Secondary Mirror in frame when viewing Mars?

[Isaac 49]

Sorry if I’ve made a stupid beginners mistake but can anyone help with the following?

I’ve bought myself my first telescope, a Skywatcher Heritage 150P flextube and tonight was the first clear night to have my first views.

I checked the collimation before hand and it was fine. I live outside Newcastle in a small village and it seem pretty dark in our back garden.

I started with the moon which was crisp and clear with good definition of craters.

I then moved to Mars which was easy to find but when I tried to focus I got a red disc but with the secondary mirror shadow (circle in the centre with 3 sticks to the sides) over it.

Obviously I’m doing something wrong so can anyone give me some advice?

Thank you.

Isaac

[Nigella Bryant]

Sounds like focus was out, that's all. Were you using a barlow lens? 

[Isaac 49]

Hi, I wasn’t using a Barlow but now I think about it the frame appeared when Mars was very large in the viewer.

Probably my expectations of how big it should be we’re unrealistic 🙂

Thanks for the quick answer, I’ve been really impressed how welcoming this forum is.

Isaac 

[Alien 13]

The focus point for Mars or anything else will be the same as the Moon, tiny adjustments might be required to compensate for atmospherics but I do mean tiny..

Alan

[Isaac 49]

Thank you for the advice! This is exactly what I need. 
 

Cheers, Isaac

[John]

An object at focus through a scope appears at it's smallest when it is at sharp focus. Mars will look very small currently. Just a tiny pink disk like this:

If you can see the dark shape of the secondary mirror and it's supports against a larger disk of light, you are way out of focus.