Quote:
Originally Posted by Superman
Steve/masraum sent me a PM and generously offered to help me out. Pelicanheads have made me feel proud for twenty years now, and this is the latest instance. Thank you, Steve.
I think I am using my telescope wrongly, and I wonder if I am focusing on the wrong plane. Flatbutt says stars jumped out of nebula. Eric says my magnification should be around 66/1. Pazuzu says color filters can help. Here's the deal: Color filters will not help me because the image would need to be several times larger in order for me to see anything larger than a spec. If I focus just right on Jupiter, I can see it has moons, but Jupiter itself is still WAY too small for any hope of seeing color details.
I'm going to return to my original question. Because of some of the comments I see here, I still wonder if I am using this telescope wrongly. The slidey thingie into which the eyepiece is inserted is adjusted so that several inches of the slidey thingie are protruding from the fat part of the telescope.
I was given this telescope about 3 months ago and part of my problem is meteorological. The Pacific Northwest is a wet, cloudy place. This time of year there are several nights per month in which we could not even detect the presence of a full moon, so thick is the cloud cover. No more than a handful of nights per month present any opportunity to see anything. Right now, the National Weather Service says it will rain constantly until at least next weekend.
I do have a nice neighbor with a telescope I have not seen. Perhaps he can coach me. I think I am focusing this telescope wrongly.
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Well Supe it does take a little effort even with a refractor. Several conditions impact on our ability to "see" the stars. Humidity is an invisible killer so even on a night when the sky looks clear the seeing can be poor.
This site gives an estimate of the conditions in your area:
https://www.cleardarksky.com/csk/index.html
You need to dial in your location.
Beyond this you need to ensure that your scope is setup properly. Here is the online manual
https://www.manualslib.com/manual/1807283/Celestron-Starsense-Explorer-Dx-102az.html?page=4#manual
The slidey thingie is the Focuser and shouldn't need adjustment but check to make sure it isn't loose. You can use the scope during the day to check focus.DON'T POINT IT AT THE SUN.
Pick a tree top or something else way off in the distance and play with the focus. It's alot easier to do in daylight DON'T POINT IT AT THE SUN.
If you can't get sharp focus then there is something wrong in the light path and the scope may need to be collimated. Rare but it could happen.
https://www.ozscopes.com.au/collimating-a-refractor-telescope.html