Troubleshooting Orion XT6 Telescope

[ashibebe23]

Hello from Chandler, Arizona everyone! Can someone please help me with my Orion XT6 Telescope? I'm trying to observe Venus and Jupiter in conjunction right now at 5:09 AM and and I have my telescope  pointed at Venus and Jupiter and my issue I'm having is when I looked through the eyepiece for some reason what I'm looking at is just a bright ball of light with it looks like I'm looking at the mirror inside the telescope....its obvious that something is not set up correctly I'm very new to stargazing and telescopes I don't know how to fix this can somebody please help me I really want to see these 2 planets in conjunction before its too late!! Thank you!!

[Rallemikken]

You are most likely out of focus. Set it to something faraway, street lamp or such. Put the focuser all the way in, grab the eyepiece in your hand, look through it and move it gently in the axis of the focuser tube. When things sharpen up you are in the range. Maybe you need a extension tube.

 

[Rallemikken]

The theory is this: Set the focuser midway. Put the eyepiece all the way into the focuser. You see a "ball of light", as you call it. Rotate the focuser knobs both ways. One way the ball should shrink, the other it should grow (become more fuzzy). Most likely it shrinks while you rotate the tube outwards. If you cant get enough out, maybe you can pull the eyepiece a little out  of the focuser tube?