Lorraine Eason Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Hi everyone, I joined back in July, and like most of you were probably expecting this Covid nightmare to be soon over. But as things have dragged on, I've found my time taken up by family matters and as such I've had little opportunity to get more involved. I've picked things up again over this holiday however, and hope I can finally pick up some momentum! So, as a reminder I have a Celestron CR150-HD. Although it is clock driven on both axes, I've decided to upgrade the original mount to a Skywatcher GOTO. This it seems I have to wait for, as everywhere appears to be out of stock!! So I'm trying to get to grips with my little 70mm Skylux while I wait. Failed miserably last night and gave up because my toes had gone numb; wandered in thinking to myself 'I really need some help with this', hence my return! 🙃😂 Fingers crossed I'll be able to keep up with you guys this time...🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+RonC Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Welcome back Lorraine, what's the problem? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BAZ Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Hi again Lorraine, welcome back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tuckstar Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Welcome back. I can highly recommend heated insoles or heated socks. Doesn't matter how warm or cold the rest of me is, once my toes are numb its game over. +RonC 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorraine Eason Posted January 1, 2021 Author Share Posted January 1, 2021 2 hours ago, tuckstar said: Welcome back. I can highly recommend heated insoles or heated socks. Doesn't matter how warm or cold the rest of me is, once my toes are numb its game over. Exactly! I'm the same. I'll certainly be looking at keeping my feet warmer, that's for sure. I was trying to observe the moon last night, and struggled with focussing. I realised I'd started off with too high a power lens; I could pick out craters, etc but I had no idea where I was looking on the lunar surface and couldn't get a crisp image. Anyway, what I'd really wanted was to get a view of the whole disc that I could try and get a picture of. So I then tried the lowest lens I have, which is a 20mm Plossl that came with my Celestron, and all I could get was a bright blur filling my field of view 😒 I don't know if I just hadn't or couldn't hit the 'sweet spot' with regards focussing, or if there was something else wrong. I know Sky Live was telling me seeing conditions were 'poor', and when I was trying to pick out craters I did observe some turbulence across my field of view, but I still would have expected to have been able to get a view of the disc, which I didn't. I wear glasses, but with or without them I couldn't get a comfortable view. I wondered about eye relief, and whether an eye cup would help as most of my lenses don't have them. I then trotted back into the house, saying to myself that I really needed to be out trying to observe with someone who knew what they were doing to guide me 🤣 I know that that's not going to happen for a while, but I thought coming back here would be a start 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Graham Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Hi Lorraine You will probably find you will need an extension tube between the focuser and your 20mm eye piece to get to focus on the moon using that scope. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorraine Eason Posted January 1, 2021 Author Share Posted January 1, 2021 34 minutes ago, Graham said: Hi Lorraine You will probably find you will need an extension tube between the focuser and your 20mm eye piece to get to focus on the moon using that scope. Ahhhh....☺️ Thanks Graham! I'll try that.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Bino-viewer Posted January 1, 2021 Share Posted January 1, 2021 Maybe a daft question : do you have the star diagonal in place between the focuser and eyepiece ? And assuming you have, have you tried focusing on a distant daytime terrestrial object, just to see ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brantuk Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 Hi Lorraine and welcome back. 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stephen Posted January 2, 2021 Share Posted January 2, 2021 Hi Lorraine welcome back Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lorraine Eason Posted January 2, 2021 Author Share Posted January 2, 2021 (edited) 16 hours ago, Bino-viewer said: Maybe a daft question : do you have the star diagonal in place between the focuser and eyepiece ? And assuming you have, have you tried focusing on a distant daytime terrestrial object, just to see ? ...I think I did...🤔 I got it out a couple of months ago, set up and aligned the mount and everything (mostly before dark), then picked it up wholesale and put it back in the shed when the clouds rolled in. I did think on this occasion I may need to go through the whole process again, as much as anything to familiarise myself with it so that I'd eventually remember how to do it without having to refer to the manual all the time! But I was so eager the other night, I just treated it like a 'grab and go' and hoped for the best....🤔 Edited January 2, 2021 by Lorraine Eason Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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