Hi, newbie cant see anything

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Tkhoong
Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Jul 23, 2017 7:59 pm
Favourite scope: Celestron powerseeker 127eq

Hi, newbie cant see anything

Post by Tkhoong »

Hi! Ive recently bought a used powerseeker 127eq. Took it out yesterday night, spot saturn and jupiter but cant see any detail aside from just a blop of light. The eyepiece im using are the ones that come with the scope. A 20mm, 4mm and barlow lense. Ive tried 20mm with barlow aswell but all im seeing is just round blur light. What gone wrong? Can anyone help?

Oh, and also, i think the collimation is off allign. Can i collimate manually without special tools?

Thanks in advance! Clear skies!
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weixing
Super Moderator
Posts: 4708
Joined: Wed Oct 01, 2003 12:22 am
Favourite scope: Vixen R200SS & Celestron 6" F5 Achro Refractor
Location: (Tampines) Earth of Solar System in Orion Arm of Milky Way Galaxy in Local Group Galaxies Cluster

Re: Hi, newbie cant see anything

Post by weixing »

Hi,
Tkhoong wrote:Hi! Ive recently bought a used powerseeker 127eq. Took it out yesterday night, spot saturn and jupiter but cant see any detail aside from just a blop of light. The eyepiece im using are the ones that come with the scope. A 20mm, 4mm and barlow lense. Ive tried 20mm with barlow aswell but all im seeing is just round blur light. What gone wrong? Can anyone help?

Oh, and also, i think the collimation is off allign. Can i collimate manually without special tools?

Thanks in advance! Clear skies!
You should not see a round blur light unless you point at the wrong object or you didn't focus correctly.

Hmm... first make sure you are pointing at the correct target. You can confirm this my aiming your scope using the finderscope (the small scope of top of your powerseeker 127) at any street light far away or those Aircraft warning lights (those red lights on top of the building) and make sure you can see them on your powerseeker using the 20mm eyepiece. If you cannot see them in your powerseeker 20mm eyepiece or it's not in the center of field of view (FoV), you need to adjust your finderscope.

Anyway, the Moon is up which is good and bright target to practise.

By the way, Welcome to Singastro and clear skies!!
Yang Weixing
:mrgreen: "The universe is composed mainly of hydrogen and ignorance." :mrgreen:
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antares2063
Posts: 687
Joined: Sat Jan 22, 2005 3:34 pm
Favourite scope: Newtonians
Location: Bedok North Street 2, Singapore

Re: Hi, newbie cant see anything

Post by antares2063 »

Hi there Tkhoong,

The bare minimum item needed for daytime/indoor Newtonian collimation is a cheshire eyepiece. (a tube with metal wires acting as crosshairs, no optics nor glass in it)

For night time and if the sky is not cloudy and if patient enough, one can use a bright star to check the airy disk (whether it's off concentric or not) However this method is more xiong as when tweaking the collimation screws , the star will keep leaving your eyepiece FOV. This is also known as the star-test method.

garyseronik.com/a-beginners-guide-to-collimation/

Attached a link for you to refer :)

regards
Junwei
I miss the place where stars shine bright, to gaze upwards in awe of the sight
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