cant see anything

[cowybeast]

hi! I'm pretty new to astronomy and have recently gotten a celestron astromaster 130eq. I have everything set up but my main problem is whenever i want to look at something i can never see it like its invisible. i have used my finderscope and perfectly aligned the red dot with what i want to see but whenever i actually try to view it its not there. Any help is appreciated thanks.

[speckofdust]

hello and welcome to the astronomy world! Few obvious things to check first- is the dust cap off the main tube? secondly, is the finderscope aligned in line with the main telescope tube? if it is out of alignment even by a small amount, the views you get in the finderscope and main scope will be very different. You can check this by focussing the telescope at a bright big object like the moon and then see if the finderscope has that object at it's centre of view. If possible you can try this on distant ( at least 100 to 200 m away) terrestrial objects in the day time. and also it's worth checking that you have adjusted the position of  the eyepiece using the rotary focusser to bring the object into focus. BW

[DaveL59]

when you say you have the finder aligned, how did you achieve this, daytime on a distant target, hopefully?
If the object used was too close then in the night sky the RDF will be offset to the scope so you want something 500M or more away and then fine-tune on something like the moon.

When using the scope, which eyepiece are you trying? Best to start with the lowest magnification (highest number eyepiece, 25/20mm) and no barlow which should give you some stars and the view that confirms where you are vs where the finder thinks you are.

If you want more magnification then move to the lower numbered eyepiece (15/12/10mm) but you may find you are off target by enough that you won't see it any more, so re-centre if needed before switching. The object will move out of view a lot faster as you increase magnification.

Lastly, sorry to ask but a common one, is the end cap removed?

 

[gary756]

Am fairly new to this too. I found that if I aimed the tube at somthing prominent on top of the hill, so it was easier to determine weather I was pointing at the sky or not. Especially if the focus was way out.  Farm buildings or farm vehicles and try to centre it in my eyepeice. Then get your red dot finder on the same thing. It took quite a lot of effort as seemed that the screws were getting really tight. Don't be tempted to nudge into place. Its worth spending a bit of time getting it bang on. First time I did it it took a half hour to it right.  Also remember that what ever feature you choose it needs to be a good few hundred metres away.  Much much easier during the day. 

[John]

Hi and welcome to the forum ?

What were you trying to see ?

[DeathWarpedUp]

You need to articulate "anything". Point it at daytime sky can you see blue? or is it constantly black, wherever you point it (sky, neigbors house, trees ect?

Do you have a couple of eyepeices? If so use the one with the largest mm number written on the side.

Also in regards to aligning, what steps did you take, what object did you use to align it, sorry to ask a silly question but you know  you have to make sure the finder and the actual scope are pointing at the same thing right, and not just point the finder at something.

 

 

Edited July 9, 2020 by DeathWarpedUp