LunarPoetry

Hey there, cool forum you've got here! I've been reading it a fair bit recently. Not long ago I walked into a Currys, saw the display of telescopes and thought how cool it would be to get one. I've had a lifelong interest in space and astronomy, but never owned a telescope before. When I was much younger, I saw Saturn through a telescope (couldn't tell you what) and it blew me away. Anyway, following some research I realised that going into Currys and getting a telescope for a hundred-odd quid would not be the best way to get started. So began several weeks of seemingly neverending research and consideration. A lot to take in for sure. A few days ago I bit the bullet on something that had appealed to me from the start, but was about the limit of the budget. So, I'm now the owner of a Skywatcher Explorer 150p on an EQ3-2 mount. I've only had the scope a few days and have used it twice so far. I have found the EQ mount relatively straightforward to operate once I had everything set up, which reassured me, as I had a few moments where I thought I would be in over my head with the mount. I got some breathtaking views of the Moon despite the glare, but the best part was Jupiter, very bright with visible moons and some colour banding visible in the atmosphere, which was better the more I concentrated. I looked at Mars briefly, and could just about make out hints of darker areas against the surface if I focused. I have to say that seeing these things with your own eyes, especially for the first time, is another level of awesome. So with all that out of the way, I'd like to pick your brains on a few points: Eyepieces - I understand that the included 10 and 25mm eyepieces are decent but not amazing. I'm thinking of upgrading to the equivalent Skywatcher Plossl eyepieces. Is that a good enough step up, or should I be looking at anything else? I've read that BST Starguiders are great, but I'm a bit lost in terms of what MM I should be going for. If it helps, planets are slightly more what I want to look at from where I am at home (Bortle 7, it turns out - but I've used the scope on noticeably clearer nights here, and I'm not too far from a Bortle 5 area). Taking care of the scope - Last night I'd been using the scope for an hour or two and frost had begun to form on the outside of the tube - when I brought it back in, the primary mirror fogged up a bit as I forgot to put the cap back on first. Today the mirror looks fine, but would that have done any harm? There seems to be differing opinions on the procedure for bringing it inside after using it outside in the cold. Dirt on the mirror - I have what looks like a small piece of grass or something on the primary mirror, not sure how it got in there, but should I be worried about this? Image - I have not attempted to try and remove it myself and it doesn't seem to be causing a problem at the moment. Diffraction spikes on planets - I must not have noticed this at first as I was too busy being stunned by what I was seeing, but somehow I became aware of it like it hadn't been there before. I looked this up and it seems attributable to the cross-shaped part that holds the secondary mirror, but they are fairly apparent now that I notice them more. I haven't attempted to collimate this scope yet, for what its worth. I assume its aligned well enough already as there are otherwise no blatantly obvious flaws with the image that I'm aware of, but I am going to collimate it when I get the right tool and am sure I won't mess it up. If this effect is inherent to the design then I can live with that, but is there any way to reduce or get around it? Was the atmosphere making it worse maybe? Thanks and I appreciate your help!