Telescopes

Archive for the ‘Bushnell Telescope’ Category

I got it today and i set it up and took all the lens cvers off and the dust covers. there are 3 piece things you put into the eye piece and i think its the magnifiiers. on them it says 12.5mm 8mm and sr4mm. what do they mean? i put the 12.5mm in and i cant see anything except black. i tried focussing it on something but i couldnt see anyting so i couldnt focus it on anything. any suggestions? i really want to use it!!!
heres a link to the telescope intstruction manual:
http://bushnell.com/manuals/telescopes/SkyTour_Voyager.pdf

thank you!!!
haha never mind. i made reallly stupid mistake. the thing that pokes out of the side of the selsecope i thought had to be at the bottom and you look up at the other end. i was wrong. that parts supposed to be at the top. haha and i thought the picture on the instruction manual was wrong. THANKS BOTH OF YOU THOUGH!!!!

Did you remove _both_ parts of the front lens cover? These often come in two parts, like a doughnut and its hole, and you must remove _both_ parts, so that the entire end of the Telescope is open. Try using the telescope in daylight first, to get used to how it works, focusing on something at least a quarter mile away. If it’s still black, the telescope may need collimation: alignment of its mirrors. If you look in the eyepiece holder without an eyepiece in place, you should see the secondary mirror. In it should be a reflection of the primary mirror at the bottom of the tube, and in that a reflection of the top end of the tube with the secondary mirror in the middle supported by three or four struts. All three mirrors should be concentric. Adjust the secondary mirror to centre the reflection of the primary mirror, and adjust the primary mirror to centre the reflection of the secondary mirror: ((o))

The three eyepieces provide different magnifications. You will use the 12.5 mm the most: it provides 72 power. The 8mm gives 112x. The 4mm would give 225x, but this is more power than this telescope is capable of. Use the 12.5mm!

I recommend NightWatch by Terence Dickinson (Firefly) as a good book to help you get started.

I just got it today and assembled it. I went outside and looked into the lens I see nothing why is that?

You’d be better off starting during the day than at night, where you can try focusing on distance objects (trees, houses) and you can see what you’re doing. Make sure you took the lens cap off the end, and that you’ve put an eyepiece in the eyepiece holder and focuses it correctly. After that’s done, if you still can’t see anything, join a local astronomy club. They’ll be happy to help you.

I am searching for a Telescope for Christmas, and I would like to know which is the best possible brand for it’s worth/price. Meaning, there may be a fantastic brand of Telescope out there, but it’s probably $1000.
Some Telescopes I’m looking at right now are as follows:
Celestron
Bushnell
Meade
Tasco
But if there are any others that you can recommend, please do.

Thank you.

Avoid Tasco ("Trashco") and Bushnell. They have been in business for years and both of them have yet to produce a single decent scope. They get their sales through general retailers selling to the uneducated rather than through specialists who will not generally touch their wares.

Celestron and Meade are well respected makes. For you however I would generally recommend avoiding Meade though – it sounds like you are looking at the lower end of the market and Meade’s low end scopes are generally poor. The ETX range are their only decent low end models and they are very small for the asking price.

There are other brands to consider though. Orion and Skywatcher come to mind and have good coverage from the lower end of the market through to quite advanced mid-range scopes in the $1000 neighbourhood. Bresser (a Meade subsidiary) specialise in the lower end, and while most of their stuff is very humble it is basically OK and good value. Their Messier range is more expensive but essentially very good quality, if basic, and on mounts that are unbelievably stable for the price bracket.