thestargaze

1 hour ago, Gfamily said:

Saturn will be at its highest as it passes due South (the same for anything else* ), and that should be at about 1:30 BST tonight, getting slightly earlier each night over the next few months. 

Jupiter is about 3 hours behind, so I'm a bit surprised you were saying about seeing Jupiter and then Saturn a few hours later

You should have easily seen up to 4 moons of Jupiter, whereas Saturn only has the one easily spotable moon through your scope. Though it's rings should make it unmistakable.

* assuming you're in the northern hemisphere of course - below the equator everything is at its highest as it passes the North.

I meant Uranus .. I have Saturn on my brain right now. Really want to see it but it’s towards the south direction and I have a large tree there so I can’t see it well. Hoping I might see a glimpse of above the balcony divider or earlier than yesterday (but I guess it will be to low by then).

I would love to observe from the ground but the scope is to big for me to cart so far and it’s very difficult because I live in an apartment.

Yes, I live in Sweden. 

2 hours ago, wulfrun said:

The atmosphere plays a big part in what you get to see on any night. Your 8" dob is well capable of showing a great deal but conditions need to be right. Patience is something you'll need in spades! If you're looking at (say) Jupiter, look at nearby stars too...if they're twinkling madly it's a sure sign views will be poor. Always best to wait until things are as high as possible too, you'll be looking through less atmosphere. And you need to hold the view, not take a quick glance. The longer you look, the more you'll see. Your brain starts putting together the details that are there, fleetingly, in the moments that the view is steady.

The eyepieces supplied with scopes are usually mediocre at best, so worth upgrading as soon as you can afford it.

Here's an excellent guide to collimation, without making it too complex or technical:

https://garyseronik.com/a-beginners-guide-to-collimation/

Above all, keep going!

Can you recommend some good but not too expensive eye pieces? I was looking at the StellaLyra line at about 50 pound a piece but if you say they are not good enough.., 

2 hours ago, Mike Q said:

Just a note about the eyepieces, the ones they gave you with the scope... especially the 30mm... I use it as a paperweight.   The only time I ever got a good view out of mine is when I used a coma corrector with it, then the image cleared up and were ok.  Not great but ok.  I use a plain Jane GSO corrector and the are 120 USD.  I have way better eyepieces that didn't break the bank that give much better images.

Cajen2 mentioned a laser to collimate with, I use one too and it works well.  With that said you have to make sure that the laser is properly aligned itself before you can really get the best out of them.  

A 8 inch dob is considered by many to be the best all around starter scope there is and there are guys out there that have stayed with them for decades.  

Can you recommend three or two eye pieces for the scope that won’t be too expensive?
 

Do I really need a plain GSO corrector? Have to Google what it is. Never heard of it.

It’s funny because I like the 30 mm the most, mainly because of the high eye relief, large aperture, high FOV and it’s easy to find objects like Jupiter. I see the moons very nice, very small but clear (to me).

4 hours ago, cajen2 said:

I also have an 8" dob (StellaLyra) and can view both planets with no problems when they're high enough.

For collimation, Robertl is quite right: it's very difficult to reach the adjustment knobs for the primary and use a collimation cap at the same time. I use a laser collimator 

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/other-collimation-tools/astro-essentials-125-laser-collimator.html

and find it very easy indeed. You just need to check that the laser is perfectly centred. If you loosen the focuser knobs just enough that you can rotate it, then check the red dot by looking down the scope, if there's no movement, the collimator is fine. Honestly, it's a five-minute job for me to do both secondary and primary mirrors with it. There are no doubt umpteen YouTube videos if you need them.

Can you recommend a video or some instruction with pictures for collimating with the cap? I don’t have an laser collimating laser yet. It’s on my shopping list for September.

Do you need a tool to adjust the nobs (secondary and primary) on the StellaLyra scope? 

9 minutes ago, RobertI said:

The other point is that the planets need to be reasonably high in the sky - if they are too close to the horizon you will get too much distortion from the atmosphere. Might explain why Jupiter looked better?

This could maybe explain the prickly appearance because it was relative low, I left around 2:00 yesterday (maybe I should have waited). I thought It would be fine because I could see Jupiter when it was relative low. As time passes it moves upward of course. When do I know when it will be less distortion due to horizon? 

Actually no I haven’t, I only got an collimation cup. Not sure how to do this practically. Jupiter seems fine but maybe it’s because it’s so large in comparison. 

Yesterday I was observing night sky with my 8 inch Dobsonian telescope. I let it be outside for a hour and so to let it get accumulated to the 12 degree Celsius temperature. I only have two eye pieces that came with it, Superview 30 mm 2 inch and 9 mm plössel 1,25 inch. I did have a 2x Barlow 1,25 mm inch but I can’t focus well enough with it. It’s hard to re-find the object. 

Which of the two is better, Heritage 150p and 127 Mak? The latter being a bit more expensive. I noticed that most people mention 150p. I guess you could get the 127 Mark as a stand-alone scope to combine with the goto tabletop setup? Also which tripod would you recommend for this table top setup? I saw someone attaching it to a tripod.