Prepare to laugh

[Dazzio]

Right guys, I've been using my telescope as much as I can recently. Unfortunately for me, the best "clear" nights have happened when I was at work... typical eh? Anyhow, I am gonna show my complete noobish-ness by asking what I feel is a really stupid question but one I can not work out for myself, please be gentle with me and try not to laugh too much!!!!

I actually haven't set up my "view finder" scope on my telescope yet, I have been manually searching for stuff. Well on my first attempt I actually couldn't find the moon, until I realised everything was inverted in the scope (I never knew, but makes some sense). Anyhow I was bought a telescope from Argos so you can imagine what it is like, it wasn't the National Geographic one, thankfully. Anyhow, the "view finder" is basically like a child's toy telescope and the view out of it is just as shocking. One way I can make out a cross-hairs but sod all else, and the other way absolutely nothing at all. Now I'm going to use my powerful abilities of deduction and guess the cross-hairs way is the correct way it should be aligned. But do they need to be focused? Is the lenses the wrong way round? Am I just being stupid? It's starting to annoy me now because I am really looking forward to seeing something other than the moon or a bright white dot.

I hope I have placed this in the right section, but I couldn't find a section entitled "For Stupid people!"

Thanking in advanced for the help/rib digging

Dazz

[todd8137]

1, Focus your finder scope so that you can see toward the rear end of your telescope. To do this, loosen the locking ring by unscrewing it toward the bracket. Turn the front lens holder in and out to focus appropriately. Lock it in position with the ring once you gain the focus.

2,Choose an object at least 500 yards away from the main telescope and point the instrument at it. Adjust the telescope so that the object can be viewed at the center of your eyepiece.

3 Check if the object is at the center of the finder scope.

4,Use the two screws to align the object with the center of crosshair

hi aand welcome also thats the way a did mine

[MorningMajor]

Agree with Todd8137 - remember, what you're trying to do is make what you see in the centre of the finder scope appear in the centre of the EP on the scope so you can use the wide angle of view of the finder to "lock in" what you want to see through the scope itself

from one newbie to another - I hope this isn't the blind leading the blind - Good luck

[Demonperformer]

Dazzio,

Nothing to add to previous posts except to say that NO question is considered too stupid in this forum. We have all started where you are and you will get nothing but encouragement from the guys (& gals) here. People will be willing to laugh WITH you, but never AT you.

[NGC 1502]

People will be willing to laugh WITH you, but never AT you.

Very nicely said Cheers, Ed.

[themos]

Can you put up a picture of this finderscope? They should have some way of changing the focus. Cheap finderscopes are a curse that most beginners face. Some suppliers are starting to put red-dot finders on their beginner scopes and they make more sense.

[Dazzio]

Thank you guys for the help, I'm glad no one would laugh at me, but with me is cool. I bet you once I have figured this out I'll do a classic Homer Simpson "D'OH!" Thank you for the encouragement DemonPerformer and NGC 1502 I'm gonna try your suggestions today todd8137 and thank you for the help MorningMajor. themos, here is the finderscope, I hope it's a good enough picture.

Dazz

[Dazzio]

Sorry about the hair in the picture, I live with 2 Old English Sheepdogs, hairy little buggers they are.

Dazz

[John P]

Who broke the forum? :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

[themos]

Ok, the best thing you can do with that is throw it in the bin and shop around for a proper finderscope (provided you can mount it on your scope tube somehow).

[Dazzio]

I had a feeling you was going to say that, themos, thank you for the help tho. I have been looking at a red dot finder, but knowing the people around here, they'd think I was setting up an RPG if they ever saw it... ¬_¬

Dazz

[Jonobiwan]

Buy a red dot finder.........they're easy to mount and set up! You don't even have to spend a lot of money to buy a decent one. Mine cost about £18 and it's awesome, have a search for it, its a Baader Skysurfer III and comes will all the mounting stuff!

There's plenty of people on here that might be able to advise you on better ones too.

Good luck!

[themos]

OK, let's say you try to use it, the right hand side end screws in and out, right? That's how you focus. Point it at a far away pylon or something (1 mile away, say) and see if you can make the image clearer by turning the focus adjustment. You will probably noticing red and purple fringes on everything (because it's bad quality lens). Then you put it back in its holder and try to align it with the main scope.

[kentronix]

My old scope had a finder like that, it can indeed be improved greatly by replacing it but I lasted ages on that one once it was setup. I would say give it a go before chucking it.

As mentioned the main thing to remember is initially align it during daytime, then check it each time you put the scope up.

[acey]

Do you normally wear glasses? If so, try keeping them on when you look through the finder. I had a scope with a fixed-focus finder and could only use it with my glasses on.

Be aware that there are two things that ought to be in focus: the image and the cross-hairs. To focus the image you may need to unscrew and adjust the big end (objective - left end) and to focus the cross hairs you may need to do it with the small end (eyepiece - right end). Or it may be that you can't adjust things at all, without dismantling it.

If all else fails, take out the lenses and use it as a sight tube.

[Dazzio]

I'm gonna give it a shot for a little while, but I am looking at a red dot scope tho. Sounds simple and it looks hella cool.

Thanks for the help people, muchly appreciated. Unlike the constant cloud I've had here today

Dazz

acey, I do wear glasses, (short sighted, helps alot when you are trying to see planets and such... ¬_¬). But I can and do use the scope without them. I have been playing around with the finder and it does appear to be focusable (if that is a word?), but the image is not that great tbh. However, taking the lenses out is not actually a bad idea for the time being. Thank you

[themos]

acey, I don't think these cheap finderscopes have an objective adjustment, mine didn't...

[acey]

Themos - agreed, my old 30mm finder wasn't adjustable at either end, though my SkyWatcher has an adjustable objective. The latter is nice because now I can look through it without glasses - used to drive me mad taking them off and on when I went between finder and scope. Mind you, I still need to put them on occasionally to look at the sky.

Dazz - do persevere with the finder. Even if it's poor quality, all it needs to do is get you pointing at the right bit of sky.

[themos]

Oh yes, I've done that too, adjusting it for no-glasses, reading glasses, driving glasses...curses...