Unable to view through telescope

New telescope users are taken by surprise at the difficulty of just pointing the telescope in the right direction to see anything. The field of view is quite limited, especially if you are using a high power eyepiece. The higher the power of eyepiece on a telescope, the dimmer the image, the more difficult to aim it at any chosen object, and the more difficult to focus. When the scope is not focussed, even if there are stars in the field of view, they will only be faint blurs.

It is best when you are starting out with a telescope to try it with the least powerful eyepiece (the one with the highest number) to begin with, until you become more familiar with how it works. Do NOT use the Barlow lens if one came with the scope.

The finder scope is meant to help you get the main scope lined up on the object you want to view, but it won't be any use in pointing the telescope until you adjust it to precisely line up with the main scope. Telescope manuals recommend that you do this in daylight, by pointing the scope at an object on the horizon and adjusting the finder to match (never point a telescope toward the Sun!). Once you have a tree or mountain peak in the center of the main scope's image, you can then adjust the screws around the finder scope to get the crosshairs (or red dot) centered on the same object. It is very difficult to do this job in the dark, especially as objects in the sky are constantly on the move.

You will find that there is a very wide range of movement in the focus mechanism, because different eyepieces focus at different points, but the actual focus range for any eyepiece will be a small part of the overall range afforded by the focusing mount. It is much easier to familiarise yourself with this in daylight.

At this point you will learn that astronomical telescopes usually show an upside down image. There is a good reason for this- erecting the image needs more bits of glass in the light path, which reduces the amount of light and increases aberrations. Even if this is only slight, astronomers prefer to avoid it, and they don't really care which way up the Moon or Jupiter appear. It is possible to fit an erecting prism or eyepiece to most astronomical telescopes, and some of them come with one, but one wouldn't bother to do this with the small finder scope.

Once you have done the above, you can try the scope at night, on an easy to find bright object like the Moon. Looking at random stars will probably be disappointing, as they don't look different under magnification. You will have to find planets, star clusters or nebula to see anything interesting. You will also find the the object you are looking at swims out of the viewing field, and you must continually move the scope to follow it. This will be more pronounced at higher magnifications. Again, use the least powerful eyepiece. Small scopes are often advertised as having unrealistic powers (300, 500) which can never be practically achieved. You just get dim blurs.

There is an excellent website for beginner telescope users at THIS LINK

Verify that the mirrors are aligned; look through the eyepiece holder (without an eyepiece) and you should see the main mirror with your eye looking back from the center. Ensure that there are no filters on the eyepiece, and use the lowest power one to begin (longest focal length).

Take off any eyepieces and or any other obstructing parts and look through the tube. Do you see day light?

Then look at each eyepiece and see if you can see light through it.

You cannot use high power in those small telescopes. Only use the eyepiece with the largest number written on it.

I know the box said 600 power--- it was a complete LIE! The maximum magnification is 50 times aperture. You probably have something like a 2 inch lens. So 100 power is the maximum usable power.

Next time buy a telescope similar to this one:
http://www.telescope.com/control/product/~category_id=dobsonians/~pcategory=dobsonians/~product_id=08942

The focuser and eyepiece are POINTED UP toward the sky -- the mirror is at the bottom of the tube.

Put the eyepiece with the largest number written on it into the focuser, and during the day time, practice focusing on a distant object.

there are 3 types of telescopes:
1)refractor, uses lenses
2)reflector, uses mirrors
3)catadioptric, uses both

try this and practice doing this during the day time, it's easier.

get your eyepiece, the one with the highest number on it (# mm); this is your lowest power eyepiece, always use this first (wider view and easier to see where you're pointing it), and place it in your telescope.

next, use the focusing knob to focus on a target (a faraway tree, lamp post, etc.). once you have it focused, and if you want to get a closer look, get the next highest number eyepiece and refocus on the target. this is how you change magnification.
if you have a barlow lens (2x or 3x) this will also change the magnification by 2x or 3x without having to buy other eyepieces, although you can still buy more.
put it together in this order:
eyepiece-->barlow lens-->telescope

use the star diagnal for land viewing.

if you have a reflector telescope,
the open part of the telescope tube next to the focuser points to your target. focus it the same as above.

oh, and sometimes, with refractors, you might have to use the
45 degree or 90 degree diagnal to focus the telescope.

and google how to use a telescope. there's nice observing tips :D

hope this helps :D

oh, and check out the moon at night. it's a very nice target.
best time to observe the moon is when it's not full.
you gotta check out the 'terminator' (area on the moon where the light and darkness is separated.

Probably NOT actually pointed directly at the moon-- you should have moved it around a little -- the moon was probably just outside the field of view through the eyepiece. ........................ telescope must be pointed DIRECTLY at the sky object-- also use the eyepiece with the largest number written on it=== this gives the LOWEST magnification..... and a slightly wider field of view.

I use a barlow lens quite a bit with my telescope. It is usually inserted before the diagonal if you use one or before the eyepiece if you don't. The barlow lens for your telescope will double the power of the eyepiece used.

However, despite what the manufacturer claims for your telescope things will look quite poorly if you try to view at 180 power. Generally you'll get the best images by using 50x for each inch of your objective lens. For example, your telescope has a 50mm lens. That's roughly 2 inches. 2 inches times 50x gives you a maximum useful power of 100x. Depending on the viewing conditions you may be able to exceed this or not even reach it. Things will look blurry and dim when you try to use too much power.

Your power or magnification is calculated by dividing your telescope focal length which is 360 mm by the eyepiece focal length. You have two eyepieces with focal lengths of 4mm and 20mm. If we divide 360mm by 20mm we get 18 power. If you add a barlow to that you get 36 power. Dividing 360mm by 4mm (no barlow) we get 90 power. That would be your maximum useful power.

Therefore, you should be able to used the 20mm eyepiece with or without the barlow but the 4mm should only be used without the barlow.

I hope all of the math wasn't confusing.

-jodair

your scope is 565mm focal length with a 60mm objective which makes it f:9.5. (telescope focal length divided by lens diameter)
all this means that the optics are capable of viewing larger planets. nebula is a bit of a stretch. maybe under exceptionally dark skies with at least 30min. of dark adaptation. brighter objects like m42 or m31 should be visible, bear in mind that only very large telescopes will resolve the slightest hint of color in nebulosity. the rest of us are reserved to gray scale. i would suggest using a 26mm eyepiece plossl if available. next make sure your finding system is aligned to the scope. this is best done during the day at a distant object like a radio tower. center the object in the eyepiece then align the finder.
next get your self a good sky map like stellarium software a freebie and a fav. to ensure your looking at what you think your looking at.

a word on eyepiece selection. magnification is calculated by dividing the focal length of the scope by the focal length of the eyepiece. for instance the scope is 565mm the recommended eyepiece is 26mm so the magnification would be around 22x.
a rule of thumb for optics is about 50x per inch of objective. which means your scope is good for about 100x. so by the math you would use a 5.6mm e.p. to achieve 100x, however as optical powers increase field of view decreases making it difficult to find objects. find your object with a wide field e.p. then switch to a higher power to zoom in. if the image gets fuzzy at high power attempt to refocus, if it doesn't clean up either your asking a bit to much from the scope or seeing conditions in the upper atmosphere may not be ideal. what ever you do don't give up there are some amazing things to see out there.

I bought one of these telescopes, and had trouble at first, but finally got some decent results. If you dont have any experience with telescopes, I suggest trying it first in daytime, since daytime objects are much better for getting experience. Also, start with the lowest power eyepiece, the 12mm 50x, the one with the largest lens. Start by looking towards something pretty big, like a car or a house, and it needs to be some distance away to even have a chance to get a focus. If your target is closer than about 1/4 mile, you should add the right angle eyepiece attachment to allow you to focus in on closer objects.

When you are finally set up with the low power eyepiece, and have a good big target in the daytime, start looking thru the telescope while turning the knob thru the entire range. At some point of knob turning, you should see some image appear in the eyepiece..Turn the knob slowly to focus it clearly.

And this is for the shaky tripod. If you can hang a book under the middle of the tripod, the added weight will help stabilize the telescope, and you should be able to see a little better, without so much motion at the slightest touch.

After you look at the first car or house, you can start to see how careful you have to be to use the telescope, and you can start to look at other objects. When you move to the higher power 100x eyepiece, it will be even more critical in getting it both aimed and focused. If its off by just a few degrees, you wont see what you are looking for.

When you start nightime viewing, start with the largest object in the sky, the moon. Its the same process as daytime, except the eyepiece mechanism will have to be adjusted a little closer to the main body of the telescope.

Viewing planets and stars will be the ultimate test. Stars and planets are harder to see, since they are small, and hard to see unless they are in focus. When you can see those views, you have passed the telescope test. Its a matter of careful aim, and having the telescope focus set close to the point where you can see objects that are VERY FAR AWAY. If you are able to focus on the moon, you will be fairly close to being able to focus on the planets. The hardest part is actually getting the planet in the view of the telescope, in other words, aiming it.

The last item that can really mess up the view is a fogged up lens. Usually this happens in the summer when the scope has been in the air-conditioned room, and then it fogs up when taken outside. The solution for this is to let the telescope sit outside for 20 minutes, so the fogged lenses can clear. By the way, the same fogging may happen when you bring the telescope inside during the winter.

I hope this helps you eventually get a clear view of some amazing views in the sky. Your final exam is to take a look at the moon, the rings of Saturn, and the moons of Jupiter, some time in the near future. Have Fun!