MichaelMcD

Update - back from the balcony.  Quite windy out there this evening, not enough to blow the entire wig off, but certainly lost a few strands.

The Plossl 9mm eyepiece I used first worked well, but the 25mm Super Plossl eyepiece seemed to provide a better view of things (as was also outlined in the User Manual).

From the balcony I have the Plough directly in front of me and what I believe would be Saturn behind some buildings at about the 8 o'clock position as I stare open-mouthed at the Plough.  Will be interesting to see how well I can capture that or Jupiter if I can get access to them in the coming weeks (if that's even how the universe works).    

Homework for me (but would appreciate pointers if you have them, particularly from @Ricochet who looks like he/she has the same telescope as me!) --->

1.  Read up (via your wonderful forum here) more about what I'm seeing being inverted.  Not a major issue, just out of interest I will read more (or find a way to hang like a fruitbat while looking through the eyepiece which may resolve the issue).

2.  How useful it is setting the "coordinates" of the RA and Dec to locate specific stars/constellations - do any of you actually do this?

3.  The User Guide for my telescope states that "A favourite Winter object: M42, the great Orion Nebula".  I notice in their picture that they have a milky-way (again, you're wincing for my lack of understanding of astrojargon) - does anyone here see such milky goodness (again, I'm on a NT 150 L Newtonian Reflector 150/1200 f/8.0 Bresser Messier with a 25mm and 9mm eyepiece) or they see what I seemed to capture this evening which was "just" pinhead-sized dots.  I have a suspicion (possibly due to wind/atmospheric conditions/utter incompetence) that tonight I couldn't go "deep enough" (stop sniggering at the back there).  

Thanks again.  

Is it too early in my membership to this community to declare my undying love for everyone involved in this thread?

I managed to twist off the focusser and add this extension.  

We're in business baby. 

Off out on the balcony now.  Cat's got enough food down for a week and the work out of office has been set.  

Will update you later.

Thanks again all!!!!

@fozzybear thank you for taking the time on that, here are parts in the box which I have not yet used, the closest thing relating to what you mentioned is the black tube in the pic, but after numerous attempts it doesn't fit on the focusser or anywhere near, so maybe it's not meant for that.

Thank you for your swift replies.

I extended the focuser and also extended as far as I could the circular clamp where the lens fits directly into, as shown below:

It's dark now so can't test on the aforementioned house, dare I grab my coat and brave it out onto the balcony?

Hi everyone.  English but live in southern Italy.  Apart from digesting obscene quantities of mince pies these past few days I've tried to get to grips with the telescope which Father Christmas delivered.  

Details of the equipment:

NT 150 L Newtonian Reflector 150/1200 f/8.0 Bresser Messier

I went through the collimation process and believe to have done this correctly.  Without the eyepiece in, I look through the hole and can clearly see my eye located in the centre of the circle and everything seems in order.  Problem is when I place the 25mm eyepiece in and try to focus into the changing rooms of the local female mudwrestling team on a house about 1km away  I get a very blurry image.  I can just about make out its outline, but when I remove the eyepiece from the hold and hold it just a centimetre from the entrance of the eyepiece hole I can see the image of the house almost perfectly.  Please see pics below.  

My questions are as follows:

1.  If I see my eye smack bang in the centre when doing collimation, why am I not able to focus on the house 1km away?  Even objects beyond that I can't focus on.  

2.  What's the explanation for the point about the eyepiece not being placed directly in the hole in order to see the house?