Andy250px

So after cleaning my secondary mirror and setting up I finally got a chance to test it out for a bit tonight and it seems to have made a big difference! Looking at the orion nebula I could clearly make out a small bunch of about 5 stars in the middle and even zoomed all the way in to 8x it was very clear. Very please. It has also seemed to fix my focus problem somehow and I now don't need to pull the eyepiece out to get focus ? double bonus! Thanks again guys!

Yeah I had a check today and it's extended as far as possible. My scope only has one click at the top. I took the secondary off and gave it a clean today and collimated the scope so hopefully I'll get a chance to see if there is any difference. Is there any way to reduce the slack movement in my focuser other than spending a fortune on an upgrade? It's not much but there is play enough that maybe my heavier eyepieces will hinder my view quality? Andy.

Is there anyway to check to see if the secondary is too small? When collomating with my Cheshire I need to have the focuser most of the way out before I can see all off the primary mirror, don't really know if that's normal or not? I didn't clean the secondary with the primary because it looked ok but it has been sitting for a good while so maybe that would be worth a shot. Unfortunately I have no comparison for how the stars should look but to me they look fairly sharp but not perfect pin sharp. I had though that maybe I just needed some better eyepieces but that starts to cost alot really fast. Almost bought a scientific explore 20mm 100° eyepieces for a bargain off here but the guy never got back to me so didn't get to test that theory unfortunately.

Think I'll need to look into my local astronomy club, I'm sure they will be able to see what's wrong just by having a quick look. Cheer for your help lads, lots of helpful advice I'll definitely be making use of. ?

I will definitely try leaving it outside the next time I get a chance to use it. I flocked the inside when I took the primary mirror out to clean because it looked pretty dirty up close and the scope also came with the shroud which definitely makes a difference. Not to sure what baffling is tbh? Maybe I need somewhere better to view from but when it's really clear I can see the milky-way faintly like a long cloud, so figured that was pretty dam good. Also one other thing that might not help is no matter how much I try to collimate I can never set my eyepieces all the way into the focuser, I always need to pull them out a few mm just to get focus. I keep meaning to get some solar film to look at the sun but it always slips my mind for some reason. Just feeling a like the potential is lost in my scope for some reason. It was a bargain and the first time I looked at the moon it paid for itself. Thanks for you comments guys. Andy.

Thanks for the speedy reply. I forgot to mention it's the flextube if that make a difference. I have the scope in my conservatory and when I think it's going to be clear I open the outside door and sit the scope there before it even gets dark lol. The eyepieces I have at the moment are the baader zoom mrk3 and a 30mm 2" Altair. It came with a 20mm and a 5mm both not great compared to the zoom.

I know this is an old post but I'm needing some advice about my skywatcher 250px dobsonian. I've had it since about the end of last winter so didn't have much opportunity to check out many dso's. The last couple of weeks have given me seriously clear sky's considering I stay in a small town but I don't seem to be getting great views. Orion nebula looks good but still kinda faint and last night I struggled to find the ring and dumbbell but even when I did there wasn't any more detail than a faint galaxy. I have seen jupiter but the belts are very faint and saturn is just tiny with a glimpse of the ring. I've tried collimation with laser and Cheshire but it doesn't seem to make much difference. Cleaning the main mirror made a massive difference but I was only looking at the moon to begin with. Any help would be appreciated. I just feel something isn't right. Andy.