First contact with the night sky - amazing!

[Extreme007]

On 02/10/2018 at 17:12, cloudsweeper said:

Glad you're enjoying your first viewings!  I reckon the Moon is best viewed well away from full - less intense, plus more detail, esp. along the terminator with the shadows created by the features.  As others have said, if you increase the mag (with smaller focal  length eyepieces), the glare will be reduced.  (Don't know if that 'scope has a smaller aperture cover - some do - and stopping down the opening also reduces glare, but at the expense of resolution/detail.)

Have fun!

Doug.

Thanks doug. It did have a smaller cover. I will give that a try and see if that helps. Knew it had to have a use. ?

[Stu]

1 hour ago, Extreme007 said:

Thanks doug. It did have a smaller cover. I will give that a try and see if that helps. Knew it had to have a use. ?

It’s worth a try if you are really struggling, but as Doug says using such a small aperture will reduce the resolution and detail visible. At lower powers this shouldn’t matter too much, but at high powers you will be missing out on your scope’s potential, so either using a filter or just getting used to it are the best options. 

[JOC]

It was the off-centeredness of the cap that baffled and still continues to baffle me, it is even more offset in the 8".  However amazingly it works fine!  I think its due to a curve on the mirror that biunces the light that is there to the secondary regardless of what part of the primary it cones from.  However, I could easy be wrong.  It is one those things that just seems to work.

[Extreme007]

On 04/10/2018 at 06:21, Stu said:

It’s worth a try if you are really struggling, but as Doug says using such a small aperture will reduce the resolution and detail visible. At lower powers this shouldn’t matter too much, but at high powers you will be missing out on your scope’s potential, so either using a filter or just getting used to it are the best options. 

Thanks. As you say I probably just need to acclimatise my viewing and also when using higher mag that will help too. I did really get a chance to try the higher mag yet. But I wil also check out the smaller aperture in the end cap and see if that helps. It's a useful bit of know how for times of need if it does work. Thanks again for the advice.

[Extreme007]

On 04/10/2018 at 07:49, JOC said:

It was the off-centeredness of the cap that baffled and still continues to baffle me, it is even more offset in the 8".  However amazingly it works fine!  I think its due to a curve on the mirror that biunces the light that is there to the secondary regardless of what part of the primary it cones from.  However, I could easy be wrong.  It is one those things that just seems to work.

Thanks. I suspect you are right. Less light from the entire front aperture from the same distant object but it's still sent back to the same secondary position so it should be darker in theory. Secondary school physics in my distant memory somewhere in there ?. Hope these sky's clear soon to try these theories out ? thanks again for the help.

[Stu]

2 hours ago, Extreme007 said:

Thanks. I suspect you are right. Less light from the entire front aperture from the same distant object but it's still sent back to the same secondary position so it should be darker in theory. Secondary school physics in my distant memory somewhere in there ?. Hope these sky's clear soon to try these theories out ? thanks again for the help.

If you think about it, Light is coming back to the secondary from all over the primary so just limiting it to a small offset section of it still allows the light to reach the secondary. The added benefit of this is, if the hole is positioned between the secondary spider vanes, then the entire light path is effectively unobstructed, so no diffraction spikes or light scatter from the secondary. Should give improved contrast. On large scopes (say 16”) it is possible to achieve a 6” or more aperture unobstructed scope.

[JOC]

1 hour ago, Stu said:

The added benefit of this is, if the hole is positioned between the secondary spider vanes, then the entire light path is effectively unobstructed, so no diffraction spikes or light scatter from the secondary.

S'funny I always forget about that advantage, well spotted ?