Rays of light from stars?

[ken spencer]

Is it normal to see rays or shafts of light when looking at stars? Its kinda like what you see in Photographs. Could it be atmospherics? It happened with the brighter higher magnitude stars. I was using a high powered 6mm Lens on my Dob at the time. Not noticed too much before.

Ken

[ronin]

Diffraction spikes from the spider that holds the secondary in place ?

Were ther 4 of them? Assuming thatthe spider you have composes of 4 bits, otherwise 3?