New girl who cant use a telescope apparently

[Astral]

New girl *waves*

Hello all, I have been a bare eye star gazer for years but last weekend took the plunge and bought a modest telescope (A celestron powerseeker 127 EQ) for £79

I have got it home and assembled it but I cannot for the life of me get it to focus. So as a complete amatuar I decided the best thing to do would be visit a site such as this and get to know a bit about telescopes and star gazing! Hopfully I learn how to use the blumming thing.

Wishing you all well!

Astral

[kniclander]

what are you trying to focus on? to start with, use the biggest eyepiece (as that will have the lowest magnification and be easiest to focus). Also, there will be a lot of travel in the focusser (ie you can wind it a long way in and out). if that doesn't work, dunno? if it is a refractor, it may need a diagonal or extension tube to reach focus (but I would have thought a cheapy one would come with all the bits?)

[Astral]

I did ask before I bought it, would this telescope have everything I'd need to unpack set up and get started and they guy said yes. I was trying to get a clear picture of the big dippers brightest start (Not sure on the name) But nothing but blurr.

I'm going to wait till I have a clear view of the moon and point it at that. I was using the largest eyepiece. (20X) plus a X3 barrel thing thats supposed to enhance the imaje... But I have three other eye peices and even after trying all of them still nowt...

[astromerlin]

Hi Astral, My advice is to use the largest eyepiece you have and either point the scope at the moon and try to focus or during the day try focusing on something distant like a tree or a building just until you get use to where the focus position is.

Even though I probably dont need to say it, Never point the telescope even near the direction of the sun let alone at it.

Cheers

John

[Astral]

I wouldn't be doing that unless I had a decent solar filter!

It is something I'd like to do at some point though but I doubt this telescope could take iteven with a filter.

I just hope I haven't been sold a duff...

[astromerlin]

Hi, The x3 barrel thing is called a barlow lens. this is used to magnify the image so being x3 the image would be 3 times larger. Being a telescope beginner I would not recommend you use that till you have mastered the basics. Just use the 20mm lens first and once you have gain confidence, use smaller lenses.

When I want to look at something the method is to find the target with a large lense and once centered in the field of view (FOV) I then progress to smaller lenses to magnify the image.

Cheers

John

[Roy]

Hi Astral

Welcome to SGL

[Ferox]

Welcome to SGL Astral.

[themos]

Try it during the day with the 20mm eyepiece. Rack the focuser all the way in and point it at a distant feature with lots of contrast (pylons, chimneys, brick walls). Keep an eye on the image as you take the focuser slowly all the way out. If the contrast in the view does not change, point it somewhere else. You should be able to find the focus point for a distant object. Mark that point on the focuser tube and when it's dark, point it at a star and start from that point and work slowly inwards. Close things focus far and far things focus close. It helps if you align your finderscope with your main scope but you can't do that yet if you can't find focus on the main scope.

[ron.s.g]

Hi Astral and welcome,

dont use the 3x barlow only the largest numbered eyepiece to start with,

if you can find objects like the moon first and get the scope to focus then you can start increasing from there,

as mentioned turn the focus all the way in both directions to get a focus first then work from there.

regards ron.s.g

[661-pete]

Hi Astral.

[The 127eq is a Newtonian, for those who didn't know or didn't check ]

Try the advice the others have given. It's possible that the 'scope is badly out of collimation, especially if you had it mailed rather than collected it from the shop. This is a pain, especially for a beginner, because collimation is not the easiest of tasks for a newbie, but all is not lost! For starters, try removing the eyepiece and just look into the focusser (the tube where the eyepiece goes), in daylight with the tube cap off (the telescope doesn't need to be pointed at anything and you can do this indoors). You should see a series of concentric circles with your eye in the middle of it all: these are the reflections of the various bits in the mirrors. If the circles look way out of line (or if you can't see your eye at all) put a post up here describing what you see, I'm sure we'll be able to help. But I hope that's not the problem!

Oh and another thing, pardon me for stating the obvious! The 'largest' eyepiece means the one with the largest focal length, this will be written on the side of the eyepiece as e.g. "25mm". It is not necessarily the largest in physical size! (my 9mm is a lot bigger physically than my 25).

[glowjet]

Hi Astral,

A warm welcome to SGL, you are having problems at the moment and some sound advice already given, do not despair keep at it and enjoy the forum.

John.

[Astro_Baby]

Hi from me too - dont be afraid to ask questions we'll all try and help you out.

[Astral]

Thats awsome guys what a helpful bunch you are. No nasty newbie comments like some forums telling me to bog off and read the archives!

Im planningon getting it out again tonight providing the weather gives. I will try all of your very good advice!

[michigander]

Welcome to SGL, Astral! Don't give up!

Dana

[Astro_Baby]

Let us know how you get on

[trudie]

HI astral,

A warm welcome to another lady member, your posts were like deja vu, thats just how i was when I got my first scope, it does get easier, I promise.

Good Luck but i'm sure you won't need it.

[Starjumper]

Hi Astral,

Welcome to SGL.

John

[Helen]

Welcome Astral!! This place is a great place for getting help in solving problems (whether you are new to all this or more experienced). But we particularly love helping new people find their way in this great (if sometimes challenging and frustrating) hobby!

Helen

[Ant]

Welcome to SGL.

The advice given is exactly what I'd have said.

Point the scope at something 50(ish) feet away. Put in the lowest power (the eyepeice with the largest number, usually a 20 or 25mm).

Then focus, start all the way in and gradually turn the focuser so the eyepeice moves out (or vice versa).

At some point whatever you're looking at will come to focus - this won't help much in getting the focus point for stars etc - but will let you align the focuser.

Aligning the focuser will help so much.

Then find something further away - as far as you can get. "Find it" in the finder and then look through the eyepeice - with any luck you'll see an out of focus something - turning the focuser will either make it better or worse. Obviously turn it so it's better.

When it gets dark you will, hopefully, be 90% the way there - with only a small tweak to get the star in focus.

Bit long winded, but I hope it helps.

Ant

[dark knight]

Hi and welcome to SGL, I've just looked up your scope and got different details from 2 sites one says it comes with a 4mm eyepiece and 3x barlow. If this is correct then the following applies.

The 4mm eyepiece will give 250x magnification on its own...

The max usable magnification for your scope is aperture in inches x 50. therefore yours is 5" x 50 = 250x.

Using the 3x barlow with the 4mm eyepiece would give 750x magnification!!!!!! which is way beyond the useful magnification for your telescope.

The second site says a 40mm and 20mm. these give 25x and 50x on their own and 75x and 150x when coupled with the 3x barlow which should be ok.

If you can confirm the eyepieces I will redo the calcs for you, but I wonder if there is a 4mm eyepiece in there which when coupled with the 3x barlow makes it impossible to get focus.

[Talitha]

Hi and welcome to SGL, Astral. The only thing I can add is to focus v-e-r-y slowly.

Sometimes you can scoot right past the sweet spot without realizing it.

[Astral]

The eye pieces have SR4, 20K, and H12 plus the barlow :S

[themos]

The 4 is a Ramsden design, the 20 a Kellner and the 12 a Huygens.

Try to use the 20 and a Barlow, if needed.

[Doc]

Hi Astral welcome to SGL.

Fantastic advice and keep us informed of the outcome.