[CChelle (Michelle)]

Hi. I have had my scope (an Orion 10" dob) for 18 months now and have had many nights of great fun with it. I have also purchased a set of Orion eyepieces and coloured filters and have enjoyed them. However, I have some queries that I have not been able to discover the answer to by myself.
Firstly, I can see many of the spiral galaxies through my scope, but they only look like disks and no spiral details are seen. Is this because a 10" scope is not big enough to bring out these arm details?

Second, I have had what I think are great views of the Orion and Carina nebulas. I can clearly see the four baby stars in Orion and the Carina star in Carina, but my views look totally different to the (black and white) photographs I see in books. The photographs are far, far more detailed. Is this normal? I do not use any filter for looking at nebs. Would a filter make a huge difference?

Unfortunately I cannot photograph what I am viewing and that brings me to my third question... I have a digital SLR and I have purchased the extansion tube to go between my camera and the eyepiece fitting on my scope, but I cannot get the scope to focus sharply when the camera is attached.

I hope some of you can help with these queries.

Thanks in anticipation

Michelle