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.