My New Telescope wont work

[hummer50]

I just bought a Skywatcher Dobsonians 200mm/1200mm telescope. and it wont work.

I have already double check and make sure that the eyepiece and finderscope is in place, what i see in the finderscope can be seen in the main telescope and it is accurate already.

Allright, this is what I see when I get this telescope out to my backyard, when i point it to any star it just display the following junk image,

1) Situation one is I remove the front dust cap, and what I see is something below (blue color), and is the same image for every star!

http://img115.imageshack.us/img115/5139/shapeoz5.th.jpg (http://img115.imageshack.us/my.php?image=shapeoz5.jpg)

2) I put the dust cap back by opening a hole, and all I see is a blue dot for every star. I point to every star and that is what I see.

Please tell me what should I do?

[Kal]

You have refocused your telescope for the star?

[turbo_pascale]

Sounds like when you've done your "check" on a close object (fence, lightpost etc), you need to focus MUCH further away to get stars in focus.

Run the focus all the way from end to end until the stars come in to focus. Given you are seeing the secondary and the spider in your images, you are way out of focus.

Turbo

[hummer50]

Sorry but can you guys tell me how should I focus my telescope?

[janoskiss]

Where you put your eyepiece, that's your focuser. There are two knobs either side. Turn these till you reach focus. If your scope did not come with instruction manual, you can go to Skywatcher website: http://www.skywatchertelescope.net
look under support, where you will find a manual for your scope, which will explain all the basics.

[astronut]

Hi Hummer,
Here is an image of a typical focuser, after you have inserted the eyepiece rotate the wheels on either side, all the way in and back out.
When the stars are pinpoints of light you are focused.:thumbsup:

[hummer50]

Ya, the focuser yes. When I turn in and out, the image become a little more sharp and sometime become blur. I suppose that is working fine right? All the image I am getting from yesterday night is the image that I described below.

Oh yes, when I look at the sky, I just point my telescope to any star. As I don't know how to find any of our planet in our solar system except for the moon.

And also, how do I check my telescope if it is working correctly? There is no moon to see until the next Thursday, I cant wait until next Thursday!

[Jarrod]

you dont have to wait for the moon, the brighter planets are easy enough to find with a little guidence. you can download free astronomy software that will help you learn your way around the sky.

stellarium is very good free program that simulates the night sky so you can get a good idea of where things are... http://www.stellarium.org/

nebula and galaxies are also within reach of your telescope, but most are fairly dim and it can take a bit of practice to actually see these fainter objects... but when you're ready, stellarium will help you find these too.

welcome to IIS,

Jarrod :)

[hummer50]

Guys, when I try adjusting the telescope, is that normal when I look out a tree at 500 yards to be very very blur??

[turbo_pascale]

Try starting with the lowest power eyepiece you have (20mm, or a bigger number).

Then progressively start using higher power eyepieces. If you start too "zoomed" you will struggle for focus until you're a bit more experienced.

Turbo

[sheeny]

G'Day Hummer,

That is normal if you are out of focus, yes. But you should be able to focus on a tree 500m away (maybe even down to 30m or so).

Have you adjusted the focus as far as you can both in and out? It should be several to many turns on the focuser from one extreme to the other. How many turns does it take to go from full in to full out?

Some focusers have a locking screw to stop the focuser moving - (one of the two little screws underneath the focuser in astronut's photo above). If you can't move the focuser, or the knobs are hard to turn,or it doesn't move very far, have a look for some small screws (usually with knurled knobs or heads) that might be stopping the focuser from moving.

Al.

[hummer50]

OH YES! I get it work finally, when I look at a pole far away, and when i get my focus right, the pole look clear and sharp in my telescope. I suppose everything should be working ok now.

I cant wait till tonight. Just hope the sky will be clear tonight. Cant wait to see the star and planets. :rofl:

oh yes btw, is there anyway to upgrade my skywatcher dobsonians to computerized? If yes how much?

[turbo_pascale]

Look at that - upgrade fever and not even a star sighted yet.
I love this hobby!

Hummer, where are you located? I assume not in Australia?

Turbo

[hummer50]

sorry bout the late reply. im at perth, but only for temporary.

i actually get to see Saturn on Saturday night, it display small but you can see the ring. I tried to find Mars, but Im not sure whether im looking at the right thing or not as it only display a very small round ball with bright light shine between it.

Mayb my telescope too low spec to take a good look at its landscape.

[DJVege]

G'day mate,

With a 200mm scope, you'll be able to see lots of detail, depending on your "seeing" (atmospheric conditions). You won't see rocks on Mars, though, but neither would a 20" scope. ;) Have a look in the "Solar System" section, under "Images" to see some of the photos forum members have posted to get an idea.

I don't think english is your native language, so slow things down for a minute, andd do your best to answer all of these questions.

1) Where do you live? You said you are in Perth "temporarilly". If so, how long for? And where are you going after?

2) What eye pieces did you get with your telescope? If you look at your eye pieces, there might be some sort of number there. Ex. 25mm. In general, the higher the number on the eye piece, the less magnification, and the wider the view. A 9mm eye piece will give you a more MAGNIFIED view than a 25mm.

3) If you wanted to computerise your scope, I'd suggest an EQ-6 GO-TO, which you can pick up for around $2000, however I wouldn't recommend this for you just yet until you answer the above questions, and get used to your scope.

[hummer50]

>> I think my telescope sux, I have look up for Mars yesterday night and what I saw is just a ball of orange shining light. Dont look like a planet at all, look like a star. But Im pretty sure that is Mars. And I look up to Jupiter and Venus and I actually wait for them to come up at 5am, Jupiter look the same like Mars a small shining ball. And Venus is all a big shining ball. All of them have no details at all, and I tried to search for galaxy, I spent almost 3 hours out there and scroll through the whole night sky and see nothing but same old thousands of star with either orange light and white light.

And hey I know what im looking at as I download a probably call stellarium, if i get that name correct. And i know whats up there. Yesterday night there are a few galaxy out there. Maybe I just cant find it or my telescope cant see it.

>> Sorry if you doesnt understand my english, im not local. Im a student studying here, and probably after 2 years if I got my cerf after that ill probably head to Singapore and find a job there or find a opportunity to start my own business.

>> I got two, a 25mm and a 10mm.

[turbo_pascale]

Mars = orange ball - yep - that's about it.
Venus = white/blue ball - yep not much to see
Jupiter = well, that should have some detail and be quite a bit bigger than the mars image.

It seems to me you may still be having some focus issues. When you are on these objects are you running the focus right through it's travel? At one point it should get much better, then start to get worse. Then you know you've gone too far.

I would go for Saturn - it's unique shape will ensure you are looking at the right thing - you will clearly see the rings. If you don't, you're either pointing at the wrong thing, or there is something really wrong with the scope. I'd try to find someone in the local astronomy society and go to one of their events to see if you can get some one-on-one help.

The moon is starting to show now (you're going to have to use some software to determine your rise/set times), but that is something you really can't miss and will be easy to focus on.

[hummer50]

They say going to be full moon on Thursday. But I know looking at the moon is quite clear, can see the crater on the moon. What disappointed me is Jupiter, I though I can see the cloud moving through the planet. Maybe I just get used at looking at space documentary. :lol:

[edwardsdj]

It takes patience and experience to see a lot of detail on planets.

Jupiter is still going to be too low to get a really clear view. Saturn is the best placed planet at the moment.

As you get more experienced you will see more :)

[DJVege]

:) Quit stressing. Your scope is probably fine! A few things you need to check are:

1) Collimation - http://andysshotglass.com/Collimating.html
2) Focus - Make sure you are focusing till you get a sharp image through your Eye Piece.

There is quite a bit to learn about using a scope and finding stars/planets, and getting the most out of your views. A lot of it comes down to experience.




Your english is fine. We can understand it. But I just wanted to make sure you understood what everyone else was writing to you in this thread.



Use the 25mm first. Centre Mars in your eye piece. The put the 10mm eye piece in. If you have bad atmospheric conditions, you won't see too much detail. That being said, you'll see a lot more detail once you get some more experience.

[hummer50]

Thanks for giving me advice here, I appreciated it.


Can you give me advice on how to search for galaxy? The store who sold me this telescope told me that I can see galaxy with this telescope, and Im very eager to look another galaxy. I tried scrolling through the night sky but just cant find anything. I almost break my neck trying.


Yeap I understand every single word of it when I reading. But if talking, sometime I cant catch what local Australian are actually saying. Maybe I dont get used to Australian slang yet... But weird thing is when I watch hollywood movie I understand every word coming out of it. :lol:


Got it.

[DJVege]

Umm...finding galaxies is similar to looking for anything up in the sky. The only thing is, dark skies really help when galaxy hunting. My advice is to use forget about galaxies for now. Concentrate on learning the sky for now. Find stars, find constellations, find planets, find clusters. It may SOUND boring, but you will have fun doing so. And this really helps to learn the sky, which in turn will help you finding other stuff up there, including nebulae and galaxies.

Just remember you won't see bright colours and spirals that will fill your eye piece. They will look like longish smudges, but the more experience you get looking through an eye piece, the more you will see.

For now, you're still a n00b at using the scope, so keep playing around with it and trying to find the easy stuff. The rest will fall into place as you learn more. :)

Good luck!

[erick]

And get some good star charts or computer planetarium software. www.stellarium.org is used by several and was recommended earlier by Jarrod. Then you can look up galaxies that you read about on this site and work out where they should be in the sky compared to the constellations and stars. Yes, spend most time on the stars and constellations now, but sneak in an attempt to find M104 or the M65/M66 close pair. In dark skies, around midnight, either right now or when the Moon moves away in 2-3 weeks, the worst you can do is not find them. I didn't find M104 on my first few attempts with the telescope, but M65/M66 I accidentally stumbled across with binoculars! All these three should be easily seen when you find them (dark skies, no Moon and collimated scope, using your 25mm eyepiece).