I'm a complete and utter newbie to telescopes - I've always looked up at the night sky when I've gone camping and thought it would be cool to get a telescope so I've finally bitten the bullet and bought a cheapie just to give it a shot.
The postman dropped off my telescope last night - a 6" newtonian (f=750mm, ET-8 mount, chinese knock-off) from ebay - so I bolted it all together and decided to give it a whirl ... after a bit of mucking around I managed to get the moon in focus and gave all the various lenses a go.
Suitably impressed, I pointed it to the brightest star in the sky (i have a feeling it was Venus, but I really have no idea what im doing just yet). After 15 minutes of trying to get it in focus I gave up. The best I could get was a round white blur.
So i'm curious - was my blurry planet due to the fact I was using my telescope in my backyard (in the middle of 'bright' suburbia)?
Just guessing here - the brightest "star" was probably Jupiter. If you can focus on the Moon, that should be much the same focus position as the stars (and Jupiter).
Focus up again on the Moon - especially on the edge, then move to a not so bright star this time - sort of moderate. Does that seem to be a pinpoint of light? If you adjust the focus, does it come in and out of focus? What are the focal lengths of the eyepieces you are using?
Would you post the link to the site with details of the scope so we can look at the specifications? 6" 750mm fl - I suspect it has an inbuilt barlow lens which affects how it performs and on collimation.
What size eyepiece was in the focuser, it should have a mm reading on it.
Sometimes the focuser is loose on cheaper scopes, and when you turn the knobs it doesn't move very much - you could tighten it - watch it to see it moves up & down when you turn the focus knob
Equatorial mount with setting circle for the ease of locating a sky object
Slow motion controls on R.A. and Dec. Axes
Counterweight with counterweight shaft
Standard 1.25” accessories include: PL6.5mm, PL25mm
Eyepiece 1:6.5mm …… 115X Magnification
Eyepiece 1:25mm …… 30X Magnification
2X Barlow lens
1.5X Erecting Eyepiece
Aluminium tripod with slow motion control rod for easy vertical micro adjustment
One moon filter is provided to remove the glare and sharpen surface details
Base Dimension: 160 x 160 cm
Weight: 18kg
Max Height: 160cm
Note: This is a reflecting telescope. View will be up-side-down.
I was probably a bit trigger happy with the focus (along with all the other knobs and dials!) - my boss at work only just clued me in this morning to the fact that once I've focused on the moon I shouldnt really need to touch it again when looking at other objects. I'll probably give it another shot before dinner tonight
OK, 150mm mirror, f5 750mm fl - good news - no inbuilt barlow lens. Should be easy to collimate when you need to.
Your star was maybe Vega, perhaps Altair. But not a good idea to look with something low to the horizon to focus and adjust - think of all that horrible moving air you are looking through, disrupting the light coming to your scope! Go with something higher in the sky.
Look at at about 40 deg above the horizon, to the east about 8pm. Look at the brightest object in the sky there, not too far from the Moon. Jupiter!
To look at some stars, turn to a bit west of south and look at the Southern Cross stars - up at about 50 deg above the horizon, they will be better to practice your focus on. Try the uppermost of the two pointer stars when you have the scope well focussed on other stars - with the 6.5mm eyepiece when you get the star centred.
Hi
Good advice from Eric. However Venus can be seen low in the NE about 7.00 pmish and, being so low to the horizon, probably would look like a rounded blur.
Cheers
Ian
Venus would be north-west at 7pm, rather than north-east? Venus - that's what I first thought, but north-east? Actually Stellarium shows the Sun hardly set in Perth by 7pm - under those conditions one wouldn't spot Venus naked eye, I imagine. (Or do I have it all wrong - oops, I think I do - Stellarium is funny like that - change location but the time doesn't change with it! OK, all my times are 2 hours out, I think - for 8pm read 6pm etc! )
Collimnation hey? Hmm you might have a point there ... second attempt proved fruitless tonight ... pointed it at the brightest star in the sky, slowly combining my lenses to increase magnification - but still looks like a round white blob close up... so pointed my scope at the second brightest star, and well, that just looked like a bright white dot at maximum magnification. *grumble* *grumble*. Still, I guess you get what you pay for (ebay scope!). Looks like I have a bit of reading up to do!
Unless there is something dramatically wrong with the mirrors, you should be able to knock it into performing better. Yes, read up on collimation and try that.
Now stars will mostly look like white (or a different colour) point of light. But many are multiple stars close together so if you get the magnification up, you may see two or three dots!
Go back to the Moon and spend time there trying to get the best view of the details. You need good collimation for that as well so that may be the best object to experiment on.
Venus would be north-west at 7pm, rather than north-east? Venus - that's what I first thought, but north-east? Actually Stellarium shows the Sun hardly set in Perth by 7pm - under those conditions one wouldn't spot Venus naked eye, I imagine. (Or do I have it all wrong - oops, I think I do - Stellarium is funny like that - change location but the time doesn't change with it! OK, all my times are 2 hours out, I think - for 8pm read 6pm etc! )
No wonder I can't achieve good polar alignment if I can't even tell NW from NE!!
... pointed it at the brightest star in the sky, slowly combining my lenses to increase magnification - but still looks like a round white blob close up... so pointed my scope at the second brightest star, and well, that just looked like a bright white dot at maximum magnification. *grumble* *grumble*.
Yeah collimation might be needed, but I still suspect your first target was a planet.
You said the second brightest thing did focus to a dot, and thats pretty much all you'll see of a star, unless as erick mentioned it's a multiple and then you'll see two or three dots.
You mentioned the Moon came to focus, was it sharp(high contrast) or still a little blury? Have a look at craters etc along the terminator(border of light/dark side of moon) where there are long shadows for best effect.
If it's sharp along the Moons terminator, then start hunting for planets at the same focus setting with the same Eyepiece, ie, dont change anything except where you're pointing, if you change eyepieces you will more than likely have to re-focus.
Shoot for Saturn because it's so easily identifiable, how does it look? Blury? Can you see sharp dark gaps at the sides between the body and the rings?
If not, and you have tried adjusting the focus a little in and out on Saturn from the Moon's focus setting, then go for collimation.
Also try going to a club meet where you can have a look thru a few club members scopes, take your scope along too so you can get some feedback on its performance and maybe try a few different eyepieces.
if you look at a star you arent going to get any detail. it will just be a blob or dot no matter how much magnification you give it. planets are different tho. you should get a disc and in the case of jupiter some surface features.
please dont expect anthing other than a blob out of a star unless its out own blob... i mean star (the sun or sol) in which case you need a solar filter to view it or you will damage your eyesight.
....
and in the case of jupiter some surface features.
Speaking of Jupiter, It's just below and to the left of the Moon tonight at about the 7 o'clock position....... at about 7 o'clock tonight
Makes it pretty easy to find.
Venus would be north-west at 7pm, rather than north-east? Venus - that's what I first thought, but north-east? Actually Stellarium shows the Sun hardly set in Perth by 7pm - under those conditions one wouldn't spot Venus naked eye, I imagine. (Or do I have it all wrong - oops, I think I do - Stellarium is funny like that - change location but the time doesn't change with it! OK, all my times are 2 hours out, I think - for 8pm read 6pm etc! )
Hi Eric
We can see Venus from here with naked eye, not from my obs though so I can't view it with a scope.
)
to IIS 
