Hi all,
I'm brand new to astronomy (a little lie, I got the astronomy badge with Cubs when I was tiny but have forgotten everything since!). I'm hoping to view the Jupiter/Saturn conjunction, so trying to get all set up and practiced over the next week or so.
I've just got a starter scope, a Sky-watcher SKYHAWK-1145PS 114mm. Chosen mainly due to cost and what seems to be a global shortage of telescopes at the moment severely limiting choice! But it seemed alright for the price.
I've got it set up and aligned but not sure I'm using it right. I'm looking at Mars (I think!) but can only see a very bright point of light using either the supplied 10mm or 20mm eyepiece.
When I try to adjust the zoom/focus on the eyepiece controls, instead of the object (in this case, mars) being enlarged, it just goes out of focus and what I end up seeing is a perfectly focused impression of the spider vane, which just gets bigger and bigger as I adjust the focus more.
Is that normal? Do I just need to get some different eyepieces in order to achieve a better magnification, or is there something obvious I'm doing completely wrong?
Thank you all!