Need Help Please... Celestron Powerseeker 114EQ

[russmax]

Hi, Bernard,
I'm glad you're starting to get the 114 mm scope figured out. All of the advice above is excellent. The 32 mm, 12 mm and a 2x Barlow

Keeping the Powerseeker EQ mount steady is certainly going to be a challenge. I had a shaky mount on a similar tripod. I got out some wrenches and pliers and tightened (and sometimes loosened) things until it became less wobbly. Another thing to do is put some weight in the tray between the legs, maybe 5 pounds or so. If all else fails, and you also find yourself frustrated with aligning and operating the EQ mount, this Twilight Nano mount might be a nice substitute...
https://www.highpointscientific.com/exp ... inanot1-00

Yes, that's nearly the price of your scope. Sorry. I bet you did not know you that simply buying a telescope is just a start. One can keep buying accessories forever. Two accessories that are cheap and don't attach to the telescope are a star mapping app for your smart phone, and a good beginner astronomy book. SkySafari and "Turn Left at Orion," are my two recommendations.

--Russmax

[Lady Fraktor]

With these aluminium tripods adding a bit of weight is a 50/ 50 fix.
It may help hold it down a bit but the instability is still present and you are just adding more weight to an already shaky tripod.
These are quite easy to stabilize without adding any extra weight:
http://www.astronomyforum.net/blogs/gab ... ripod.html

[Sky Tinker]

Thank you

Update: Just using my 4mm eyepiece, I was finally able to spot Moon in its full glory! it was so majestic!

But the only problem now is the telescope assembly isn't too sturdy. I still need to figure out how to keep it steady.
Should figure that soon!

I've contacted the seller for replacing the barlow, he too suspects its faulty.
Let's see how that goes.

Congratulations with the 4mm.

This is the 3x-barlow that comes with our "PowerSeeker" kits, and with all "PowerSeeker" kits...

This is the bottom of the barlow, the end that's inserted into the focusser; you can see the lens there...

kit barlow3.jpg (19.88 KiB) Viewed 2054 times

Let's have a closer look at it. Here, the camera and a pen-light approaches the top of the barlow, and where an eyepiece is inserted...

kit barlow7.jpg (10.37 KiB) Viewed 2054 times

Down we go into the barlow...

I see a black-plastic retaining-ring with notches. Let's unscrew that and take the lens out...

It's only one lens, and of plastic. It is flat on one side, which points down into the focusser; and bowl-shaped on the other side, where it points towards the eyepiece and the eye. It is a plano-concave lens. It's rather thin, therefore I assume it's a singlet. It could be a cemented doublet, but being of plastic it's difficult to tell. But for all practical purposes, it's a single lens.

I had to use a tool to remove that single lens from the bottom of the barlow. Are you certain that you're having trouble with the barlow?

This is the 20mm erecting-eyepiece, which comes with our "PowerSeeker" kits...

Many who purchase these "PowerSeeker" kits have problems with that eyepiece, as it contains two lenses and two black-plastic spacers. Quite a few accidentally, or intentionally, unscrew it from the top, then the lenses and spacers fall out onto the floor. Is that the eyepiece that you have?

[Sky Tinker]

In any event, for the record, this is Celestron's reply to someone who had trouble with their 20mm erecting eyepiece...

https://www.celestron.com/blogs/knowled ... k-together

I had taken my own apart, and photographed the order...

That eyepiece is very easy to unscrew and take apart, and consists of multiple components. The 3x-barlow, however, is not easy to take apart, rather difficult actually, and consist of only two parts, a lens and its retaining-ring.

[Myk Rian]

So, yes, looks like the retaining ring of my Barlow has some issue as the multiple lenses inside it are so loosely fit that they keep falling off
Naturally, I'm away from it ... and we've notified the seller about it. Awaiting to hear from them.

Once the lenses fall out, it can be difficult getting them back in, in the right order, and position.

Meanwhile, as recommended by most of you, I am trying to use only the 4mm eyepiece with the 20mm lens

No. Use the 20mm. Low power.

[Thefatkitty]

Hi Bernard, been reading through this, glad it finally works for you and hope you get the barlow issue fixed

I hear what you're saying about the mount. I have a similar scope, a Tasco of the same mirror size and f/l. The mount it came on was (and still is) in great shape, but like yours, too wobbly.
It was and still is a great scope, and even more so when I made it into a Dobsonian.

01.JPG

02.JPG

I have all the measurements, etc; if you would like I can send you a link to the web site I made. The tube size of your scope is the same as mine, trust me Obviously you don't have to do exactly what I did, but it's a starting point.

For eyepieces, I quite like my Fujiyama KK ortho's, from 25-9mm. Honestly, at least for me, those eyepieces in that scope rival the views in my refractors.

Enjoy the views!

[russmax]

With these aluminium tripods adding a bit of weight is a 50/ 50 fix.
It may help hold it down a bit but the instability is still present and you are just adding more weight to an already shaky tripod.
These are quite easy to stabilize without adding any extra weight:
http://www.astronomyforum.net/blogs/gab ... ripod.html

I'm bookmarking that to give it a try on my own aluminum tripod. Although, that's a fair amount of hardware, and it's going to add some weight.
--Russmax

[Lady Fraktor]

The only weight added is from making a slightly larger tray from thin ply, altogether it only adds about 1 pound to the tripod.
The benefit comes from taking out all of the lose fitting pivot locations and stabilizing them.

[Sky Tinker]

With the focusser at the top of a longer-focus Newtonian, keeping the tripod's legs retracted to their shortest length is beneficial. In addition, ensure that the bolts and nuts where the legs join the tripod's hub are tight, even to where you cannot fold the legs up easily when putting it away for storing.