Can't see anything!

[Hillsdale]

Hi all, 

I'm brand new to stargazing. I've got a Skywatcher 14" GoTo Dobsonian. I was pretty sure I set everything up correctly, but clearly I haven't. I can see just fine through the finder scope. But when I look into the eyepiece, I don't see a thing. Just a solid blur. I'm pretty sure there must be something wrong with the mirror alignment, but I really don't know where to begin. Please help! Happy to send photos of anything that might help. 

[Pete Presland]

Hi, that is a superb sounding scope, with a very large aperture. 

I am guessing probably just out of focus. What focal length (size) eye piece are you using?

[xvariablestarx]

2 hours ago, Hillsdale said:

Hi all, 

I'm brand new to stargazing. I've got a Skywatcher 14" GoTo Dobsonian. I was pretty sure I set everything up correctly, but clearly I haven't. I can see just fine through the finder scope. But when I look into the eyepiece, I don't see a thing. Just a solid blur. I'm pretty sure there must be something wrong with the mirror alignment, but I really don't know where to begin. Please help! Happy to send photos of anything that might help. 

Take a picture of what you see down the drawtube/focuser of the telescope, without an eyepiece in it, and post here. that might help somebody figure out if your mirrors are misaligned.

[JOC]

2 hours ago, Hillsdale said:

I'm brand new to stargazing. I've got a Skywatcher 14" GoTo Dobsonian. I was pretty sure I set everything up correctly, but clearly I haven't. I can see just fine through the finder scope. But when I look into the eyepiece, I don't see a thing. Just a solid blur. I'm pretty sure there must be something wrong with the mirror alignment, but I really don't know where to begin. Please help! Happy to send photos of anything that might help. 

When you grab hold of the knobs at the bottom of the focuser tube and turn them does the focusser move up and down?  It needs to - much more than you might think - your focus point should be somewhere between the travel top and bottom.  If twisting the knobs doesn't move the focus tube up and down there might be a screw in the unit somewhere in the middle between the two knobs that fixes the focus - try loosening the screw and that should drive the focus tube up and down.  You also want to start out with the highest numbered eyepiece in the focus tube (i.e. 20mm not 10mm), in the appropriate adapter if there is one.  Also mess around during the day - pointing away from the sun and focus on a distant land object before you try at night (said object may be upside down/back to front, but this is OK - it just needs to be in focus)

Edited March 5, 2022 by JOC

[apaulo]

please post a pic of the setup, the focuser especially . sometimes people use the supplied extensions and stuff which are not always needed, i had a similar experience setting up the skywatcher 200p the first time.

[Mr Spock]

New to stargazing and you jumped straight in with a 14"  That's a steep learning curve.

Have you fitted the eyepiece holders correctly? Skywatcher provide several. A pic of your set up would help here.

I would then try waiting for the moon to be around. Aim the scope at that and try focussing. You should be able to get a sharp image.

[Hillsdale]

Wow, thank you everyone for the quick replies. Some responses: 

6 hours ago, JOC said:

When you grab hold of the knobs at the bottom of the focuser tube and turn them does the focusser move up and down?

Yes, the focuser does move up and down when I turn the knobs, but it makes no difference. All I see is a hazy blur. No sign of anything in the sky. 

7 hours ago, xvariablestarx said:

Take a picture of what you see down the drawtube/focuser of the telescope, without an eyepiece in it, and post here.

I've posted a photo. If I look straight into the focuser tube with no eyepiece, I see my own reflection, which I think suggests that the mirrors are working properly. 

3 hours ago, Mr Spock said:

Have you fitted the eyepiece holders correctly? Skywatcher provide several. A pic of your set up would help here.

I think this might be the issue, but no combination I try helps. The focuser tube is 2", but the supplied eyepieces are all 1.25", so Skywatcher provides an adapter. The adapter can go straight into the focuser tube, or there is another 2" piece that can go into the focuser tube and the 1.25" adapter can then go into that. Not sure what the right setup is. I'm using my largest diameter eyepiece (32mm), but I get the same view of nothingness no matter what eyepiece I use. I've attached a photo of all the pieces as well as the focuser tube. 

Thank you all for your help. Right now, the telescope is just a piece of furniture... hopefully you'll be able to guide me to actually seeing the night sky! 

[johninderby]

You use either the 1.25” adaptor or the 2” but not both together.

[Hillsdale]

So I've just been experimenting indoors to try to figure things out. If I stand about 6-8" away from the 32mm eyepiece, I can see a little circle that is clearly in focus. I can put my hand on top of the optical tube and see my hand through the eyepiece very clearly (yes, I know the scope is not meant to see things anywhere near that close, but I'm just trying to see if the setup is right). So I think the mirrors are fine and it's just a focus issue. The problem is when I get close to the eyepiece, it just loses all focus. Last night there were some very bright stars out (no moon, though), and no matter what eyepiece I used and no matter how much I turned the focuser knobs in either direction, all I got was blur. It didn't even look like I was seeing the sky, no sign of stars whatsoever. So I'm still at a loss, but at least I'm pretty sure it's not a mirror issue. Any ideas? 

[Budgie1]

As it's a flex tube, is the tube fully extended?

Make sure there's nothing preventing it reaching the correct stops or allowing it to go too far.

[JOC]

3 minutes ago, Budgie1 said:

As it's a flex tube, is the tube fully extended?

This is a good point, there are two stops on my flex tube, you pull it up, then you pull it up again until it is fully extended.

[Dark Vader]

Just use the adapter in the middle of the photo you took. Should look like this before the eyepiece goes in.

 



 

 

 

[Hillsdale]

5 minutes ago, Budgie1 said:

As it's a flex tube, is the tube fully extended?

Yes, I am fully extending it. I did notice that it has that first stop and then you need to extend further to full extension.

[Hillsdale]

For anyone interested in an update, I took the scope outside and followed several pieces of advice that you all gave. I was able to successfully align the finder scope and the eyepiece to a distant building and get it in focus through my 32mm eyepiece. So now I know the scope works, and if I have trouble seeing an object at night, it must be a focus or brightness issue. As I understand it, my 230p should be able to see some fairly distant objects, so it must just be fine tuning my focusing skills now. Any advice for some good first objects to try to find other than the moon? I'm in New York for spatial reference. Thanks again for all the assistance. 

[That Bear Guy]

14 hours ago, Hillsdale said:

For anyone interested in an update, I took the scope outside and followed several pieces of advice that you all gave. I was able to successfully align the finder scope and the eyepiece to a distant building and get it in focus through my 32mm eyepiece. So now I know the scope works, and if I have trouble seeing an object at night, it must be a focus or brightness issue. As I understand it, my 230p should be able to see some fairly distant objects, so it must just be fine tuning my focusing skills now. Any advice for some good first objects to try to find other than the moon? I'm in New York for spatial reference. Thanks again for all the assistance. 

so glad you are getting somewhere 

Thought it best to leave advice to the more experienced members of the group, but been reading with interest.  I just moved to a similar style focuser 2 days ago with my first dob and found that I had the focus lock on for around 20 minutes of my first light. I’d been desperately turning the wheel with nothing moving on the tube before I realised, kind of like driving stick and hitting the gas and the clutch at the same time. 🥴 I had the advantage of reading  a review of my scope advising to lock the stock eyepiece out a few millimetres to get the correct focal point of the larger lens - it’s a big learning curve.

these are my favourites as a newbie:

• M42 Orion Nebula
• M45 Pleiades
• M31 andromeda galaxy* 
• Mizar - second star on the “handle” of the Big Dipper which you should be able to resolve as a double with your 355mm diameter mirror 

* with the Goto aligned carefully you can get to this, but remember you’ll just see this as a “faint fuzzy” with averted vision depending on light pollution.
I tried to get it last night on my new scope but had a building in the way.  

Anyone else with greater experience please feel free to chime in as I could do with expanding my list too 😉

[Giles_B]

I came across a great resource on the web to help expand the list -

It's a website that will list the DSOs in your location according to magnitude - it classifies them into different types (Galaxies, Open Clusters etc.) - I've found it really helpful in planning viewing sessions:

https://telescopius.com/

See what you think.

Edited March 6, 2022 by Giles_B
typos

[That Bear Guy]

1 hour ago, Giles_B said:

I came across a great resource on the web to help expand the list -

It's a website that will list the DSOs in your location according to magnitude - it classifies them into different types (Galaxies, Open Clusters etc.) - I've found it really helpful in planning viewing sessions:

https://telescopius.com/

See what you think.

Amazing!

Many thanks

[Zermelo]

20 hours ago, Hillsdale said:

Any advice for some good first objects to try to find other than the moon?

As it happens, there was a thread from this time last year asking about ideas for planning observing sessions, so the recommendations will be relevant for you now: