I recently bought this telescope off ebay:
http://cgi.ebay.ca/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?...=STRK:MEBWA:IT

The first night I took it out, I did not know you had to calibrate the finderscope. So that was my problem. Anywho, I figured that part out the next day after re-reading the manual. So after adjusting my finderscope, I carefully set my telescope outside. I looked for the brightest star in the sky (it was either Venus or Mars), set my finderscope on it. I then looked through my 20mm eyepiece (smallest magnification possible) and it wuz just a huge blur. Like the entire eyepiece was covered with a faint blurry light. Focusing did nothing. Does anyone know what's going on? I tried changing magnification and my eyepiece just become completely dark like the star had disappeared even though my finderscope still said i wuz on target.

Btw, I have the same result with everything else in the sky. My telescope works fine with land targets though. And unfortunately I can't test it on the moon since there is currently no moon for North America.

If that is true, you should be able to see stars. Keep trying with the focus.
Nor any other continent.

Welcome to the board.

As milli360 said, if it works for land objects, it should work for astronomical ones as well.

One thing; If you took it straight from the warmth of the house to the cool of outdoors, your objective lens (the big one at the front of the scope) may have fogged over. Try taking it out a half an hour before sunset and letting it acclimate to the ambient temperature.

BTW - The brightest object in the evening sky is Venus. Nothing else comes close. Mars is above and slightly to the left of Venus and much, much fainter.

__________________
Any day you wake up on "the right side of the dirt" is a good day.

T. Anderson

I have found that with certain lenses on my telescope things always appear kind of fuzzy and out of focus. Mess with the lenses and make sure you have the right one...

Kaptain K's advice sounds good. Also, sometimes the sky looks relatively clear, but a little high haze or very high humidity can seriously affect what you see through your scope. A very clear dry night is best.

You might want to check your finderscope alignment. What you're decribing sounds like glare from a near miss.

I agree.

focus on some stars first, to make sure you have the focus set, and then try to find Venus (or jupiter, or whatever you are looking for).

then you will know that the focus is correct, and you can check the other things already mentioned (fogged over primary, near miss not exactly on target).

Do you guys have any tips for me on how to I properly align my finderscope? I believe JohnW might be right that it's maybe just a near miss.. But if it was just a near miss, wouldn't there be a blurry light to the right or left of my viewing range? Cuz the blurry light will completely take up all my viewing area when i look through the telescope? And when I try to focus or change to a higher magnification is just disappears. It could have also been due to high humidity, I forgot to check the humidity before I went outside, but the last 2 days have been cloudy with some showers, so most likely the humidity was fairly high. I am a very unknowledgable newbie in astronomy so please be patient with me. Does anyone have any tips for me? Also, when is the best viewing time?

Let me say that I have never done this but I have read about it and is may give you some place to start. Set up the scope during the daytime and point it at a stationary land object, such as a streetlight or a flagpole at least a quarter of a mile away. Locate some feature on that object like the lamp on the streetlight or the ball on top of the flagpole. Use the main scope and center the object and focus it using a low power eyepiece.

Then look through the finderscope. you should at least be able to see the object in the finderscope (If not, you are WAAAY off). Adjust the screws until the object is centered in the finderscopes cross hairs. Check the main scope frequentley to make sure you have not knocked the alignment off.

Once you get it set, move the scope and locate another detailed object using the finder scope, canter it in the cross hairs. look through the main scope and Hey Pesto, it should be centered there too.

Again I have never DONE this so it may be a LOT tougher than it sounds, but perserverance should pay off.

__________________
The More I learn, The More Ignorant I Become

Eagle Eye Observatory

Yep, that's how I've been aligning it. This is very strange. Perhaps I will email one of the astronomy profs at my University and ask them for assistance. Do you think they would be willing to help me? That way, I could maybe get a hands on tutorial with my telescope. I think I'll do this if I once again have no success with my telescope tonight.

And once you have aligned the finder, either in the daytime or else at night on a bright object, remember that it might be a little bit off. So if, for example, you were looking at Venus, and Venus was centered in the finderscope, it is possible that Venus might be just outside the field of view of the main scope. So move it around a little, slowly, while looking through the eyepiece.

Can you see any stars through the telescope at all? You should be able to focus them to points.

See if there is an astronomy club in Winnipeg. That would be the best way to get help. You can search on the Sky & Telescope web site, among others, for lists of astronomy clubs.

(does a quick search)

Ah, here you go:

http://www.winnipeg.rasc.ca/

Bad optics would cause this, however you state that land based objects come in 5x5, correct? Have you tried land based objects at night? Say a streetlight several miles away?

This may be the reason the scope was being sold. I am speaking out of my other end now, but could optical coatings create different conditions during day and night time viewing? Perhaps the coatings are bad?

__________________
The More I learn, The More Ignorant I Become

Eagle Eye Observatory

Bushnell telescopes are notorious for their low quality. Still, you should be able to at least view the planets and moon.

__________________
I like crinoids.

Another thought on the problem. To me this most likely sounds like a focus problem. If you have been focusing on terrestrial objects that requires a much, much closer focus. On my scope if I have focused on a close object and then turn it towards the heavens, the focus knob takes a lot of turning before the stars focus to pinpoints. So try turning the focus knob slowly as far as it goes one direction and if that doesn't do it try the other direction. If this doesn't work I think your best option is to check with your local astronomy club. In my experience the people in these groups are a fantastic resource and usually more than happy to help someone who is interested in the night sky. The new telescope frustration is more common than you might think. I hope this helps.

__________________
"Inconceivable!"
"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

I was thinking the same thing. My first view of Venus with my new telescope was the same, until I adjusted the focus.

I should also mention that Venus isn't a great telescopic target (although the phases are neat).

__________________
Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.

Are you sure you were looking at the brightest "star"? If you were looking at Venus, that's probably the reason why it's blurry.

Thanks for the link, Aurora.

What do you mean by "optical coatings"? Is there any way I can fix this?

Are you serious? I thought Bushnell were pretty good. Does anyone else agree that Bushnell's suck? It says in the manual that I should be able to see the Moon (obviously), Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, Mars, Nebulaes, star clusters, and even the Andromeda galaxy. Is this all true?

It seems like a focusing problem to me too, orangeSCT. But focusing doesn't seem to do anything. I'll try to be more diligent with the focus tonight.

Why isn't Venus a good spot to start off with? I thought it would be the next best thing to the Moon (and there is no Moon right now). What do you guys recommend I try to focus on? Mars?

From what I read I understood that they meant that Venus has no real interesting features from a telescope of that caliber... although, the phases are awesome... I suggest Jupiter, because it is awesome, or maybe Saturn becasue it is cooler, but it is fainter...

I am quite the newbie to astronomy. Could you please link me up to a good site or tell me how I can find these planets?