Dumb question re' inverted images

[jamesbrumuk]

Hi

A friend recently bought me a telescope from a car boot.. a jessops F700-80 type.

I've set it up - I think properly - but the terrestrial images are all upside down...

I know that's the natural state and that you need to look through the erecting eyepiece... but i thought that was the one that was in the finderscope eyepiece by default???

Am i being really thick? Or is there another eyepiece needed?

Pleae help!!!!

:-/

[crovax]

I am a newbie so may be I am wrong but both finderscope and telescope images are normally upside down. And you need to buy some lens (or may even several lenses) that fix that. I am sorry but I don't have any idea how those lenses are called. As far as I know those things are not included by default and you need to buy them separately. However I don't think it's something that needs fixing. Last weekend I found Saturn. It looked quite nice and switching it upside-down really wouldn't fix anything. However the inverting finderscope is a bit problematic but I am almost used to it

[jamesbrumuk]

hi there! and thank you!

I've looked through it at night and it's great, and I don't notice the upside down thing at all! It's just that if i want to use it outside during the day to look at birds or whatever, it'd be nice to see them the right way up!

[Wobbly Bob]

Hiya James, you would need an Erecting Prism for the scope and as for the finder, remove it and replace with a RED DOT FINDER. That should sort you out.

[jamesbrumuk]

thanks for that!

I shall get one! Are they standard sized things i wonder?

Or will it have to be specific for the model of my scope?

[kniclander]

your scope most likely takes 1.25" eyepieces so any 1.25" erecting prism would fit. 1.25" is the standard size in astro. (some very cheap/ or very old stuff uses 0.965 inch eyepieces and some new and more expensive stuff uses 2")

[The Warthog]

An erecting prism is usually a 45º diagonal, and comfortable to use. It also eases the strain of looking through the scope by providing a better angle. You can put a 90º diagonal in it, and use it for both terrestrial viewing and astronomy, as it eases viewing when the scope is at a high angle. The only caveat is the view is reversed left to right, but that isn't hard to get used to.

You can get a mathcing viewfinder with a 90º diagonal, but they are not cheap. The red dot finder is a good choice, and what I use on my refractor. They usually fit the finder shoe on the scope. I don't use an optical finder on my refractor, as I use it for planets and the moon, which are bright objects. If you are going to use yours for DSOs as well, you might consider having both finders on your scope, as I do on my Newt.