i have a telescope but cant see much.?

Question

i have a celestron nexstar 130 SLT all i can see is the creaters on the moon and everything else like mars are just dots in the sky. anything i can look at that i can see big. any ideas.

Answer 1

zoom in

Answer 2

Hi Jordan -

Well here are a few errors that I made that maybe you are making now.

1. Make sure the covers are removed from both ends of the eyepiece. These covers are usually transluscent, so they will allow you to see the craters of the Moon in a dim fashion, but virtuallly nothing else in detail. I was sort of embarrassed when I found this one, since I had a group of kids waiting to see through the scope!

2. Is the scope in collimation? Individual stars should be points and tack-sharp.

3. What are you observing? Mars can be sort of fuzzy if you do not have really good seeing conditions. There are never any significant features on Venus. Jupiter is tough right now because of its proximity to the Sun, but should be clear and bright with four moons looking star-like. You should be able to see the cloud bands on the surface. Saturn is up late, but should also be very clear.

4. Where are you looking from? If you have poor seeing conditions - or if you are looking though a window, you have 4 strikes against you.

The scope you have is a pretty decent one. If I were you, I would start with some star clusters like M15, M11, and the Double Cluster. If these can be resolved into sharp images with individual stars, then you may be falsely disappointing yourself for no good reason. Start with a low mag eyepiece, and move up when you need to for planets. Good Luck - don't get discouraged - as mentioned earlier, it's a hobby that requires patience (and in my case, humility).

Answer 3

Mars is a TOUGH target, small and bright and all washed out looking. Most casual observers can barely notice the polar ice cap and nothing else. Jupiter and Saturn are much more interesting, especially Saturn. There are some star clusters and nebulae that are nice, but probably only a very few bright ones like the Orion nebula (M42), the double cluster in Perseus and the globular cluster in Hercules (M13) will please you. And even then they will not look anything like the pictures you are probably used to seeing. Those pictures are all long time exposures that make things look many times brighter than your eye could ever see, even with the largest telescope. For "deep sky" objects like these you need to DARK sky, outside the city where the Milky Way is an obvious band of light in the sky and there are so many stars you can hardly believe it. And most of these objects are LARGE, so use low magnification. It is a popular myth that they are small. The reason they are hard to see is that they are DIM and not small. Oh, and just forget about galaxies. They are even dimmer and less impressive visually than nebulae. Planets are small, but bright enough to see form any city, no matter how bright the streetlights make the sky.

Answer 4

I don't know the particular telescope you mention. I assume it is an astronomical telescope, i.e. the images appear upside down ? And of course you will be using a tripod ?

What I used to do, when I was interested in looking at the stars, was use a camera, attached to the telescope. I can't remember which 'scope I had, but you can usually find converters/attachments, etc., which let you attach a camera (that is, a single-lens reflex).

I would then take a photo - or several, with different exposure times - and blow up the best image. If you use a fine-grain film, the resolution should be acceptable.

What you have to keep telling yourself, because this is a hobby which needs a LOT of patience (!), is that an awful lot of amateurs have been the first to make observations of quite remarkable importance.

Good luck in your viewing !

Answer 5

Here's an article I wrote recently on what you can and can't see with a small telescope:
http://www.gaherty.ca/tme/TME0708_Great_Expectations.pdf

First of all, your scope is a good one, one which I often recommend to people. However, the eyepieces it comes with will only give you relatively low magnifications, 26x and 65x. This is good for many objects, such as the Moon and deep sky objects (clusters, nebulae, and galaxies), but not for the planets. Good views of the planets require at least 150x to 200x. When I had this scope, I often used a 4mm eyepiece, which gave me excellent views of the planets at 162x. The problem with inexpensive 4mm eyepieces is that they have very short eye relief, which means you have to cram your eye really close to them. You would be better with an 8mm eyepiece and a good quality Barlow lens, such as the Orion Shorty Plus (NOT Shorty!):
http://www.telescope.com/control/product/~category_id=barlows/~pcategory=accessories/~product_id=05121

A Barlow lens will double themagnification of both your eyepieces, giving you 52x and 130x. An 8mm eyepiece would give you 80x by itself and 160x with the Barlow.

Mars is a very frustrating target in all but the largest telescopes because it is always very small in the eyepiece. It takes quite a bit of practice to learn to see its detail, even with a fairly high magnification; in truth, most of the time it does just look like a red dot. Unfortunately, Jupiter is gone for about six months on the far side of the Sun; it's by far the most rewarding target other than the Moon. Saturn is now in the morning sky, rising a few hours before the Sun, and is also extemely rewarding, both for its rings and its little retinue of moons. Venus is not as interesting as it looks to the naked eye (also in the morning sky) but does show miniature phases like the Moon.

The real treasures of amateur astronomy are in the deep sky: star clusters, nebulae, and galaxies. With your scope's hand controller, you can easily find hundreds of deep sky objects. If you're observing from the city with severe light pollution, you will be limited to the brightest objects, such as the Pleiades star cluster (M45), the Orion Nebula (M42) and the Andromed Galaxy (M31). Get out in the country, and you'll see hundreds of objects; start out with Messier's catalog, the M button on your controller. Use the Tour feature.

Stars will always look like stars, no matter what telescope or magnification you use, because they are so far away. But look at what most of us observe, the planets and deep sky objects, and have fun!

Answer 6

You can also see the planets; specifically the phases of Venus, features on mars, the moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn. You can see Andromeda galaxy and the Orion nebula. If you try to focus on stars all you will see is points of light, like any other telescope on earth.

Answer 7

That's what it's like through a small telescope. You have to learn to 'see'. Pictures in books are mostly taken through very large telescopes, which the average amateur stargazer never has access to, and this can lead to an unrealisable expectation from small to medium telescopes. You should persevere, because you can learn to 'see' lots through a small telescope.

Answer 8

Change eyepieces for one with a shorter focal length to see planets. Go for a longer one for nebula and clusters.

Answer 9

Are you looking through the right end?
Make sure you look through the little end, not the big end!Lol

(Only kidding, Hope you enjoy looking at the wonder that is the sky - sure you will have many hours of pleasure.)