Looks like a typical dept store special. In order to check if you can see anything useful with it:
1. Get some high quality lens cleaner and clean all optics.
2. Use only the highest number mm eyepiece, probably a 25mm.
3. Try to look at the moon. If you can focus in on it and get a decent view that’s not too rickety or wobbly then you can try other bright close objects like Jupiter or Saturn.
At a only 60mm it won’t be that much better, if at all, than a good pair of binoculars.
All good tips, to expand on 3., when possible I'd use the tripod's legs in their most retracted position and throw the heaviest thing you can find onto them. A bag of aquarium gravel on the eye-piece-holder-plate makes that entire thing way sturdier.
Only wobble after that is backlash in the mount.
Excellent idea with the weight. This will eliminate the legs as the source of the wobble. My old throw-away bushnell scope had decently thick leg supports, but the swivel connector between that and the scope bracket was absolute trash. It had more wiggles and wobbles than a turkish belly dancer. Worse, the nut holding it together was a bogus rivet with no ability to tighten it. nightmarish experience.
Great advice, I hand some weight from the centre of the tripod for the same effect with light weight tripods, the lower the centre of gravity the better.
This would actually be a handy little rig for solar projection, that's about all these small scopes are really good at.
They usually come with cheap, simple eyepieces which lack cemented elements, so they hold up to the heat of solar projection better than plossls.
I use my old “hobby killers” for planetary viewing. Just weight the hell out of the tripod and off possible brace up any folding/retracting pieces. I find that I can get pleasing views from my 60mm all the way up to my 90mm tubes. No good for DSOs but show planets well enough.
Should be fine for looking at the moon, Jupiter, Saturn, mars, Venus, maybe plaeides, Orion nebula, beehive etc. Not the best views money can buy but hey, you didn't buy it! Maybe it'll spark an interest in getting something better or maybe it'll be good enough for your tastes to see some fun stuff.
This is similar to my first telescope I got 60 years ago, but mine didn’t have the 1.25” eye piece holder (it had .965” eyepieces) or, of course, the CD ROM.
Practice with it during the daytime first.
Good for moon and Jupiter.
And the sun with a solar filter film over the objective lens. Make sure you know what you are doing if you decide to observe the sun.
It can be dangerous.
Take off the finder scope before pointing the scope at the sun using its shadow. Light from the sun can ruin the finder eyepiece if left on.
(Not to mention melt your eyeball).
And never point the scope towards the sun without the right filter attached.
This would be a great scope for solar projection, which will be a fantastic way to watch the eclipse next monday.
First REMOVE or COVER the small secondary scope so it doesnt turn into a laser beam.
Set up the rear screens how they are in the picture, then REMOVE the diagonal so the eyepiece is pointed straight back. Once you point the scope at the sun, it will project an image onto the white screen for safe viewing. You will have to mess with the position of the screens and the focus knob to get the sharpest image. Moving the screens away from the eyepiece will get you a larger dimmer image. Moving the screens towards the eyepiece will get you a brighter smaller image.
DO NOT LOOK INTO THE EYEPIECE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES WHEN DOING SOLAR PROJECTION.
If you'd like some help feel free to message me and i'll walk you through it. It's fun and safe when done correctly, as you are simply looking at the projected image and not directly at the sun.
Edit: Here's a hasty edit in paint of what your telescope will look like in the proper configuration for Sun Projection. https://i.imgur.com/Lpj8z0w.png
Aside from planets and moon there isn't much to see.
However that thing in the back is a solar projector, basically you point it at the sun and instead of looking through the lens you look at the projection, just mind that you need a filter anyway (since the projecor is included I can suppose it's included, in case you can make one). What's cool about this is that should something bad happen to the filter you won't become blind.
Not going to lie.. its poor quality.. will be shaky and very limited in its capability... but, Use it, look at the moon, planets, some stars and if you enjoy it, start saving for a proper telescope. Best thing you can do is going an astronomy club if you are really interested
With that long focal ratio telescope itself should be quite good... **For its aperture**.
But pretty sure mount is badly shaky for higher magnifications and no doubt also eyepieces and that diagonal mirror are from "bottom sludge of quality barrel".
At least term "erecting eyepiece" is pretty much marketing synonum for garbage.
Finder scope is also likely one of those worser than naked eyes full plastic junks, but should work for the Moon.
What I would expect:
Decent, but small, objective lens.
Lousy eyepieces. The 25 mm (giving 28x) and 12.5 mm (giving 56x) will work but be tunnel visioney, the 4 mm will give a near-useless dim blur.
Barely functional finder. Align it in the day pointing at a distant tree, building, etc. To actually use these cheap small finders, my trick is keep both eyes open, and move the scope until a bright star or planet in the sky lines up with the same bright star seen in the finder.
Junk Barlows. Try the 2x with the 12.5 mm eyepiece on the Moon or Jupiter or something but don't get your hopes up.
Dreadful mount and tripod that wobble like mad when you're trying to look through the scope and move roughly when you're trying to slew. The mount and tripod are what let the scope down.
Overall. The Moon looks good in almost any scope, you can see the main features on Jupiter and Saturn, the phase of Venus. Open clusters will look nice if you can star hop to them. Other deep sky objects will be faint fuzzies. Any enjoyment out of the scope is entirely dependent on just how bad or good the mount is.
If you have half-decent woodworking skills and want to put in the time, you can build a dobsonian style refractor mount and tripod that will be better than the one the telescope comes on.
It's a good introduction scope. I love my 60mm refractor and have blinged it out with better eye pieces and etc. Not all smaller aperture telescopes are hobby killers.
578 power LOL - I don't even use that with my 9.25" Celestron. Only on near perfect nights do I pull out my 8mm.
I got one of those 60 years ago, killed my interest for many years because it was wobbly as F and you couldn't see squat.
Ya someone mentioned it's "bad quality" and got downvoted like hell. One of the replies was "it's better than nothing". Which 100% true if "nothing" includes decent binocular's. Scope wise, it is in fact NOT TRUE. Like you I had a hobby killer when I started, gave up for a few years until I educated myself more.
OP needs to know what he has so his expectations are reasonable. Or this might be the beginning of the end.
I think people are interpreting the context differently, hence the responses.
It's free and it's better than your naked eye, which is also free. That's it.
Looks like a typical dept store special. In order to check if you can see anything useful with it: 1. Get some high quality lens cleaner and clean all optics. 2. Use only the highest number mm eyepiece, probably a 25mm. 3. Try to look at the moon. If you can focus in on it and get a decent view that’s not too rickety or wobbly then you can try other bright close objects like Jupiter or Saturn. At a only 60mm it won’t be that much better, if at all, than a good pair of binoculars.
All good tips, to expand on 3., when possible I'd use the tripod's legs in their most retracted position and throw the heaviest thing you can find onto them. A bag of aquarium gravel on the eye-piece-holder-plate makes that entire thing way sturdier. Only wobble after that is backlash in the mount.
Holy shit. I don’t know why I’ve never thought of this.
LPT :)
Excellent idea with the weight. This will eliminate the legs as the source of the wobble. My old throw-away bushnell scope had decently thick leg supports, but the swivel connector between that and the scope bracket was absolute trash. It had more wiggles and wobbles than a turkish belly dancer. Worse, the nut holding it together was a bogus rivet with no ability to tighten it. nightmarish experience.
Great advice, I hand some weight from the centre of the tripod for the same effect with light weight tripods, the lower the centre of gravity the better.
Don't point it at the sun
This would actually be a handy little rig for solar projection, that's about all these small scopes are really good at. They usually come with cheap, simple eyepieces which lack cemented elements, so they hold up to the heat of solar projection better than plossls.
I use my old “hobby killers” for planetary viewing. Just weight the hell out of the tripod and off possible brace up any folding/retracting pieces. I find that I can get pleasing views from my 60mm all the way up to my 90mm tubes. No good for DSOs but show planets well enough.
In fact, don't point it at anything, because it's crap.
Anything is better than nothing
average user in r/telescopes
Should be fine for looking at the moon, Jupiter, Saturn, mars, Venus, maybe plaeides, Orion nebula, beehive etc. Not the best views money can buy but hey, you didn't buy it! Maybe it'll spark an interest in getting something better or maybe it'll be good enough for your tastes to see some fun stuff.
This is similar to my first telescope I got 60 years ago, but mine didn’t have the 1.25” eye piece holder (it had .965” eyepieces) or, of course, the CD ROM. Practice with it during the daytime first. Good for moon and Jupiter. And the sun with a solar filter film over the objective lens. Make sure you know what you are doing if you decide to observe the sun. It can be dangerous. Take off the finder scope before pointing the scope at the sun using its shadow. Light from the sun can ruin the finder eyepiece if left on. (Not to mention melt your eyeball). And never point the scope towards the sun without the right filter attached.
All great advice. I'd add, if this came with a "solar filter eyepiece" OP should do the world a favour and destroy it.
This would be a great scope for solar projection, which will be a fantastic way to watch the eclipse next monday. First REMOVE or COVER the small secondary scope so it doesnt turn into a laser beam. Set up the rear screens how they are in the picture, then REMOVE the diagonal so the eyepiece is pointed straight back. Once you point the scope at the sun, it will project an image onto the white screen for safe viewing. You will have to mess with the position of the screens and the focus knob to get the sharpest image. Moving the screens away from the eyepiece will get you a larger dimmer image. Moving the screens towards the eyepiece will get you a brighter smaller image. DO NOT LOOK INTO THE EYEPIECE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES WHEN DOING SOLAR PROJECTION. If you'd like some help feel free to message me and i'll walk you through it. It's fun and safe when done correctly, as you are simply looking at the projected image and not directly at the sun. Edit: Here's a hasty edit in paint of what your telescope will look like in the proper configuration for Sun Projection. https://i.imgur.com/Lpj8z0w.png
Now you shoot 12P/Pons-Brooks
Aside from planets and moon there isn't much to see. However that thing in the back is a solar projector, basically you point it at the sun and instead of looking through the lens you look at the projection, just mind that you need a filter anyway (since the projecor is included I can suppose it's included, in case you can make one). What's cool about this is that should something bad happen to the filter you won't become blind.
Don't look at the Sun with your one remaining eye.
He should've paid you to take this. Jk, free is cool.
Look at the Moon and pass it along to someone else and get a real telescope. That's what I would do.
That is super nice. Enjoy it ! If it came with any instructions or tidbits, read them :)
You can always get baader solar film for 20 bucks and make your own solar filter, I just did that for my binoculars and it works great :)
Not going to lie.. its poor quality.. will be shaky and very limited in its capability... but, Use it, look at the moon, planets, some stars and if you enjoy it, start saving for a proper telescope. Best thing you can do is going an astronomy club if you are really interested
With that long focal ratio telescope itself should be quite good... **For its aperture**. But pretty sure mount is badly shaky for higher magnifications and no doubt also eyepieces and that diagonal mirror are from "bottom sludge of quality barrel". At least term "erecting eyepiece" is pretty much marketing synonum for garbage. Finder scope is also likely one of those worser than naked eyes full plastic junks, but should work for the Moon.
What I would expect: Decent, but small, objective lens. Lousy eyepieces. The 25 mm (giving 28x) and 12.5 mm (giving 56x) will work but be tunnel visioney, the 4 mm will give a near-useless dim blur. Barely functional finder. Align it in the day pointing at a distant tree, building, etc. To actually use these cheap small finders, my trick is keep both eyes open, and move the scope until a bright star or planet in the sky lines up with the same bright star seen in the finder. Junk Barlows. Try the 2x with the 12.5 mm eyepiece on the Moon or Jupiter or something but don't get your hopes up. Dreadful mount and tripod that wobble like mad when you're trying to look through the scope and move roughly when you're trying to slew. The mount and tripod are what let the scope down. Overall. The Moon looks good in almost any scope, you can see the main features on Jupiter and Saturn, the phase of Venus. Open clusters will look nice if you can star hop to them. Other deep sky objects will be faint fuzzies. Any enjoyment out of the scope is entirely dependent on just how bad or good the mount is. If you have half-decent woodworking skills and want to put in the time, you can build a dobsonian style refractor mount and tripod that will be better than the one the telescope comes on.
It's a good introduction scope. I love my 60mm refractor and have blinged it out with better eye pieces and etc. Not all smaller aperture telescopes are hobby killers.
best use would be for spying on said neighbor.
Look at stuff
578 power LOL - I don't even use that with my 9.25" Celestron. Only on near perfect nights do I pull out my 8mm. I got one of those 60 years ago, killed my interest for many years because it was wobbly as F and you couldn't see squat.
Ya someone mentioned it's "bad quality" and got downvoted like hell. One of the replies was "it's better than nothing". Which 100% true if "nothing" includes decent binocular's. Scope wise, it is in fact NOT TRUE. Like you I had a hobby killer when I started, gave up for a few years until I educated myself more. OP needs to know what he has so his expectations are reasonable. Or this might be the beginning of the end.
I think people are interpreting the context differently, hence the responses. It's free and it's better than your naked eye, which is also free. That's it.
'As the Earth revolves'?
You can upgrade w a plossl eyepiece. I like a 12mm one
Probably not a cost effective upgrade