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Old 30-05-2010, 03:52 PM
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barx1963 (Malcolm)
Bright the hawk's flight

barx1963 is offline
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Mt Duneed Vic
Posts: 3,982
A few issues here.
Firstly, using the finder (or as you called it the line up scope). Have you aligned it? Best way to do this is take your scope outside in daylight (being careful to NEVER POINT IT ANYWHERE NEAR THE SUN!!!!!). Pick out something prominent and a fair distance away such as a TV aerial, chimney pot, tip of a tree etc. Put in you lowest power eyepiece without the barlow or the erecting EP, point the scope at that object and see if you can find it in the view. Rack the focus in and out to see if you can get focus.
Once that is done, centre one part of the object (I use the top of a neighbours chimney pot) in the field then look in you finder. Odds are it will be way out. There are probably 3 knobs on the finder which have to be adjusted until the object you see in your scope is in the field of the finder. Once that is done, it is now aligned.
Oh and one more thing, the finder will have to be focused, check if there ios a ring that you you turn to do this.

Secondly, in doing the above you will also confirm that you can reach focus, provided the object (aerial, tree whatever) is a fair distance away, say at least 100m. Provided the focuser is notr right at the end of its travel in one direction to reach focus, you should be able to reach focus when viewing at night.
Take your scope out on a reasonably clear night and point it an area with lots of stars. Have a look with the 30mm EP and see if you can get the stars to come to points. Remember, all stars will always appear as points. Provided you can do that, you will get focus. If you can't, the scope has very serious problems and should be taken back!

Thirdly, get the Barlow, the 1.5x and the 6mm, put them in a drawer and forget about them. The Barlow and 1.5x are usually very poor quality and simply put more poor quality glass in the way. The 10mm may be OK for some planets, use it VERY sparingly. The 30mm is the one you should use most.
Odds are the craters and lines are defects from the 1.5x EP.

Fourthly. Did the kit come with any instructions about collimation? If it did follow these. A scope this size doesn't need super precise collimation. I have a 130mm Newt that is pretty much the same if I do a rough alignment as per the instructions that came with it, or do a precise alignment the same as I would use on the 12".

Fifthly, don't get discouraged. Scopes such as these IMHO are not the ideal for a beginner, BUT you will be able to see something. Set yourself some easy targets, such as open clusters. @ of the best are very visible right now, The Jewell Box in Crux (NGC 4755) and the Southern Pleiades (IC 2603) Both are clear even in smallish binoculars. To find the Jewell box locate the Southern Cross, then Beta Crucis the which is the left end of the bar. Scan the area nearby and you wil pick up a small fuzzy patch. Once you examine it closer it consists of a triangle of about 5/6 stars with a nice red one in the middle. Hopefully you may also see some fainter stars grouped in the background.
To find the Southern Pleiades locate the "Diamond Cross" which is a nearly perfect diamond shape of prominent stars to the west of the Crux. Just near the star that id closest to Crux is a faint cluster that will look fantastic in a scope of your size.
Malcolm
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