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Focusing Telescopes for the Best View |
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Thursday, 05 July 2007 |
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Telescopes can offer hours of enjoyment, but they most be focused to show a proper image. If telescopes are a part of your new astronomy hobby, it is important to learn how to focus your telescope. First, set up any telescopes where you will be viewing the stars. Avoid direct bright lights, which will keep you from seeing faint objects. Next, select a very bright star high in th esky or the moon as a focal point.
Use your telescopes’ finder to center the star or the moon in the telescope. With most new telescopes, you will have to align the finder with the main telescope. Your equipment will have instructions that walk you through this process.Once you have used the fidner, look through the eyepiece. You should see some light. If the telescope is very out of focus, the light may be dim. If the telescope is slightly out of focus, stars will appear as large balls and the moon will be just a blur. Shift the telescope slightly if you are not sure what you are seeing, looking for a change in light coming from th eeyepiece as the telescope is moved. The light that comes from the eyepiece may be dim, so pay close attention to what you are seeing. Look for some light from a bright star which will look like a disk when viewed through telescopes. Find the edge of the disk and shift the focus mechanism so that th edisk becomes smaller. Shift the focus slowly in one direction and check to see if it improves. If it does not, shift it in the opposite direction slowly and see if it gets better. Once you discover which direction sharpens the image, continue in that direction until you achieve the best view. Now that you’ve learned the basics, you can focus any telescopes in this manner! |
