. Then if you want to upgrade you can use it on your next scope. The atmospheric conditions need to be right as well, no high cloud, and if the jetstream is overhead it can cause scintillation or that boiling look through the eyepiece. 

[Ships and Stars]

And you don't even really need a finderscope for the moon, just sight down the tube and then hunt around a little when you are close, just takes a little practice. The finder will show images upside down as well. A raci right angle correct image finderscope will run around £50-60 new. 

[Wasim60557445]

5 hours ago, Grotemobile said:

I am afraid U have wasted all that money. All the blurb said it was very good. 

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/dobsonians/skywatcher-skyliner-200p-dobsonian.html#

This is the type of thing that people go for. Double the price U paid , but U can get some 

serious use out of a scope like this. Just fit for the bin I am afraid.🙄😜

the one u mentioned is 289 mine is 135 brand new which i got for 80 from ebay ,so bit of a big jump in price mate

so my next one is gonna be those small ones which moves electronically if i keep this hobby up. i hate this big ones they look awful. 

[Wasim60557445]

5 hours ago, Ships and Stars said:

And you don't even really need a finderscope for the moon, just sight down the tube and then hunt around a little when you are close, just takes a little practice. The finder will show images upside down as well. A raci right angle correct image finderscope will run around £50-60 new. 

yeah mate il try that method if the scope doesnt work as i been calibrating the scope all day today. and think of upgrading.

why do i need a high power eyepiece like a BST starguider 12 to 15mm?

i mean i noticed my eye piece (25mm) has a tiny viewing hole and my eye lashes blurs the image.  i think my eye piece should have a bigger viewer.

[Ships and Stars]

53 minutes ago, Wasim60557445 said:

yeah mate il try that method if the scope doesnt work as i been calibrating the scope all day today. and think of upgrading.

why do i need a high power eyepiece like a BST starguider 12 to 15mm?

i mean i noticed my eye piece (25mm) has a tiny viewing hole and my eye lashes blurs the image.  i think my eye piece should have a bigger viewer.

I am assuming your scope came with 25mm and 10mm eyepieces, not sure what the 114/900 ships with. They probably won't be very good quality, a decent eyepiece that's not crazy expensive like the Starguiders are a good choice, says a 25mm and a 10-12 or 10-15mm for a bit more magnification when sky conditions are good. 

For wide angle eyepieces such as 68 degree on up to 100 degree the price can easily exceed what you paid for the scope, but have a look at the First Light Optics website to get a feel for what good eyepieces cost. You don't have to buy the really expensive ones, but generally the wider the field of view, the more expensive they are. 

I'd maybe get one decent BST eyepiece at the moment and make sure your scope is collimated - I use a laser collimator to align the secondary then a Cheshire collimation tool to make sure the primary mirror is properly adjusted.

Good luck! There are loads of guides out there on how to collimate, it's kind of hard to explain in a post, but lots of guides and videos out there if you are not sure how to do it. 

PS lots of people have the big Skywatcher dobsonians - they are excellent for the money and the looks might grow on you, lol, they will show more and more fainter nebula etc the bigger you go.

[Louis D]

2 hours ago, Wasim60557445 said:

the one u mentioned is 289 mine is 135 brand new which i got for 80 from ebay ,so bit of a big jump in price mate

 

9 hours ago, Wasim60557445 said:

the find on it is useless so when i did manage to find the moon only the 25mm lens was working the other ones i could hardly see anything. the find scope is  rubbish

Taken together, it is a bit of a fact in astronomy that small outlays often yield rubbish results.  It's like any hobby.  If you go low cost, the results are often highly non-gratifying because so many corners had to be cut to meet a certain price point.  Sometimes you get lucky and score a deal on a quality instrument because the seller was either highly motivated or didn't know what it was worth.  However, that is the exception rather than the norm.

[Jiggy 67]

23 minutes ago, Louis D said:

 

Taken together, it is a bit of a fact in astronomy that small outlays often yield rubbish results.  It's like any hobby.  If you go low cost, the results are often highly non-gratifying because so many corners had to be cut to meet a certain price point.  Sometimes you get lucky and score a deal on a quality instrument because the seller was either highly motivated or didn't know what it was worth.  However, that is the exception rather than the norm.

Agreed....unfortunately this is a hobby, more than any other, that lives up to the old adage “you get what you pay for”

[Ricochet]

Have you aligned the finder scope and the main telescope on a distant object during the day? Aligning the finderscope is the first step to being able to find things and if it isn't aligned properly you will struggle.

With respect to the eyepieces, the problem is that they are the cheapest type of eyepiece only sold with the cheapest telescopes. You can get eyepieces that have both a longer eye relief (so your eye and lashes are further from the lens) and a wider field of view. What you will have to decide is whether you are willing to pay more money for upgrades. On the plus side, any eyepieces you buy for this scope will be able to be used with another should you also upgrade telescope in the future.

[Neil H]

Hi I had that size of telescope they are not bad once set up right , the eyepieces are not good , so I upgraded on the advice of members on here and it made a difference to the telescope, later I upgraded the telescope to a 150/750 F5 fast telescope the better eyepieces came in to there own with the better scope , I then upgraded again to a 200/1200 Orion optics telescope and the eyepieces I still use on this telescope , so the out lay on the eyepieces was so worth it , so if you can go to the BST your not be wasting money and your be ready to later upgrade your telescope

 

 

[Wasim60557445]

On 02/04/2020 at 12:12, Neil H said:

Hi I had that size of telescope they are not bad once set up right , the eyepieces are not good , so I upgraded on the advice of members on here and it made a difference to the telescope, later I upgraded the telescope to a 150/750 F5 fast telescope the better eyepieces came in to there own with the better scope , I then upgraded again to a 200/1200 Orion optics telescope and the eyepieces I still use on this telescope , so the out lay on the eyepieces was so worth it , so if you can go to the BST your not be wasting money and your be ready to later upgrade your telescope

 

 

 

I don't understand what makes some telescopes so expensive because at the end of the day they are all the same they all just a tube with the mirror in it. The only thing that makes them expensive is the eyepiece

 

Edited April 3, 2020 by Wasim60557445

[Neil H]

Hi the mirrors make the telescope flat mirrors are cheaper than parabolic mirrors , but also what is the tube made from some are tin pricy ones are aluminium or carbon fibre , then you also have the mount some mounts are £1000s

Best value are dobs you get a lot of aperture for very little money , I went EQ mount as the tripod is more usable for me as a lot of my dark sites are not level ground , I got all my telescope second hand , the one I have now is an Orion Optics which has top class mirrors and a HEQ5 mount , cost new is £1400 I got it for £600 

So keep looking on this site on the for sale section , also look on astro buy and sell UK , if you see something your interested in add a link and the members on here will tell you if it's good or not 

But while your waiting sort out what you have and start to learn how to use it , lots of people start this hobby with binoculars you can see more than you think you will 

[Dave Lloyd]

2 hours ago, Wasim60557445 said:

 

I don't understand what makes some telescopes so expensive because at the end of the day they are all the same they all just a tube with the mirror in it. The only thing that makes them expensive is the eyepiece

 

Ferraris and Fiat Pandas both have a body with an engine in it. 

[Cornelius Varley]

2 hours ago, Wasim60557445 said:

 

I don't understand what makes some telescopes so expensive because at the end of the day they are all the same they all just a tube with the mirror in it. The only thing that makes them expensive is the eyepiece

 

Some telescopes are more expensive than others because of the materials used and the processes used to create the mirrors or lenses. Cheap telescopes tend to use cheaper materials (glass for mirror/lenses) and tube materials. Parabolic mirrors require to two stage grinding process to produce the parabola whereas spherical mirrors only require one stage, hence most cost. 

2 hours ago, Wasim60557445 said:

The only thing that makes them expensive is the eyepiece

Some eyepieces are very cheap, some very expensive.  The quality of the materials used determines the price.

[Louis D]

4 hours ago, Wasim60557445 said:

 

I don't understand what makes some telescopes so expensive because at the end of the day they are all the same they all just a tube with the mirror in it. The only thing that makes them expensive is the eyepiece

 

Mirrors can be very expensive when hand figured to the highest standards.  Teeter's 8" solid tube telescope pricing starts at $2300 with no mirror, $2625 with a GSO mirror, $3350 with a Lightholder Optics mirror, $3650 with a Zambuto Optical mirror in glass, and $3940 with a Zambuto Optical 20mm fused silica mirror.  So, that simple 8" mirror can cost anywhere from $325 for a commercial grade mirror in plate glass to $1640 for a premium hand figured mirror in fused silica.  Having compared GSO and Synta mirrors to Pegasus, Nova, Raycraft, and Zambuto mirrors on views of Jupiter, it's no contest.  The views are significantly sharper and low contrast details are easier to discern in the 1/16th to 1/20th wave mirrors compared to 1/4th to 1/6th wave mirrors.  For typical deep space objects, there isn't that much of a difference.  I don't know how much fused silica substrates help outside of extreme temperature conditions.

[Waldemar]

6 hours ago, Wasim60557445 said:

 

I don't understand what makes some telescopes so expensive because at the end of the day they are all the same they all just a tube with the mirror in it. The only thing that makes them expensive is the eyepiece

 

Not hindered by knowledge, everything looks simple.... Maybe you should educate yourself a bit before jumping to conclusions...

[johninderby]

The Orion Optics UK Optics page.You can pay a lot for the best quality

https://www.orionoptics.co.uk/OPTICS/optics.html

Their 1/10 p/v are excellent. Beware of cheaper optics that usea different rating system  that can make them sound better than they are. OO can make mirrors to 1/35 p/v but wasted on a regular scope and they normally only do that grade for military applications.

[Wasim60557445]

On 03/04/2020 at 15:32, Louis D said:

Mirrors can be very expensive when hand figured to the highest standards.  Teeter's 8" solid tube telescope pricing starts at $2300 with no mirror, $2625 with a GSO mirror, $3350 with a Lightholder Optics mirror, $3650 with a Zambuto Optical mirror in glass, and $3940 with a Zambuto Optical 20mm fused silica mirror.  So, that simple 8" mirror can cost anywhere from $325 for a commercial grade mirror in plate glass to $1640 for a premium hand figured mirror in fused silica.  Having compared GSO and Synta mirrors to Pegasus, Nova, Raycraft, and Zambuto mirrors on views of Jupiter, it's no contest.  The views are significantly sharper and low contrast details are easier to discern in the 1/16th to 1/20th wave mirrors compared to 1/4th to 1/6th wave mirrors.  For typical deep space objects, there isn't that much of a difference.  I don't know how much fused silica substrates help outside of extreme temperature conditions.

who in the right mind would waste their money on a telescope that expensive,its beyond imagination.

[johninderby]

If you think that”s expensive. 😁

https://www.dhinds.co.uk/products/planewave-cdk-24-telescope-optical-tube-assembly

[Wasim60557445]

3 minutes ago, johninderby said:

If you think that”s expensive. 😁

https://www.dhinds.co.uk/products/planewave-cdk-24-telescope-optical-tube-assembly

thats it youve done it , im out.

🙄

 

[Louis D]

2 hours ago, Wasim60557445 said:

who in the right mind would waste their money on a telescope that expensive,its beyond imagination.

Plenty, apparently.  His last production run sold out, but he decided not to continue doing full custom work despite the demand even at his high prices.  He may convert over to an Obsession Telescopes business model where he only makes identical telescopes production-line style.

[Neil H]

If you have money paying out £63k on a telescope would like me buying mine at £50 same with cars some drive £30k motors others drive £150k motor if you have the money it does not feel as your paying a lot 

Also think of the bragging rights your have with a £63k telescope

[RT65CB-SWL]

On 03/04/2020 at 11:10, Wasim60557445 said:

 

I don't understand what makes some telescopes so expensive because at the end of the day they are all the same they all just a tube with the mirror in it. The only thing that makes them expensive is the eyepiece

 

No! They are not all the same...

Some are made by a thing called a skilled human-being or craftsman and takes care and attention to detail, quality control, etc.

Others are made by a thing called a non-skilled or semi-skilled human-being on a production line in a factory/sweatshop. It is mass produced, does not care about attention detail, etc., with very little ...or maybe no quality control.

The bottom line is... Do you pay once for something to last your 'lifetime' and for others to enjoy it as well?
- or -
Do you buy something knowing it is a pile of crap/$#!t? ...and at the end of its 'lifetime' ...it ends up in a landfill site!

Edited April 5, 2020 by Philip R