first telescope problem seeing distant objects

[cider]

Hi

Help please! Im all very new to this and would really appreciate some help in using a recently aquired telescope. Its a Sky watcher 200mm dobsonian reflector which i bought for my wife. However she really has shown little interest so i have decided to try it out. Viewing near objects is great. Setting up the spotter scope etc is ok and i have had some great views of the moons surface. The problem is however when i point it at a star. All i see is a white blur and a  view of a cross which im guessing is the the mirror bracket of the telscope. Im some what puzzled as to how the moon is fine to view but distant objects (stars etc) are not.

Can anyone please enlighten me ?

[Tinker1947]

Just a matter of getting the focus right, its not broken......move the focuser really slowly the white blur will get bigger, then your going the wrong way, smaller will after a few more turns turn into a star.....

[ronin]

Don't have the scope model but check that all the eyepiece adaptors are right, recall several have initial focus problems by not having the right sequence of bits in. Maybe too many in I think.

Someone may be able to clarify but that is another option.

At present your eyepiece should be too far out which is why the secondary and spider are managing to appear.

[cider]

Thanks. Well after i put this post up i dragged the beast outside and after while a nice bright object appeared between a gap in the trees low in the east to set the finder up with. Jupiter ? blumming amazing and could see a few of its moons. Well chuffed to be honest. Think i may be expecting too much of stars through the scope as i guess they will always be very bright objects. Think i may be trying to use too many eyepieces and it will be a case of having a fiddle. Thanks again

[steppenwolf]

Viewing actual stars can often cause confusion - they are so far away that they will always appear just as a tiny dot no matter how big or powerful your telescope. I'm delighted for you that you have found and enjoyed Jupiter - the journey of discovery has just begun!

[Stu]

Glad you found Jupiter, it is pretty amazing.

Stars will only ever show as points of light, they are too far away to show as a disk. There are plenty of objects around to look at though, open clusters of stars, globular clusters, nebulae etc.

If you haven't already, download a programme called stellarium, it's free and will show you where everything is.

Not too far from Jupiter at the moment is Orion. If you look at the middle star of the 'sword' you will see the Orion Nebula which is amazing to see.

Stu

[brantuk]

Some stars are very interesting - try Albireo - it's a double star and appears as a beautiful gold star in the foreground with a cold blue one behind it. Have a look also at Betlegeuse - it should have a red'ish hue to it. And the Pleiades is a beautiful array of blue'ish stars.

Otherwise stars will just be pinpoints of light. This is useful though because you can check your scope focus with them. If when looking at a star you see faint rings of light around it, then you're out of focus in one direction or the other. Get the star nice and tight and sharp with no rings around it and you'll be well focused.