Blurriness Vivitar Telescope?

Question

I have the Vivitar telescope and last night i was using it and i could see the moon perfectly but the picture was blurry i could kinda see each crater in the moon but it was very blurry, i tried wiping each lens of the telescope but it was still blurry. Is there any solution or cloth material i could clean it with so its not blurry?

Answer 1

Depending upon where you live, your air quality may not be too good.  In observational astronomy, there are a couple of terms that are used to describe the air quality:

          a) Seeing

          b) Transparency

Seeing is more or less a measure of how active the air molecules are.  Remember looking right above the pavement on a hot summer day?  You see lots-o wavy lines... the heat rising.  The heat causes the air to be more active, and thus distorts the light (really, it changes the indices of refraction for each air molecule).  Seeing will vary over the course of the  night.  A way to combat poor seeing is to look at objects directly overhead-- at the zenith.  If you are looking down towards the horizon, you are looking through more of the earth's atmosphere, and have a greater chance of distorting the light.

Transparency is more or less a measure of how much unwanted stuff is in the atmosphere, i.e. dust, clouds, water vapor.  This, however, can take days to vary.

In the long run, it may be your telescope.  Be sure to check your collimation.  If all things are good, wait until a great night for your observing fun.  A great site to check for observing conditions is:

www.cleardarksky.com/csk/

You can search for your particular city and see when conditions will permit for great astro-fun.

hope this helps =)

Answer 2

how high was teh moon in the sky?

you may need to buy a new telesscope. vivitar telesscopes are junk.

Answer 3

Vivitar telescopes are very poor quality and nearly all plastic.  All the cleaning in the world will not solve the problem of poor quality and bad design flaws.  You have probably reached the limits of your scope.  

There are several different kinds of telescopes and all of them have some excellent features. Refractors and Reflectors, plus Schmidt-Cassegrain, APO refractors and more. There are also several mounts to chose from and the mounts are just as important as the scope is. All of the different scopes and mounts have some features that some people like and do not like.

There is no one scope that is "better" than another except for the junk scopes out there, Vivitar being one of the many brands of junk, and all junkers are just a waste of money. Never, ever buy from Walmart, Costco, Target, or any other discount store like that. Junk scopes are flooded into the market from those stores. You will be buying nothing but bad optics and plastic.

______________________________________...

http://oriontelescopes.com/

Orion is the very best for value and for customer service too. I have 2 of their scopes and I will only buy from them from now on.

The Orion site has some excellent diagrams and explanations of all types of scopes and mounts.

Things to consider are size--can the user lift and transport the scope to the viewing site easily? If not, then it will gather dust in a closet. Can the viewer reach all the k***s and buttons? I have a long tube large manual refractor and it is very dificult for me to reach the k***s when I am pointed to Zenith. I am not a tall person.

Take your time in making your decision.

I would like to suggest that you join a local astronomy club or astronomical society BEFORE you spend your money on a scope. There are many different kinds of scopes and what is perfect for one person is not perfect for another. Everyone has their own set of eyeballs and no two are the same. If you join a club, you can attend a few of their star parties and try out members scopes to see what works best for YOU, before you buy a scope. The members can also help you when you get your scope and show you how to get the most out of your new scope as well as to help teach you where the treasures in the sky are located. Hint: they will be especially helpful if you take cookies to star parties. Most clubs have loaner scopes and extensive libraries that you can gather more information from too.

Some people will suggest that you purchase binnoculars. Not a bad idea but dont buy anything less than 10x50 and you must have a tripod too or you will not be happy with your astronomical views because they will be too shakey from your movements. Personally, I prefer a scope to binos because if binoculars are not aligned properly at the factory, then you get double images and distortions that cant be fixed.

But when you buy go Orion and you wont be disappointed. Don't try to learn everything all at once or you will be overwhelmed and discouraged. Patience is the key to Astronomy.

You will also need a good star chart program.

http://www.stellarium.org/

This is great freeware that you can download. Just tell it where you are and it will tell you what you see.

I wish you all the best. Enjoy

Answer 4

Do NOT try cleaning the lenses on your telescope unless you really know what you're doing. You are only likely to damage them!

Usually even the cheapest telescope will give a sharp image of the Moon, so something must be causing he blurriness. My first thought is whether you are trying to look at the Moon through a window. Telescopes can only be used outdoors under the open sky. Window glass is not good enough optically to allow sharp images, and poking a scope out through an open window will put it in really turbulent air, also blurring the image.

The only Vivitar telescopes I can find on the internet are extremely cheap "junk scopes." Probably the telescope is incapable of producing a sharp image.