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View Full Version : How to operate a telescope :)



PartisanEntity
March 1st, 2007, 06:29 PM
Right, so this is completely Ubuntu unrelated.

I bought a starter telescope kit, put it together, but I just don't get how it works. If I look through the thing without an eye-piece attached I see a very small, somewhat upside down image, when I put the eye-pieces in I cannot see anything any more no matter how I turn the focus knobs.

Here is a link to the pdf brochure of the telescope:
http://www.meade.de/index.php?id=366&no_cache=1&file=227&uid=1194

Anyone know how these things work, or if there are any telescope communities I could pester with dumb questions?

Thanks :)

weatherman
March 1st, 2007, 08:51 PM
well that the image is upsidedown should be normal...

muguwmp67
March 1st, 2007, 09:06 PM
It is normal that the image be upside down.

I found the manual for the telescope:
http://www.meade.com/manuals/TelescopeManuals/Telestar/TelestarRB60.pdf

Page 9 of the manual has some information on viewing tips. It looks like the best option to get started with it is to use the 25mm lens first. Its been a long time since I've used a telescope, but until you get used to working with it, I think this is the best place to start. I think you isntalled the exension eyepiece, which is probably so magnified that locating objects without some sort of sky map would be difficult.

A beginners guide to astronomy, one that features some sort of atlas for locating interesting stars (locating a binary star and zooming in so you can see both is pretty cool) will be most helpful.

tenshi-no-shi
March 1st, 2007, 09:27 PM
If you are looking at things in the night sky, you first want to have a good star map and be able to find things with your naked eye.

But one thing to remember always use the eyepiece with the largest number first. It's a low magnification and allows for a greater field of view. Once you center the object you want to see in the viewfinder switch it out with the next largest viewfinder. and repeat the operation till you get to the desired magnification.