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I'm just in from a good session with the SL 8" Dob. Again I focused on saturn as it was the first to appear at approximately 22.30 in my viewing area, and again was good but not as good as the last time with what seemed like a little hazy looking sky. I also tried the Stellalyra 2" 30mm eyepiece again and found it was able to identify Saturn's shape nicely this time, why it wouldn't last time I don't know. But this time it was fine. I then used my Tal 25 mm with the 2x Barlow as that seems to be the sweet spot for planets with my Dob. Again it was good but not as clear as last time, but I enjoyed the view for a while. Then trying the Stellalyra 9mm that came with the scope I was pleasantly surprised at how nice the view was. Possibly not as sharp as the 25mm and the 2x Barlow but not much at all in it. By this time I decided to nip in and grab a coffee and decide what to go for next. Deciding the Andromeda galaxy was my next target i put the 25mm and 2x Barlow in and took a guess at where it was in relation to cassiopiea. And with a stroke of luck had it in my eyepiece within seconds. My first deep sky object, I was chuffed to bits. Thinking that less is better for deep sky i popped the 2" 30 mm stellalyra in and found M31 again easily. This time I could see more of a difference with the inner and outer fuzzy blob, with it being slightly lighter in the seemingly centre of the galaxy. But also what I noticed with averted vision at first and by accident, as I was concentrating on M31, was a smaller fuzzy blob not far from M31, but showed up near the edge of my field of view with the 30mm in. On looking it up on Redshift, it seems its m110, an elliptical galaxy that I only noticed accidentally at first. So now I have my first two deep sky objects, which I'm over the moon with, no pun intended. By this time it was after midnight and I was thinking of packing up as I could see a bank of clouds heading my way. But just as I walked to the other side of the garden, just to see how much clear sky was left, Jupiter popped up from behind the house roof. I had to lift the dob and base to place it at the other side of the garden where I could see Jupiter, which isn't too difficult to do. My favourite 25 mm and the 2x Barlow went in and I got a cracking view of jupiter with even more detail than last time. I easily saw the Orange bands and can only put that down to thin whisps of cloud dimming jupiter slightly and acting like a filter. Iv not seen the great red spot yet, but I'll be keeping my eye open on that one. Unfortunately Jupiter got dimmer and dimmer as the clouds got thicker, so it was time to call it a night. I must say the three hours ish I was out tonight were very enjoyable and can't wait for the next clear sky. Next time I'll have a couple of deep sky objects in mind to try and find, fingers crossed.

Hi Gonariu. Iv actually got one, but it hasn't arrived yet. It has adjuster screws on the frame so it can fit over the top of the tube. I should have it by the weekend.

With the weather stopping my new Dob from looking up, I decided to give solar viewing a try, as I came across a small circle of solar film a friend gave me years ago which I kept it in the pages of an astro book. Anyway out came my startravel 102 mm refractor, which I originally got as a grab and go. Removing the centre reducing cap of the aperture dust cover, I zip tied this piece of solar filter over it and found it to be very secure. So pointing the scope to the sun until it disappeared behind the tube of the scope, I found the sun easily and was immediately grabbed by the muck on my 25 mm eyepiece. After checking I realised it wasn't muck but a nice solar spot with a few smaller ones trailing off upwards and to the left at about five o'clock of the sun's disk. This was at approximately 16.00pm. I'm sure you can imagine how I was feeling with this being the first time I'v ever looked at the sun. It was almost the same wow feeling I had with my first view of jupiter and saturn 20 odd years ago. Over about half an hour the sun spots move up and to the left a little i think, but I was that taken with the thought of actually seeing the dark centre and lighter outer of the spot that I wasn't really paying attention to any movement. So that's just from my memory after nipping in to get a zoom eyepiece to try. It is a 24x8 Astro Engineering one I was gifted by a friend a long time ago. I was pleasantly surprised how at 24x it was just as crisp, but moving up towards 8x the field of view got narrower. I found at about 20 to 18 mm the best view for me. I'm still buzzing from what I saw with it being my first time, and already have a full solar filter that will fit this scope and also my tal100r if i want to track. Hopefully I'll have some pics when I get sorted with my nexyz mount.

I managed, the settings in my laptop were stopping it from opening, so I changed them and it loaded. I have texture in the same setting yours is in the pic you sent of textures. It's working fine now and turns to the maps after zooming in so far. Thanks for your help again Laurence.

I did have , but i deleted it to download again as i might have cancelled when it didnt open when i tried to the wrong way. So its downloading again. when its done ill try the textures again.

It isn't in the list.?

Thanks Zeta, but I'm windows ten on the laptop and android on the phone.

Ah, will do. I'll try again soon, thanks again.

When I went to open the Lac files it said it wasn't a windows file? Must be a setting thing, but I'm not great at pc things.

I found that on my last outing , there were three bright passes in different directions of what looked similar to the iss passing. Not including two or three that were dim but a lot faster and just wizzed by . Theres more moving up there than I expected to see.

Great thanks again, I'll do that.

Thanks for that Laurence, Ill have a good play around with that. Looks like a great moon app. Your Gallery is very impressive too, Ill hopefully have some pics of the moon to show as Iv only got a few hand holding my phone to my Tal 100R from about a year ago. Fingers crossed I can get some more through my Stellalyra 8 Dob.

Thanks guy, plenty of food for thought there.. Unless Im mistaken the moon will be in our evening skies a week or so into August wont it?

Thanks Louis D, I'll give it another go and take your advice. The seeing conditions weren't great and I was at about fifty degrees on a star I could see at the time. I'll do it to zenith and a dark clear night, it might take a while though 😊 I checked collimation earlier and seems perfect, so must be down to me or the eye peice possibly? I'm thinking about some new ones as I'v had these twenty odd years and might not be at their best.

Cheers Mike Q that lazer looks a bit more powerful than the usual ones. My finder was set up, I just couldn't seem to get the dim fuzzy blob to show in my eyepeice, as when I swapped to my binos there it was lol. I was obviously missing it with my lack of experience, but that's my next target. I'll keep trying until I get it, iv had it in my Tal 100r before. But then part of the enjoyment for me is the hunt. The simplicity of the dob is enjoyable though, I'm sure I'll soon start finding things with practice.

My second session and I'm pleased with how it went barring a couple of minor things. Iv concluded that the 30mm eye piece supplied with the scope is only good for deep sky objects, hopefully, as it didn't even identify saturn as an oval. I'll give that a try another time for deep sky targets. And the star test with a 6.3mm eye piece didn't do what I expected, it was more like a tiny globular cluster, unless I'm still doing it wrong, as I had good views of saturn and jupiter. Saturn was my target for this time and I was pleasantly surprised considering my star test not filling me with confidence. I found my 25 mm in a 2x Barlow gave the best views, clear and sharp when good seeing seemed to switch on now and then. The 6.3 gave a decent view but was soft, so reverted back to the 25 in the Barlow and enjoyed the show. It was the same with jupiter, though I could make a slight orange colour out in the bands this time. Also trying a moon filter on jupiter did help with the brightness, but didn't really improve detail. All in all I was very happy with my main target of the night, Saturn. It too seemed to turn sharp now and then as if the seeing got better the odd time. I also had a go at M31, but could I hell find it in the scope, even though I could with my binos. I'll keep trying with that and I'm sure I'll get it eventually. All in all I had a great night, and seeing the rings of saturn as sharp as they were was a real treat. Mars turned up just after I'd packed away, which makes it a three in the morning target for where I can see it over the roof, so that's for another time. Anyway, it's been a very nice session in the garden, I'm already looking forward to the next time. But tonight was the only night this week where the clouds cleared for a few hours. So I made sure I got the scope out in case its going to be a while before the next clear night. I'll check collimation again as the star test didn't show concentric circles but what looked like a tiny globular cluster so I'll read up about how to do it again. Though it didn't seem to spoil the views tonight. Cheers all.

Hi guys Iv been browesing the moon threads and have been impressed with your pics, especially the phone to eyepiece ones, as iv had a go with my phone and sometimes liked the results, as iv never been able to get any with my dslr. Id just like to ask what are all your favourite moon aps or sites to help with planning looking at the moon? Cheers all.

Just in from first light proper which gave me a nice view of jupiter. I could make three bands out nicely, but it was very bright so was similar to looking at a full moon in that the brightness washed things out a bit. Would a moon filter help with that? I'll give that a try next time. What was a surprise was how difficult it was to find jupiter in the eye peice, but that's something I'll no doubt get better at. Anyway I went between my 25, 10 and the 9 supplied eyepiece with the scope. All performed well, and the two speed focuser is a godsend, makes it easier to get the best focus. All in all I'm very happy with what I saw tonight, cloud stopped me looking at saturn and I was going to take a look at m31 but again cloud had other ideas. The time flew, I was out at 12 ish and came in at just before three only looking at jupiter. An enjoyable few hours which I'm hoping to do again soon. Just have to wait for a cloud free sky again, fingers crossed. Cheers all

All is fine Mike Q, cheers for that, only problem, well not really a problem just a surprise. One of the two thumb screws on the extender that was left out so it would fit in its box was difficult to screw in at first, it seemed the inner thread hadn't been tapped properly so needed working in and out a bit at a time before it would screw fully in. I did check for cross threading which it wasn't, so just needed working in and out until it worked stiffly but OK. Otherwise up to now I'v not found any problems.

I hadn't thought of every screw on the tube, thanks Mike Q I'll do that tomorrow.

I'v adjusted the secondary mirror some more. Other than a minor tweek to centralise the primary mirror I'm happy with it now. And strangely enough the clouds are in for the night. Thanks again for all your help guys, I'v learned a little more this last few days.

Hi Steve I wrongly assumed you were open saturday, and my delivery arrived as long as it takes to open the packaging and start to look at the contents before I emailed is why my email was at that time. It had taken me a little while not believing the focus tube was loose and rattling in the scope even when i turned the focus nobs. my mind was trying to figure it out, and i called on the help of this forum in desperation thinking i had a faulty scope. luckily the advice i got on here sorted the problem and a very worrying time. A simple bit of paper explaining this unheard of to me focus tube arrangement to make it usable, would have avoided any misunderstandings on my part. you say its not unusual and a quick tweek is all thats needed. If id known this it would have been done. My example is two plus two is simple, but only if you know what two is. Also i expected collimation to be near enough, but it seems it was well out. the centre circle of the primary was on the outer edge of the field of view in the eyepeice but i didnt twig this until the next day after i had been dissapointed with saturn on saturday night. Again down to my ignorance and trust of the postal system. it was the next day i spent time collimating and discovered how far out it was. Not your fault , but i think some sort of paper instructions isnt a costly thing and would save a lot of this sort of experience with others that havent come across this type of focus tube set up either. Ill be able to look up, hopefully clouds permitting, from the weekend and retry what is a bit better collimated scope. My previous experience with you was exemplary, and the only thing that has let you down on this occasion, in my opinion, is assuming there are no people out there ignorant to a focus tube set up like this one. The simple solution is only simple when you know it, and i would like to think a sheet with even just the focus screw issue is added to this scope. My ignorance is to blame for what happened, but Im sure i cant be the only one that didnt know about the simply tightening the screw up solution. And thanks very much guys, Iv bookmarked the instructions. col.

Hi bosun21 It didn't actually fall out and leave the scope, it just fell out loose to its fullest position out, which was a bit of a surprise when it did, as the clack noise was a bit of a shock.

Thanks Pixies that's good to hear, I'll be waiting patiently for clear skies again to get my own eyepieces tried now. I read something on here that the new springs are better than they were, so will see how it goes. But if it goes out of collimation too easily I'll do that. Thanks again Pixies.