Hi Troll hunter.

That four stick thingy, is called a spider. It's job is to house a small
mirror that reflect light from the primary mirror into out of the scope and
into your eyepiece. You shouldn't be able to see it when the Telescope is
correctly focussed.
You'll need to learn to correctly focus the scope (sorry if that sounds
blunt). I'd suggest that you pick a bright star. Point the scope at it.
You should be able to be reasonably accurate by looking over the edge of the
tube. (I'm assuming that your finder scope isn't setup correctly yet) Then
tweak the fucus knob until the star becomes a bright dot. As this point
I'd suggest that you spend a little time getting it centered, getting used
to the sky rotation and tracking stars.
Then spend a little time getting your finder scope aligned to your main
scope. This always gives best results when using a real star, and not just
an object down the road ;-)

The 2 part cover is basically a big lens cap. The idea is that it will keep
the optics clean and free from dust. The reason that you can remove the
middle bit is that you can leave the outer ring on the scope whilst obseving
the moon. It's supposed to reduce the glare.

Regards

Colin Dawson
wwww.cjdawson.com


"troll hunter" wrote in message
...
Now before you read further - im new to telescopes... so expect some
stupid
questions...

I have a tasco newtonian.
When i look at something - ie planet or star for instance, i get the
reflection of the four stick thingy that sits at the otherend of the tube
always over the centre of the object im trying to look at. The following
link has a picture "similar" to mine that has the offending four stick
thing
clearly shown as you view down the tube :-
http://skyandtelescope.com/howto/sco...icle_787_1.asp


Also - what is that 2 part cover that sits over the end of the scope when
im not using it. I notice the small centre circular section comes off as
well as the end that the small centre sphere sits in.
Considering i have very little idea what im trying to convey - i beleive
ive
done a good job at explaining the problem. btw - gettin the spottin scope
aligned with the main mirror is a complete pain in the ..well u guess the
rest.

thanks for input.