Telescope Help

if you look down the main tube, at the secondary mirror, do you see your face (slightly distorted) looking back at you?

if you look down the drawtube without an eyepiece, do you see an image of your eye looking back at you?

I see my face yes, pretty clear while looking down, I also see my eye while looking the eye-piece, really annoyed with it all lol , even the person I brought it off hasn't give me any info like you have?

next set of tests. Eyepieces. Hold it in front of of your eye, about 30-40cm away from your eye, and look through it at something that is a little distance away (say 30cm+ away). Do you see a slightly distorted image and inverted? you should see quite clearly, though with a bit of symmetrical distortion, almost like you are viewing something through a drop of water. Sometimes fungus can grow on the glass.

If your eyepieces are clear, we come back to the focusing issue.

I see all clear with the eye-piece no problem at all , inverted also clear ect..

reply to post by Spares


then it must be focusing. take the telescope out in daylight, find something distant, and see if you can focus. Does the focuser have a focus-lock knob on it? Make sure you can turn the focuser all the way in and out. if you look through the eyepiece, whilst turning the focusing knob. you should see the object coming slowly into focus. if the image get sharper, but not totally in focus, when you have the focuser turned all the way out, loosen the lockscrew that holds your eyepiece in place, and slowly draw it further out.

how good is a 400MM Folcal Length telescope??....can we see the stars with that??


oh and is this a good buy??

www.ebay.in...

reply to post by Noobastronomer


The focal length of a telescope just determines its max. theoretical magnification. Not important at all. What is the most important, are the diameter of the primary mirror for a reflector. That determines the light-gathering of the telescope. Some small telescopes are nice for looking at the moon, or for very bright objects. But don't expect too much of them.

I had the celestron 130eq for a matter of days the whole unit was a joke imo, I ended up getting a refund on it, and purchased something that would not require collimation as i was finding it abit tricky on that scope.

I got the celestron nexstar 4se and have had no problems with it for the extra cash it was worth it to see crisp clear images with no need of collimation. A great grab and go scope, and AP has been a treat on it so far.