Why no clear view of moon with 10 mm lens? 20 mm lens I can get a clear view

[GBF]

I just just received a telescope and I have not been able to get a clear view with my 10 mm lens. I can get a clear view of the moon with the 20 mm lens. I have gone up and down with the focus nob and all I get is a white light?

[ONIKKINEN]

Can you elaborate on what you mean with "10mm lens". I will assume you mean 10mm eyepiece? As in the piece of plastic/metal/glass that you put into the telescope and then look through?

Could you tell us what the model of telescope is?

If all else fails it could be that the Moon is just too bright. With my 200mm aperture telescope the Moon is not observable AT ALL without specific light blocking filters.

 

So, what kind of telescope are you looking through? Aperture is the key factor here.

[Capt Slog]

As above, it's difficult to say without some details of what you're using.

At a rough guess I'd say you were missing the focus point as there isn't much detail to 'hit' at the moment.

[PEMS]

At a guess and it has to be a guess until a little more detail of the scope is known the 10mm eyepiece very likely not very good and it appears that these days the supplied eyepieces are basic, as in Kellners, and scope are fast. That combination generally does not give a good final result. There are a couple of small reflectors that are somewhat stupidly fast and if you have one I would suggest careful thought.

Probably need to consider some better eyepieces, again depends on the exact nature of the scope. Better eyepiece will cost $ and select carefully and avoid the urge of high magnifications.

One rather simple guide would be the get nothing in eyepiece focal length that is numerically less then the f number of the scope. Although I would say even that fails with the faster scopes that are put of these days. As you say California then maybe try the Paradigm range, in the US they are also the Agena ED's I think. Basically they are sold under 2 names. Perhaps the 8mm and 12mm. And oddly the 12mm may be the more useful for general overall use. An alternative may be the ES 52 degree eyepieces. I have no experience of the ES52's but they seem to get good reviews.

The Paradigms work well to f/5 and many say even a little faster. Mainly they are reported as "comfortable". A very useful property and often overlooked.

Any way, any firther information on scope etc would be useful.

[AstroMuni]

On 25/07/2021 at 19:09, Capt Slog said:

At a rough guess I'd say you were missing the focus point as there isn't much detail to 'hit' at the moment.

Thats sounds like the issue