Tasco 302048 - Help!

ewfetzer1 · Guest

I was recently given a telescope. The only name and info I have is as follows:
Tasco 302048
D=60mm F=700mm
Coated Optics
Made In China.

The telescope also came with several accessories; a L shaped piece with a mirror in it; a 2.3x Barlow lens; a 1.5xErecting Eyepiece; and two other things that appear to be eyepieces, a SR4mm and a H12.5mm.
I am a novice with telescopes. While I have used spotting scopes I have never used a telescope. I am very interested in learning. At the expense of sounding stupid, I have several questions.
1- In what order should the accessories be attached to the telescope? I have for example attached the 2.3xBarlow lens, and to that the SR4mm. Is this the correct way?
2- When I look through the finderscope everything is upsidedown. I suppose for celestial objects this is okey. What about objects like far away buildings.
3-When I look through the finderscope, I can see something such as the moon for example, but when I look through the telescope all I see is bright light or nothing at all. Turning the knobs to adjust the focus does not make any difference. What is wrong?
I figure that this is all probably operator error. Please help.

opticsplanet.com · Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 8:08 am Post subject:

Hi

First, here is a link to an article I have written for new telescope owners. Hope it helps, http://www.opticsplanet.net/telescope-faq.html

The L shaped piece is your diagonal. Insert it into the focuser first. Use this for astronomy. Without it, you will not get the moon or other objects to focus. (For day use, you'll use the erect image diagonal.)

Always start out observing with the lowest power eyepiece. This is the eyepiece marked with the BIGGEST number. the H12.5. (12.5mm is the focal length of the eyepiece, not magnification.

A barlow increases the magnification of any eyepiece used with it. Use it only with the 12.5. Using it with the 4mm will produce too much magnification and degrade the image. The barlow goes into the diagonal first, then the eyepiece inside the barlow.

You need to adjust your finderscope. Look at a distant object by day through the telescope, then adjust the finderscope until it sees the same object.

Let us know how you are doing.
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buckshotj1 · Guest

well I know how ewfetzer1 felt. My wife and I just purchased the same telescope from goodwill for $20. But we know nothing of astronomy yet. Everything seems to be there, but the lenses will have to be cleaned. Anyway, the website you provided helped me out quite a lot. Neat thing is, we bought the telescope today, then learned that there is a lunar eclipse tomorrow night. So we are hoping to use it for that. One question I had, was some websites are showing 450x for power or 50mm lenses. Is there a chart somewhere that I can correlate between the two?

Jne_K · Site Admin Joined: 24 Sep 2003 Posts: 5517

Hi

Glad to help.

Magnification has much less to do with astronomy than beginners think. Astronomy is more about seeing faint objects, not about magnifying them and seeing faint objects is more about telescope aperture, in terms of mirror or objective size, rather than magnification.

"Maximum useable magnification" listings by manufacturers are basically advertising nonsense. Anyone who claims 450x for a 50mm telescope has never done any astronomy or is trying to take your money. Ignore them. The amount of magnification you use will depend on the type of object being observed, observing conditions, the size and quality of your scope, your observing experience as well as your personal preferences. There is no magic formula for magnification options that translates into anything concrete. As close as you'll come is the 20-30x rule for each inch of aperture under average observing conditions and as high as 50x for each inch under ideal conditions and, even then, only for certain types of objects. This means you'll want to keep your 50mm telescope under 100x for best images.

Yes, get out and see the eclipse. You can certainly use your telescope, but my favorite lunar eclipse optic is a binocular. Just keep the magnification down for best views.
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