telescope query

[john willis]

gday,i live in rural australia and have just purchased a 10 inch skywatcher classic telescope.it has been seriously abused and i had to straighten the tube and respray inside.the mirrors were covered in grubby fingerprints.i cleaned them and they seemed in reasonable condition apart from small chip on edge of secondary mirror.my location is bortle class 3 and i can see milky way clearly.i downloaded stellarium to help find objects to view,i am sure i found omega centauri cluster but it was just a blurry white fuzz.do you think my telescope is stuffed or was i just expecting too much.apart from being able to see many more stars it doesnt seem much more impressive than naked eye viewing

 

 

[MarsG76]

1 hour ago, john willis said:

gday,i live in rural australia and have just purchased a 10 inch skywatcher classic telescope.it has been seriously abused and i had to straighten the tube and respray inside.the mirrors were covered in grubby fingerprints.i cleaned them and they seemed in reasonable condition apart from small chip on edge of secondary mirror.my location is bortle class 3 and i can see milky way clearly.i downloaded stellarium to help find objects to view,i am sure i found omega centauri cluster but it was just a blurry white fuzz.do you think my telescope is stuffed or was i just expecting too much.apart from being able to see many more stars it doesnt seem much more impressive than naked eye viewing

 

 

G'Day.... if it was just a fuzzy blurry and fuzzy than it most likely was not Omega Centauri... the is a awesome view in even a 4 or 5" telescope.. What magnification are you looking through it at??? Start with 50-60X than dont go over 120X as a beginner observer. Omega centauro only needs about 50X to be an amazing view.

I suspect that either you were looking at some faint nebula or your mirrors are severely out of collimation.... best way to test is to see how sharp the moon craters are during a crescent  or first quarter phase... than look at Acrux, and see if you can clearly see the triple system.... Look at Orion nebula and see if you can see the trapezium of starts at it center...
Believe me... when you see Omega centauri in your telescope eyepiece properly (especiall in Bortle 3 skies) you will not be able to stop yourself from saying "WOW"... and you should be able to see a great view even if your mirrors were abused, as long as they still reflect...

 

[MarsG76]

1 hour ago, john willis said:

gday,i live in rural australia and have just purchased a 10 inch skywatcher classic telescope.it has been seriously abused and i had to straighten the tube and respray inside.the mirrors were covered in grubby fingerprints.i cleaned them and they seemed in reasonable condition apart from small chip on edge of secondary mirror.my location is bortle class 3 and i can see milky way clearly.i downloaded stellarium to help find objects to view,i am sure i found omega centauri cluster but it was just a blurry white fuzz.do you think my telescope is stuffed or was i just expecting too much.apart from being able to see many more stars it doesnt seem much more impressive than naked eye viewing

 

 

Oh, and welcome to SGL....

[NGC 1502]

Welcome to SGL!

There’s several reasons for poor views with your scope-

Collimation- alignment of the mirrors.  Not in precise focus, stars should appear as tiny points. Cooldown- applies especially to mid to high power viewing.  Possibility of viewing a galaxy which will always look like a fuzzy blob.

Bortle 3….I’m not envious, I’m VERY ENVIOUS INDEED😊

 

[john willis]

thankyou for response,ishould have said that the collimation screws arent working too good but i finally managed to line it up with a laser,i am using the eyepieces that came with it,10mm and 25mm plossl.the moon is not in the night sky yet,but if i find the scope is ok,what would be the best budgetfriendly setup i could get.i am a pensioner so cant spend gazillions.my dream when i bought it was to see things like galaxies and clusters in good detail.i should say that if it wasnt for nearby powerstation and lots of gas drilling we would be in a class 1 area

[Cosmic Geoff]

A 10" reflector should give great views in Bortle 3 skies if working properly.  You have two eyepieces. You have not mentioned the mount (I assume it has one?) or the finder scope - you need one and it has to be lined up with the main scope - best done in daylight.

You don't need anything else to get going.  

[bosun21]

I would wager that the collimation is out. The collimation can still be out even after using a laser collimator. The secondary mirror is difficult to align correctly with a laser. Can you take a photo while pointing your camera down your focuser? Try and position your camera/phone central in the focuser tube. This will give us an indication of their alignment. Also a photo of the scope itself will show whether any extension piece is superfluous or missing from your focuser. 

[Albir phil]

Hi from  Spain your scope is a good size and you got great sky , mine is bottle 5\6. However I don't know how much experience you have with a telescope or what you are expecting the views to be like.No views with a scope ever Mach that taken with a camera attached to a scope ie most galaxy are colourless.However Astro imaging is another story . Good luck and I've always wanted to see the sky from Australia,maybe one day .🤔

[Gonariu]

Welcome John, Australia must be beautiful as well as having a great sky!!!

[Earl]

can you provide a photo of the chipped secondary?

[barkis]

Just a thought here, If you are adjusting collimation screws, be careful you don't lift the mirror too far, as you will
probably  have retaining tabs fitted that prevent the mirror tipping out of it's cell.  If too much pressure is put on 
the mirror, it can suffer some distortion that would drasticly affect  your imagery.
Worth mentioning, although  collimation usually calls for only minute adjustments.

Welcome to SGL john.

Ron.

 

 

 

[Spile]

I’d recommend centring the secondary mirror under the focuser using a Cheshire eyepiece and sight tube combination tool. Even a cap will get you close.

[Guest]

Has the laser been collimated?  It needs to be squared away properly before you can collimate the scope. 

[bosun21]

How old is the scope? If you place a torch behind the mirror can see any light from it when you look down the scope? This is to check the coating on the primary mirror. It’s just with you saying it needed repainting etc.

[Cornelius Varley]

At this point it might be worth mentioning that the OP hasn't visited SGL since March 26, so might you might be talking to yourselves.

[PeterStudz]

57 minutes ago, Cornelius Varley said:

At this point it might be worth mentioning that the OP hasn't visited SGL since March 26, so might you might be talking to yourselves.

This is true and certainly a comment worth making. However, I’ve found and followed discussions like this without myself making a comment and found them very useful. Eg @bosun21 torch suggestion is one I’ve previously discovered on this site and used myself. It’s just one of the things that makes this site so useful and why I keep coming back.