Having trouble staying on target!

[Jimsta]

Went out tonight and had a brief look at the moon. Then i tried to look at Saturn i lined up with the spotter scope looked through the eyepiece (barlow then 25mm) and i had a small dot of Saturn i quickly replaced the 25mm with a 10mm and i went to focus but i did not have enough time Saturn had already moved before i could get a god look. This happened repeatedly as i tried to get close to looking at Saturn it seems i cant get a look before it moves. Any advice how to stay on saturn? 

[knobby]

Suss the motion direction and place Saturn as far to the start of drift as possible ... Then quickly change ep and it should be on its way into view

[bingevader]

It just takes time and practice, but it will come and does become easier, almost second nature to nudge or tweak the object back into view as it drifts off.

[Schorhr]

It can be a bit difficult at first to look, focus and track, but hang in there.

Also an eyepiece with more then fifty degree apparent field of view helps.

[MattJenko]

Also, if you note the direction Saturn is moving across the lower magnification eyepiece, then it is simply a matter of catching it up in that direction if it is not in the field of view when you go for a high magnification eyepiece. It takes a bit of practice, but even lengthy changes should not result in a completely unfindable object.

[MattJenko]

And that advice is all assuming you haven't got some strange image flipping/rectifying eyepiece, which is what came with my AstroMaster as one of the two supplied eyepieces. One rectifying eyepiece and one not. Very confusing for a beginner, which I most certainly was.

[m37]

If you leave the eyepieces in but not tightened down you can swap them quicker. Make sure you're careful though as they can get dropped easily! If you go from 25 to 10 quickly enough there should still be a bit of a blurry rendition left, even if you're not focused you will see it moving across your field of view.

I'm planning on getting some parfocal rings to cut down on re-focussing but I've not tried them yet.

cheers

Chris

[ronin]

What scope have you got?

If you have a goto or tracking one then that is one problem and if it is a manual dobsonian that is another.

One reason to buy eyepieces in sets like the BST Explorers or the Celestron X-Cel's are that they are parfocal within the set, so a lot less refocusing when you change from one to another. If you buy a "mix" then you have to refocus when altering eyepieces.

P.S. I see I have just hit 5000 and become Main Sequence.

[Gomtuu]

I use a parfocal zoom lens, so no need to swap eyepieces. The down side is that a good zoom is not cheap.

[Charic]

Stay with the lower powers. As you practice and use the scope more, you will become more efficient, it just takes time. Also you could/may consider using a zoom lens, then you wont have to swap out your eyepieces.