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I can’t see anything with my telescope!!


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i’m fairly new to telescopes and i’ve assembled it properly but i can’t see anything through it. i’ve taken off the cover on one end but when i look through the eye piece it’s black but when i take out the eye piece and look through the whole i see an image but it’s very tiny.

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Hmmm. this seems to be a reflector with a 75 (?)mm mirror and f9 (focal length around 675mm)

With the H8 eyepiece this would give the lowest magnification. A good place to start.

When you look into the front of the tube (with the cover totally removed) you should see the mirror at the bottom of the tube and a small black circle close to the open end. The small circle is actually a small mirror which sits at 45 deg and diverts the light from the main mirror into your eyepiece. You should see your reflection in the main mirror.

When you look into the side of the tube (where you put the eyepieces) you should see the small secondary mirror and the reflection of the main mirror at the bottom of the tube.

Point the tube at a wall/ house/ tree some distance away and insert the 8mm eyepiece. Using the focuser move the eyepiece in and out slowly to find a focus.

If you can get to this point you're very close to being able to use it to view the heavens.

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Most simple thought is that the focus is well out. Put in whatever is the longest eyepiece, although reading the information it says 4mm and 8mm and I half suspect that both will be too short. The details would imply that the scope is "sold" on rather extreme ideas of magnification. If the 87x is based on the 8mm eyepiece then the focal length appears to be 700mm.

General optics would say that at 87x and an SR eyepiece that your field at the eye is around 0.5 degrees. You really need to get hold of something like a 25mm or 30 or 32mm plossl. That would give you a decently wide field of view. Makes getting things in your view immensly easier.

If the focal length is 700mm ( any chance of details, usually on the tube somewhere). Then my opinion is that only the 8mm eyepiece may be of real use. The 4mm is likely too much and the 3x barlow seems pointless.

Presuming the 8mm only then one possible idea is during the day aim the scope at something distant, big and distant, and adjust the scope to get whatever in view and adjust the focus. That is then approximately where the focuser needs to be set or used. Distant means a mile or two, not the house on the other side of the road. Remember that scope are intended for distances of light years not meters.

Will suggest a couple of additional eyepieces, simple plossls to keep cost down. Say 30mm, then say 15mm and 12mm. You will end up spending about the same on eyepieces as the scope cost. Any chance of you specifing the eyepiece diameter "size" ? Ask as there may be a chance that they are 0.965", not the normal 1.25". If the smaller diameter then locating additional ones will be difficult. The information in the link seems somewhat lacking.

Do not expect in general anything like the magnifications given. They are in general unrealistic.

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2 hours ago, siennax said:

i’m fairly new to telescopes and i’ve assembled it properly but i can’t see anything through it. i’ve taken off the cover on one end but when i look through the eye piece it’s black but when i take out the eye piece and look through the whole i see an image but it’s very tiny.


A couple of possibilities- from which end of the scope did you remove the cover?  You need to remove the cover from the end nearest the focuser where the eyepiece fits. Sometimes there’s a smaller circular section in the middle of the cover, but the whole cover must be removed.  Occasionally when others have been trying to look through my scope they’ve said they can’t see anything, the problem was they didn’t have their eye in the right place, it needs to be central on the eyepiece.

 

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3 hours ago, siennax said:

i’m fairly new to telescopes and i’ve assembled it properly but i can’t see anything through it. i’ve taken off the cover on one end but when i look through the eye piece it’s black but when i take out the eye piece and look through the whole i see an image but it’s very tiny.

After you watch the video that John posted you may want to watch this one on another important topic.   Telescopes that have mirrors need something called collimation, look into it after you figure out the basics of your telescope.  

 

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You may also have your expectations set a little high.  You state in the OP that you see an image but it is very tiny.  You may have been seduced by some coloured pictures on a box and expectations of descriptions of so many hundreds of time magnification giving you an expectation of far more than you will actually see.  Seeing a small image is exactly what you should see.  Don't use anything calling itself a Barlow, and only put in the eye piece with the highest number written on it.  i.e. use the X25 not the X8 (fill in the numbers you have and put in the one with the highest number which will give you the lowest easiest to focus magnification), then point it at moon at night or a distant object during the daytime (well away from the direction of the sun) and twiddle the focus knobs until it is in focus - even if it is still small.  It's a new scope I doubt it needs huge collimation.  

To modify your expectations read the first page of this thread or at the very least look at the photos and then realise that the actual views are still being taken by a telescope with more magnification than you probably have yourself.  I think then you might be more satisfied with what you can see.

FWIW from what I read on SGL I tend to think that the best expectation of some advertisements is to take the highest expected magnfication indicated and half it to get what is probably practical - thus your scope claims 175x/262x/525x so I wouldn't be inclined to expect any practical use beyond about 250 times magnification and that's probably pushing it.  FWIW I have a 8" telescope and I struggle much beyond 220 times on a night in really good conditions.

 

 

Edited by JOC
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