telescope image question

[daniejb]

Hi,

Ive had my 127mm reflector telescope for about 6 months now and ive never been able to successfully see i star with my highest magnification lenses on as the field of view is just far to small for me to find one with.

yesterday after looking at the full moon i decided to try my luck with my highest power lenses and for the first time i saw something. but it wasnt a star. heres a quick pic of what i could see
http://i12.tinypic.com/436ipfl.jpg
This is my diagonal mirror assembly, as if i was looking down the open end of my tube. Im completely confused as to how this is happening as ive never had any strange relfections whilst looking at the full moon no matter what magnification i use. if i use about 1/4 of my highest magnification i can see stars fine but once i get really close up on one this is all i see :S

[ving (David)]

it looks like it is way out of focus.... you are right in asying what it is. what you are seeing is the spider holding your secondary mirror (diagonal). what eyepiece is giving you this? you might not have enough focuser travel to focus the eyepiece.

[ving (David)]

oh, and welcome aboard

[iceman (Mike)]

What are the numbers on the side of the eyepieces? Which ones *can* you see stuff with, and which ones can't?

Can you post a picture of the scope + eyepieces?

btw aboard!

[daniejb]

The eyepice that is doing this is a 4mm huygens lens. ive heard that these huygens lenses arent that great so i guess maybe thats whats causing it.
I can see craters on the moon fine with it though, and car number plates from about 1k away.

my other 20mm and 12.5mm huygens lenses seem to work fine though.

[[1ponders] (Paul)]

and daniejb. I suspect that because the 4mm huygens has such a short eyerelief you are not able to get the lens of you camera close enough to get an image of the moon. If you put in a larger eyepiece and stand back from the eyepiece you will see the secondary and spider with your naked eye.

I would suggest using a barlow to increase the focal length of the telescope and a 20mm lens to shoot afocally through. Get that focus by eye, then use your camera to focus on the image in the eyepiece. If you can give a bit more detail of you scope and camera I can probable work out the distances and zooms that would be optimal for your scope and camera combination.