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Astronomy/Set up of telescope

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Expert: Jesse Martinez - 2/25/2010


Question
Hi,
After taking my daughter to our nearest observatory she got interested and wanted telescope.  We decided to buy Zhumell Zenith 60x600 Telescope through telescopes.com but when we look through the eyepiece all we see is black.  I have no experience with telescopes and wanted to know if it could be faulty or could I have set it up wrong?  I set it up exactly how the diagram shows.

Answer
Hi guys. First time telescope use is not easy. I had my own problems with my first scope, which was basically the same as yours. It took two hours before I saw anything at night. However, during the day I had little problems. Try these steps and see if you can find the problem.

Either something is blocking the light path, or you are using the 3x barlow and the objects you are trying to see are not bright enough, and can't bring them into focus. I would advise to to try using it during the day first if you haven't already. Use the eyepiece with the lowest magnification. That would be the one with the highest mm or lens size. Make sure the lens cap is off the telescope lens. There might possibly be a filter or cover on the eyepieces too. Look through the tube and then though the eyepieces by themselves individually and see if any light passes through them. Place the big eyepiece in the focuser without the 45° prism or the 3x barlow. If that works, add the 45° prism (between the focuser and the eyepiece, you will have to refocus). If that works, the image should be right-side up now. Forget about using the 3x barlow. It dims the image tremendously and makes the view extremely shaky. There is a full moon out tonight, so you shouldn't miss it.  

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Jesse Martinez

Expertise

General and specific questions about the solar system and stellar and galactic astronomy, are what I can easily answer off the top of my head. For example, what is the largest planet in the solar system? How far away is the moon? Have there been any confirmed planets in orbit around stars other than the sun? How many stars are there? The tougher ones like explaining the big bang theory and black holes I will leave to the PhD’s. Even though I could muster an answer, I would have to research it more than I would like. I would also like to answer questions that involve Astronomy with other sciences, chemistry, biology, physics, geology and mathematics as long as they are not PhD level.

Experience

I have been into astronomy since I was 8 years old. I have kept detailed journals of my observations through small telescopes. Over the years I have participated in amateur observation projects for organizations like ALPO. My personal research has involved "discovering" the moons of Jupiter with a 4½-inch Newtonian reflector without any outside information like charts and tables. In a summer long project, I determined the existence of and plotted the orbits of the four major moons of Jupiter. From these observations, my data on orbital elements was surprisingly accurate (orbital radius and orbital period).

Education/Credentials
80 hours of college credits while studying physics and geophysics. Completed correspondence photography course while in high school. Took two semesters of electronics training at a community college. Studied computers and graduated from a technical school at the turn of the millennium, gaining A+ and Microsoft Certified Professional credentials. Hablo Español. Si quieres preguntar en Español, estoy a su servicio.

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