Great report Shell!
Enjoyed reading your experience right from the start of getting your dob set up
.
Looking forward to lots more reports.
Agree with Paul, a Telrad or a red dot finder will help you locate objects in the sky. I could never work out lining up stars in my finder- too much magnification = too many stars confuse me senseless. So I bought myself both an RDF & Telrad which I had sitting alonside my scope with the finder- whoa heavy front end once you put heavy premium eyepieces on
. Then I opted to sell the Telrad in preference for the RDF- I find it easier measuring the sky with my hand than the Telrad
, and also found the circles obtrusive- just me I think
. - everyone else loves 'em.
That zero magnification an RDF (or Telrad) gives is brilliant- it shows the sky as it is and then is easy to put the red dot on the sky as you see it. Also very helpful if you find an object- you measure the sky in degress with your hand after locating the closest bright star that object sits near (bit of rough sketching of star field thru telescope helps too).
Hold on a min...
The skies must love you- how come it wasn't cloudy on your first light?! Makes no sense...
Unless... you did the clewwwds disappear chant