Where am I going wrong

[suttonguitar]

Hi folks I am rather new at skywatching and I am becoming more and more disappointed at what I can see with my new Skywatcher 102mm refractor. I read your posts and you appear to be able to see so much more than I can or magazines such as Sky at Night say you should be able to see. I have just been able to go out tonight for the first time in ages and found Saturn. I could see it clearly but even with filters I could not make out the division in the rings. When I looked at Mars on a previous night I could see a nice red ball!

I had a 6" reflector but if I moved on the ground too hard it would shake and take an age to steady itself by which time the object had moved out of view and needed to be re centred thus starting the whole shaking process over again.

This is why I did some reasearch and bought the refractor from a reputable dealer.

I find my 10x50 binoculars give me a much more rewarding evening than the telescope.

The question is am I doing something wrong or have I seen what this telescope is able to show me?

I would appreciate your adive.

Many thanks

Suttonguitar

[Jamie]

If i had only one word to use mate it would have to be MAGNIFICATION

[Mick.G.]

Hi SG.

Lots of factores to take onboard,as Skyguy said to much mag',was the scope cooled down enough ,was the object to close to the horizon,light pol' to much Moon glow.No two night's viewing are the same,so keep plugging away,& don't be disappointed Astronomy has a large learning curve.

Mick

BTW welcome to the forum.

[radioactive]

I would point out that you can never ever get a mount that is too good it is in many many ways the weak link of a persons setup hence lots of vibrations will cause dreadful viewing both visibly

and worse still if you are trying out any imaging so my tip mate is get yourself as good a mount as you can possibly afford."The mount is paramount"

[FLO]

Hi SG,

Welcome to SGL

Please tell us more about your setup and the sky you observe under:

Is your Skywatcher the long or short tube (Startravel) version?

Which eyepieces are you using?

What mount is it on?

How much light-pollution do you have in your area and are you viewing from a garden, thru a skylight ... etc?

I am guessing that you are only just scratching the surface of what you can see; your answers to the above will help us advise.

Steve