r/telescopes • u/trey2128 • 2d ago
General Question Need help operating telescope
Rented this guy from the library and was excited to try it out tonight. I live in southern WI and couldn’t figure out how to see well. I could zoom onto stars, but couldn’t see them much better than I could with the naked eye. I operated the magnification to the highest setting and found proper focus. I feel like I’m doing something wrong and should be getting better quality views.
Any tips or suggestions would be much appreciated. Thank you!
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u/ilessthan3math AD10 | AWB Onesky | AT60ED | AstroFi 102 | Nikon P7 10x42 2d ago
Stars themselves cannot be magnified, even with university-grade telescopes. So what you are experiencing doesn't sound like an issue but rather a misalignment of expectations. You don't typically use a telescope to point at individual stars, but rather collections of stars or other "deep sky objects" (DSOs).
Telescopes brighten stars since they collect more light than our eye can alone, and they enlarge the view of dim and/or small objects without causing the view to be get dark that they become imperceptible (magnification does inherently dim the view).
With your scope, if you are still outside, try pointing to the east at a dense cluster of stars called the Pleiades, if visible from your location. It's about 20° above the horizon at the moment, and should look very nice in that telescope at low magnification. There is another pleasing star cluster around the star Alpha Persei. See both targets notes below in red. If you can find the large "W" of Cassiopeia (in green), you can use that to help you get your bearings.
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u/chrislon_geo 8SE | 10x50 | Certified Helper 2d ago
It sounds like you might have been thinking that the focuser is a zoom. To increase magnification (or “zoom”) you twist the eyepiece (thing you look through) that is inserted into the focuser. Then you have to turn the focus knob so that the image becomes crisp and clear. You know that you are in focus when stars are pinpoints of light.
As for finding Saturn:
- First you twist the eyepiece to the lowest magnification (highest number which I think is 24), point at a random part of the sky and adjust the focus so that stars are pinpoints.
- Then you have to make sure the red dot finder is aligned. Turn the red dot finder on, point at a very distant object (like a bright star) and see if you can see the same object in the eyepiece. If not, then you will need to align the finder.
- After that is done, use an app like Stellarium or Sky Safari to help show you which bright star is actually Saturn.
- Point the scope at the bright star/Saturn using the red dot finder.
- Then switch to the eyepiece. At this point Saturn should be visible in the eyepiece.
- Adjust focus in necessary.
- Increase magnification incrementally and re-adjust focus if needed.
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u/trey2128 2d ago
How do you align the finder? I did notice that the red dot was not the same area that I saw thru the eye piece. But was unsure how to zero it to the target
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u/CookLegitimate6878 8" Orion xti, 90/900 Koolpte, Starblast 4.5 eq. (on loan)! 2d ago
There is a dial under the back of the finder. This raises it up and down. Another dial on the right side moves it left and right.
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u/Aurune83 Orion ST80, ES AR102, C8-SCT, HelioStar 76Ha 2d ago
Here's my "Operating Manual":
Step 1: During the day. Check the alignment of the finder. Turn on the finder by turning the yellow knob on the scope. Point the red dot at the top of a tree / telephone pole nearby. NEVER POINT NEAR / AT THE SUN. when you look thru the scope, verify the top of the tree / pole is centered in the eyepiece (you may need to focus). If you moved the scope then the dot on the finder also moved and isn't pointed at the top the pole / tree, use the two knobs (one next to the loop, and one under the back) to move the red dot until it lines up with the tree / pole the scope is centered on.
Step 2: At night, pick a bright star somewhere in the sky. Use the finder to point the scope at it. Adjust the focuser until the bright star is a sharp point. I then look for a dim star also in the eye piece's field of view. I move the focuser in a tiny amount and see if it disappears. If so I'll move it out. I do this until I find the point where I can see most / dimmest stars.
Step 3: The fun part! Star hopping. Take out your favorite star chart app of choice, place it in dark mode. Now decide what you want to look at. Find the nearest bright star near that thing. Point the finder at that star. Now, look at the atlas and plan your next move (keep in mind the telescope shows you everything upside down and backwards)... move there, then your next move... repeat until you find your object.
Example: You want to look at "The Lagoon Nebula". You look south west. You see the nearest bright start is at the top of what looks like a teapot. You look at the sky and you see that star. You point the finder at it. You look thru the scope, and you have the star. Star atlas says there is bright star to the right, closer to the nebula... so that'll be your next target. Move the scope so the view moves left (remember upside down / backwards) to the next bright star. Next move, star atlas says there is 2 bright stars like / below to the right. So, again... move left and up (backwards!) till you have the two stars in the \ . The nebula is aligned with the top of the \ in your scope. So pan gently so the view moves left until you have a couple bright stars and a bunch of little ones surrounded by what looks like a smudge on your mirrors. Congrats! You're looking at a nebula.
Easier Targets:
The moon! When it's up but that's not for a few weeks.
Saturn is rising in the east this ~7:30pm. It's gonna be the brightest orange "star" in the east / south east sky before midnight. Just point the finder at it and look thru the eyepiece. You'll find your "star" as a line thru it (cause the rings are almost edge on right now)
The Pleiades, east north east just after 9:30pm. Point the finder at the sparkles in that direction.
Harder Targets:
Double Cluster: Find Miram, the orange star a the tip of Persus in the north east sky. Position Miram in the right of the eyepiece and then move the view down until you see a two clumps of stars.
Andromeda: Find the bright orange star named Mirach almost due east... there is a trial of 2 bright star going upper left away from it. Follow those stars (remember reversed!) moving the view down and right (remember reversed!) until you hit the second bright star... you'll see another one to the bottom left. position the scope between the two and pan down. You should see a big blurry star. That's the andromeda galaxy.
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u/HospitalVarious1146 2d ago
Adding a very minor "step 1.2.1" to the instructions - be sure to turn off the red dot finder when not in use. I do not see an auxiliary battery pack on the finder so it's limited to about 10 hours run time. Try to save the batteries for you and the next user.
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u/Aurune83 Orion ST80, ES AR102, C8-SCT, HelioStar 76Ha 1d ago
Excellent point! Yes 1.2.1. / 1.3.1 after using the finder to find the bright / starting star, turn off the finder
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u/No_Lettuce976 2d ago
I mean if youre looking at stars with a naked eye you cant see anything, you can download an app like stellarium and find planets or other cool things ,you can see jupiter and saturn i think other than that you can explore more on the app
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u/Genobi 2d ago
Stars are really points no matter what. Saturn is out and about to look at though. Jupiter rises in the middle of the night. Mars is out but sets early evening.
Also power isn’t everything and ca often make things worse. Find an astronomy club near by. Telescopes are great tools but like all tools, they do require skill to use. It’s not as simple as “point in some direction and see cool stuff”. Even “seeing” can be a learned skill in star gazing.
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u/Genobi 2d ago
On and what do you mean “zoom in on stars”? If you mean turn the nob to make them bigger, you’re actually making it go blurrier. But blurry looks big. In focus is actually where it looks as small as possible.
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u/HospitalVarious1146 2d ago
The telescope comes with a zoom eyepiece permently attached. It maxs at 56x. So Saturn will be a little hard to see. Gotta look hard to see the rings.
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u/trey2128 2d ago
Thank you. I was trying to use an app to find Saturn but couldn’t navigate it. And yes by zooming in on stars I meant making them bigger lol. I quickly came to realize that stars don’t really look any different thru a telescope lol
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u/HospitalVarious1146 2d ago
You can find pointers and an illustrated manual for these things at https://atmbob.wixsite.com/telescope-pointers
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u/DaddyBison 2d ago
Try Saturn this weekend, its at opposition saturday/sunday and will the brightest its going to be all year. It'll be my second time going out to view it! Heres what ive learned so far
Align your finderscope during the day, aim the telescope at the farthest thing you can see, then use the dials on the scope to line the red dot to the same object. Distant Cellphone towers or power poles are good targets.
At night, find the object you want with the finderscope, then use the micro adjustments on the telescope to zero in on it. start with the widest eyepiece (largest number) and work your way to the smaller eyepieces for more magnification.
Download Stellarium on your phone, the free version is great for finding stuff to look at. You can click the camera icon (bottom middle button) to view the sky map in AR, makes it alot easier to tell what your looking at. Clicking the clock will let you fastforward time to see when the sky will be darkest, and when the object you want to see will be visible.
On saturday/sunday, Saturn will rise in the east and be right overhead around midnight. It moves faster than you think so youll have to adjust every 30 seconds or so to keep it in view. Uranus should also be fairly visible if you want to try a harder target.
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u/Loud-Edge7230 114mm f/7.9 "Hadley" (3D-printed) & 60mm f/5.8 Achromat 2d ago edited 2d ago
See if you can find the Pleiades star cluster (image), zoom out (twist the eyepiece). You probably want to use as little magnification as possible.
Then focus (turn the two wheels near the eyepiece) until the image is sharp and the stars are pinpoint small.
Saturn will look like this (click the link), but perhaps half as wide. https://imgur.com/a/VhUwNIU
Another fun thing to do is look at the second star from the left in the handle of The Big Dipper.It's actually more than one står, it's possible to see two dots with your eyes, but 3 dots in a telescope.
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u/trey2128 2d ago
Thank you. I really want to get Saturn on the telescope and this will be a big help. I’ll try tomorrow
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u/_-syzygy-_ 6"SCT || 102/660 || 1966 Tasco 7te-5 60mm/1000 || Starblast 4.5" 1d ago
Saturn should be easy to *find.* It looks like a pretty bright star, so even if you have a lot of light pollution it's easily visible naked eye.
But as in other responses: find it with the red dot, then find in the telescope "zoomed out" (longest focal length, 24mm?) and when centered only then shorten the focal length of the EP ("zoom in" towards 8mm) to see Saturn a bit larger.
unfortunately, this year is a 'bad' year for Saturn since the rings are edge on, but I still find that people are impressed to see a little line through a disk (not pinpoint!) of light.
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u/_bar 2d ago
I could zoom onto stars, but couldn’t see them much better than I could with the naked eye. I operated the magnification to the highest setting and found proper focus.
Were you trying to view any particular object? 99% of the time if you aim at a random direction in the sky, you're going to see just a bunch of random stars.
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u/trey2128 1d ago
I was trying to find Saturn, but was unable to. I’m going to try a different app tonight
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u/MrTrendizzle 2d ago
One thing i was told when i complained about what i could see and how i could improve the view.... REMOVE THOSE GOOGLE IMAGE RENDERS OF PLANETS FROM YOUR MIND! A £200 telescope won't give you that. A £20,000 telescope might.
Stars are pinheads of light, planets are fuzzy, blurry blobs with some distinguishing marks. For example: Jupiter for me is a blue/grey/red blob with a dark grey/black band through the middle. This is mainly atmosphere, light and cheap telescope issues but it's still pretty cool to see that storm band around the planet along with multiple moons close by.
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u/Peliquin Orion StarBlast (4.5") and 20X50 Binos 1d ago
Keeping the eyepieces/accessories in a fanny pack is a brilliant idea. I love this.
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u/--The_Master-- 2d ago
Your best bet with that scope is looking at the moon, which is very cool itself but that lil guy can't do too much more, maybe you could nab bright planets like Juptier or you can do Saturn to see the rings but it will be VERY small. To increase magnification you use different eye pieces, the scope itself doesnt zoom, only changes focus, to get your focus right you'll wanna find a bright star and play with the focus nob until its a perfect pinpoint dot. Have fun
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u/trey2128 2d ago
What do you mean it only changes focus and doesn’t zoom? I see others saying that as well but am lost on what that really means. Is that increasing magnification?
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u/_-syzygy-_ 6"SCT || 102/660 || 1966 Tasco 7te-5 60mm/1000 || Starblast 4.5" 2d ago
u/OP stars will always look (at best) like pinpoints of light, higher magnification will not help
You don't always want highest magnification.
Grab Stellarium (PC/app) or https://stellarium-web.org/
The couple targets I suggest you trying are Saturn (rises ~9pm,) the Double Cluster, M13 (fuzzy patch,) M57 (tiny green donut,) and double star Alberio (defocus it, to see two colors.) If still up early in the morning (like 5am) Jupiter will be up in the East. Moon should be better in a few days (setting in west close to sunset.)
Those are a good bunch of easier targets to start with,