New telescope, only see a big blur.

From: Edmund Rishekl (edrishekl_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 09/01/04 

Date: Wed, 01 Sep 2004 17:06:53 -0400

My wife bought me a telescope for my birthday. It was a TASCO model
#302911. When I couldn't get it to work, I put it away for a rainy
day. It is now 3 years later and I'm finally getting around to try
and figure out the problem.

Here's the problem: The telescope can only see a big fuzzy blur
roughly the color of whatever I'm pointing at; So when I point it
toward the nighttime sky, all I see is very dark blur which only
improves when I stop using the telescope.

I understand TASCO isn't the best thing out there, but I'd love to get
the thing working as best it can. So I am basically left trying to
debug the problem.

My cursory examination yields no obviously dirty or broken optics:
Everything is very clean as I am the original owner and removed it
from its original packaging. The mirror is intact, as are the two
eyepieces (labeled SR4mm and H20mm, respectively) that came with it,
and the unit that holds the eyepieces (which has exactly 1 lens in it,
clean and intact).

If I remove the eyepiece from the telescop and look through the
opening I can clearly see the collector and out the open end of the
scope (yes, I removed the cap on the end of the scope!); As expected
I can see a tiny, little view of the outside world, very clean and
clear.

>From the telescope I then remove the unit that holds the eyepiece. It
is labeled "3X BARLOW LENS". It is a black tube aprox. 6" long which
is narrower at the end which goes inside the telescope and terminates
in a lens. If I remove the eyepiece from the unit, I find it is a
hollow tube with no intermediate lenses. Just to make my point: When
the unit is holding the eyepiece, there are exactly 2 lenses: The one
in the eyepiece, and the one at the end of the unit that holds the
eyepiece.

Years ago (like more than 30) I had a telescope as a child. As a
matter of fact, it was a TASCO. If memory serves, I could take this
unit and afix an eyepiece to it and clearly see the world, even if the
image was very small and distant. But with this new BARLOW LENS with
an attached eyepiece, if I look through it, all I see is a blur. I'm
wondering if this is where the problem is originating - the eyepice
and holder unit.

I'd appreciate any references where I can go next in trying to solve
this big-blur problem... I've done searches on the internet, but I
don't see anything like "troubleshooting a new telescope problem".

Many thanks!

-z

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