Cup of Tea

With a small scope you'll not see much of Mars beyond a very small orange disc. Jupiter and Saturn are much more pleasing but they're both very low at the moment. Stars will only ever appear as points of light. No matter what eyepiece you use. You'll just be able to see more of them. Try the Moon. You'll get a much better feel for the scope and what it can do. Also have a look at here... PS Mars is a planet, not a 'star'.

Hi all I have an older 8" Newtonian from Orion Optics. Pretty sure it's a Europa 200. The knurled metal tube clamp nuts are too small for cold hands, so I am looking for replacements. The thread appears to 8mm stnd but isn't, and doesn't look like 8mm fine. Anyone know the correct thread or, even better, where to source some good tube clamp nuts?

When using a laser collimator, if the dot moves when you rotate the laser, then I suspect the collimator needs collimating.

I call it low density television...

Simple. Just need something about 10 times the size of Hubble.

John, try the led again but first give it a good scouring with some Emery paper. This’ll give you a much more diffuse light.

It's been truly grim, hasn't it? I'm developing a bad case of moss.

Hi, just joined and thought I should say hello. I live in Banchory, Aberdeenshire. Just got myself an 8 inch newtonian on a Vixen GP mount. Often in Winter we get days and days of cold crisp nights where the skies just get clearer and clearer. No sign of it this year though, just rain, rain, rain since I bought the thing - so that's probably my fault... sorry.