Telescope Help

Hi all, I brought a telescope an cestrone 114 eq, I used it last night but only seen a white blob, I contacted the person I brought it off they said to check my leaflet it could be the mirror for collimation, as I did this I noticed that looking into the eye-peice that one of the cross hairs is snapped or broke. Witch I think has basically left me with an unusable telescope.

Could anyone help ? I can't find much anywhere else on the net, thought maybe here someone can help

reply to post by Spares


Most likely the crosshairs that you see broken, are in the eyepiece itself, or if you were looking through the sighting telescope, in that, that is not part of the actual telescope.
Did you get another eyepiece with it? I would suggest first taking the telescope out in daylight, looking at a distant target, like a powerline, and see how well that looks. If you can focus on that, then you can start with star tests, and going to collimation later. Don't despair yet, it might only be that the eyepiece is broken, or that you have not learnt yet how to focus with it.(Remember the image that you will see through a Newtonian telescope is inverted)


You can download the manual for your telescope here:

if you feel slightly intimidated by the telescope, don't be afraid to ask on ATS. Plenty of amateur astronomers over here that can help you, just forget the odd comment or 2 that you will get from people that has never even looked through a telescope, lol ...

Also browse through Celestron's website, plenty of useful documents for a beginner. Looking at the specs of your telescope, I see it is a F8 telescope, so collimation is not that critical (provided nobody has messed with the collimation). I would first verify that your eyepiece is actually working, but normally an eyepiece with crosshairs on it is specialised, only for doing measurements, except for the sighting telescope. So maybe you just looked through the guide-scope? I am not sure if you are familiar with a Newtonian telescope, but you the eyepiece sits at a 90 degree angle to the main telescope.

I mean once the eye-piece is removed, then I remove the barrow lens, the 2nd mirror I think it is , it should have 4 cross-hairs, but it has 3, collimation is all ok. I just noticed the cross-hair and still like last night all of the moon I seen was a white blob lol..

reply to post by Spares



ahhh, ok, now I get it. You pulled out the eyepiece, and looked at the secondary mirror right? Yes, some newtonians just have 3 supporting elements for the secondary, sitting at 120 degrees from each other. Now, if you point your telescope at a white surface, like a wall, and you look at the reflection of your eye through the eyepiece-holder, from a distance, so that your eye is center the the holder, is the reflection that you can see from your eye in the center? (Look at the picture on P8 of the manual that I directed you to). It is possible that the drawing tube of your focusser doesn't go in our out deep enough. Did you get more than one eyepiece? Then I would suggest trying other eyepieces. First try with the largest one, i.e. a 32mm or so, skip the 10mm or shorter for the beginning. But remember, it is easier first trying your telescope in daylight, looking at a distant building, tree, or mountain, and verify that you understand the focusing and the inversion of your optics. (Forget about the Barlow lens for now)

Yup that is right what I did, but with the leaflet I have it show's 4 cross-hairs not 3, you can see that it has gone or been snapped? I tried last night with another lens an lower one, still the same.. ^ that is why I think I just get a white blob and that's it, if not, then best to try tomorrow point and see if I can see something in the distance right?

Then I'm not sure what to work on. really irritating for me, just wanna star gaze ...

My telescope is the next one up from that one you referred me to also I think.

reply to post by Spares


Are the remaining crosshairs at a 120 degree angle, or at 90 degrees from each other (with 180 degrees where the missing one should be). Normally a small newtonian will have only 3 supports, because the secondary mirror is quite small. The onliest role of the "crosshairs" is to support the secondary mirror. Now, if you trace the optics, if you can see your eye, everthing is semi-ok, because that means, the secondary mirror projects the image of your eye into the secondary mirror, and that reflects it straight back into your eye. ( I can give you advice with a laser pointer, but as I guess you are American, I would rather not). If you can see your eye staring back at you, with the telescope pointing at a light background, that means that the telescope optics are coarsely in alignment, so you should get a decent image of the moon. Does the focusing mechanism work properly? With a lot of focussers, the eyepiece shouldn't all the way in. First in daylight, point the telescope at something distant, look into the eyepiece, (not clamped in now) and slide the eyepiece in and out and see if you can achieve focus. Lots of times, the eyepiece needs to be further from the secondary mirror than what the focussing mechanism allows if the eyepiece is pressed in all the way down.

Even if the spider (what you refer to as crosshairs), are broken, with a small Newtonian it is not lost. The spider is just there to hold the secondary mirror into place. It is just a question of realigning the mirrors. If you google it, you will find hundreds of articles explaining how to collimate a Newtonian.

Hehe I am not American , from the UK.

I am not sure on what the angle is, but from what the leaflet is showing me, when I see my eye thought it with no eye-peice there is 4 cross-hairs. I don't why it would show 4 in the leaflet and there is only 3 showing!

I'm pretty confused, even last night as full moon just white blob ect, I did not try to move the lens as you said,instead of full in like..

reply to post by Spares


lol, that is ONE thing you will learn from telescope manuals. They mainly use the same manual for ALL their Newtonians, and just change the one page on which they write the specs of your specific telescope, lol ..... The fundamentals for all Newtonians are the same, so they don't bother to rewrite it for your specific telescope.

So you can download the manuals for Celestron, Meade, Skywatcher, etc, etc, etc, and use their optical alignment procedures if you find it better

Ignore what the manual pic shows as to how many legs there are on the spider. It can be either 3 or 4 for a Newtonian. Feel the secondary mirror holder with your fingers, taking care not to touch the mirrored surface, and feel if the secondary mirror is firm. If it is firm, don't worry about the support.

Another thing, patience is essential.... If you get into amateur astronomy, you must learn patience. There is no rushing things. Take it slow, learn your telescope, first in daylight, see how mechanical movements on your equatorial mount corresponds with movements of the optical tube, learn how to read the scales on your telescope (declination, Right Ascenscion), and then have a guide that shows you the RA and dec of stars.... But assuming you have an equatorial mount (RA and dec), you will need to learn and play a lot before you can go straight to a star. The perfect optics are just a part of the equation, celestial mechanics is the other part, but good luck, it is a highly rewarding hobby.

reply to post by Spares


Did you try focusing it?

A full moon is one of the worse things to try to view through a telescope to begin with. Its a lot of light.

This may sound dumb but did you check the secondary mirror for a protective film cover when you unpacked it after buying it. When I bought my 6"celestron newtonian it had that protective film on the secondary mirror. Just a thought.

Ok I see your point on the cross hairs, but then again I have it all square center. I'm not sure what you want me to feel as once the lid is removed you can see the 2nd mirror on it's support, I'm still kinda new to this. there is no protective foam or nothing I brought it from someone who owned it before. I did try focusing it, just using the zoom left or right. Same kind of white blob..

Just felt the 2nd mirror and it is firm fine.

Wait for daylight, and try to see if you can focus on a distant (and very large thing), like a mountain. Another tip for you, if your guide-scope and main scope are not aligned, just remove the eyepiece from the drawtube. If you look into the drawtube, you should be able to see the reflection of where the telescope is pointing. Once you see you are not pointing into blank air, put the eyepiece back, and then try to focus with the eyepiece.

Once you are happy, then you can try to align the guide scope with your main scope.

By the guide scope you mean the red light I have with my telescope on the top, I assume it is alined I was never told it wasn't.

What would be best for me to do, go out tomorrow and view something from far like the other side of an port near me. If I do see clear, then what caused the problem of white blob, what if I don't see clear also in day-light.

reply to post by Spares


Ok, then you don't have a guide scope. Those guiders with the red dot actually works better than a cheap guide scope, and THAT I can assure you, it is NOT aligned with the main telescope. Everytime you take your telescope outside, you will have to realign it.... Somehow it always moves when you move your telescope indoors

If you can focus on the other side of the port, try again tomorrow night. Just remember, it is still close to full moon, so the moon will be very bright, and will make it very difficult to focus. Did you get a moon-filter with your telescope? If you did, screw it into the back of your eyepiece, else put on sun-glasses

It is like on top can take it off I guess and move it up or down I think.
So everything is fine with it? How come I only see the white blob.

No do not have a moon filter , I will check out tomorrow night if the clouds move out a bit, or the next few days. And try with what you have said so far with the eye-piece ect.

If I still get a recurring problem I will post back, but hopefully will be ok.

Thanks so far

Hi Spares,

Sounds like Hellbound04 really knows his stuff, if your telescope's not broken I'm sure he'll sort you out. If you still have a problem that he can't resolve and you're near Essex (UK) send me a U2U and I can have a look at it for you. Failing that, contact your local astronomical society and they'd be really happy to help you - absolutely no need to feel intimidated. Whichever society you go to you'd find helpful, friendly enthusiastic people.

The Celestron 114 is a great beginners scope, when you're up and running you'll have great fun with it.

An afterthought... Is the eyepiece Celestron or Skywatcher (both makes are made by Sinta in China), or is it some other make? Although most eyepieces are interchangable between telescopes, some are not and that can cause a probem where the eyepiece in the focussing drawtube can't get close enough to, or far enough away from the secondary mirror to come to focus. If this is the case then you'd have to buy another eyepiece. Not a huge problem as you could get one that would suit your needs from about £30. You wouldn't need to spend more than that until you upgrade your telescope.

Thanks I have 3 Celestrone ones.
I will be out with it tonight it sky is clear.
I am not near Essex although used to live near there, and visiting soon near there.
I have looked for local astronomical society not had any luck.

Haven't manged to take it out in day-light, but I tried to view the moon again 5mins ago, still an white blob, I tried without the barrow lens, also taken the lens out then back in again.

I don't know what to do.

I still think it is the spider thing, as it is should have 4 attached but one is broke..

Really irritated with it :/

It is a Celestron PS1000 Newtonian Reflector Telescope, Are you sure they are not meant to have 4 cross-hairs?

reply to post by Spares


If 3 of the arms of the spider is at 90 degree angles, then it should have had 4 arms. But then you are lucky, as it should still be possible to align the secondary mirror. Those arms are there just to keep the secondary mirror in place. In the middle of those arms you should find a small mirror mounted at 45 degrees, with a setscrew on top. If you align that mirror as per the instructions in the manual, you should still be able to get a decent image. The missing leg of the spider will just mean that the secondary mirror will need more frequent alignment.

I have alined it via collimation but I get the same result, this is what I meant before when I did this and went back out the next night.