CruzanGazer

I have an iphone 13 Pro and am not able to get a single still or video. 8” dobsonian and 26mm EP. Can anyone offer tips or tricks.

I’m on the Island of St Croix, in the USVI. Yes I saw both the alpha and omega Centauri. I’ll look for Carina but I haven’t spotted the diamond or the false cross. The Southern Cross was on my bucket list, so check that box!

Having lived most of my life in North America I was always under the impression that the Southern Cross was only visible below the equator. I live at 17 degrees latitude now and only yesterday found out that it is visible here, low on the horizon for a short time from late April to early June. Saw it for the first time last night. Been listening to Crosby Stills and Nash this morning!

I had about 10 minutes viewing Jupiter, Venus, Mars, and Saturn early Thursday morning. Anxious for the “collision” of Jupiter and Venus, and low and behold it has now been overcast for the last 48+ hours and no relief in sight! And so it goes.

Thank you all for your insight and suggestions. Yes, I do refocus after changing ep’s, so I may not have great conditions. Humidity isn’t a problem here as the temp/dew point are fairly consistent year round. It’s in the mid 80’s during the day and high 70’s at night. Louis, where in Texas are you?

It’s been a while since I’ve posted since getting my first telescope, an 8” dobsonian, for Christmas. Had a great deal of success early on with Jupiter and Saturn, Orion Nebula, Andromeda Galaxy, and more. I’ve learned a lot in just a few months, and this period of time has been focused on locating as many galaxies as possible, and getting up early to once again visit the parade of planets. Tonight I was finally able to find the Whirlpool and Sombrero galaxies that have been elusive. Bode’s and Cigar have been easy to find, as have Markarians chain, at least some of them. I think anything less than about an 8.5 brightness is really hard for me to locate, at least with the eye pieces I have. But I will keep trying! If you don’t remember me this is my first effort at learning the night sky, and I’m 67! This is not a go to or push to so I’m using Az/Alt with a compass and digital inclinometer to help find things. When I was able to see Andromeda I hopped between Cassiopeia and Pegasus. Does anyone have any eye piece suggestions? I use mainly a 26mm to search. A 17mm - 7mm zoom, then a 10mm with a 2xBarlow. Often I can’t get to the 7mm or use the Barlow with out losing focus.

Thank you. I pretty much have the process figured out, my only issue now is that my collimation cap and laser collimator don't agree, significantly.

I just started the hobby and my first scope is an Orion XT8 Plus. I got the Orion Lasermate Delux as an add on. It also came with a collimating cap. The problem is that they don’t agree with each other. How can I determine which one is getting me aligned properly? i am able to successfully collimate with each one, but whichever one I use first it shows that the alignment is off again when I install the other one immediately afterwards. Thank you for any advice you can offer.

That helped a great deal...it’s all starting to click!

Welcome. I'm new as well and also have an 8" Dob. Only had it out 3 times so far, but have been amazed. So far I've been able to locate Venus, Saturn, Jupiter, Orion Nebula, and Andromeda Galaxy!

So, last night I was able to locate Andromeda Galaxy! I think where I set up had too much local light contamination from neighbors and street lights, so will move to a darker spot. It was very cool to locate it and experiment with different eye pieces to see what worked and what didn't work to focus on it. I am still having problems collimating though. The collimating cap and laser collimator don't agree. In fact they differ significantly. I collimated with the cap before viewing, and then after an hour or so, re-collimated with the laser. I couldn't really see much difference in the view of Andromeda, so not sure if I'm getting the best focus possible or not. Any suggestions or advice?

UPDATE: I unboxed my Orion XT8 Christmas day, and have had it out 2 nights in a row. I observed Saturn, Jupiter, and Orion Nebula the first night. Shared it with my wife who loved it also. Last night I revisited those plus what little I could see of Venus, which was in crescent and moved out of sight pretty quickly here. Then I tried star hopping to the Andromeda Galaxy, and realized I probably don't know exactly what I'm looking for to find it. I had a hard time collimating it, but fortunately I purchased a laser collimator with it, or I would still be trying to get it right. When I first looked, the laser missed the secondary and hit the wall. When I got it back into the center of the primary, I checked it, and it was way off. When I got the primary centered, the secondary was out again. I went back and forth for a while, and without the laser it would have been even more challenging. BTW....I used the collimating cap for a reference, and it doesn't agree with the laser. Also, yesterday I checked it after having it outside for a few hours, and back in again, and it was out of collimation again. Is this something I should do each time I take it out? I'm assuming temperature changes, and moving it around cause the mirrors to move slightly. Any tips on finding Andromeda Galaxy? So far, I'm loving it! I could see several of the moons of Jupiter, and the orange bands across the planet...couldn't make out the red spot though with what I have.

I’m anxious for it to arrive, but we are in the midst of our “Christmas Winds” season here in the Caribbean, so I probably will need to wait to really get some good use out of it

Thank you. I'll start posting my experiences once I get my scope and start looking!