helped tune a Newt

Ralph received a query from a woman in my neighbourhood. She and her son were having difficult using their small telescope. He, the boy, had assembled it by himself (and done a fine job) but they still could not see anything. When Ralph learned they lived in the High Park area he dispatched me.

I took a look at the Swift 114mm Newtonian. Overall, everything looked OK. I aligned the finder scope as it was off. Finicky thing. Found 3 Kellner oculars. I explained how the different eyepieces worked and how the affected the power and the amount of sky your could see. It was impressive to see this thing sitting on an German equatorial mount! Still, I had to set the it to the proper latitude.

Unfortunately, the skies were grey so there was nothing celestial we could view. And her son wasn't in attendance. So I offered to return again, during a clear night, and we could do a full demo.

I'll also drum up a laser collimator to check the mirrors.