[Kaibis (Cassie)]

Hi all.

We recently purchased a 10" Dobsonian (Skywatcher from Aus. Geographcic) as a starter telescope. We have taken it out twice. The first time we left the main cover on the scope (only took off the smaller cover), however we were still very impressed looking at the moon.

This morning (4am) we took it out for a second outing to look at some of the planets. The location (front yard) is not ideal as the street lights are annoying, but we are still working out the mechanics of the scope, so that isn't too much of a concern.

However, this time we took off the main cover, it was impressive just how much more we could see... BUT, the cross-hairs (are they called restraints? The bars that hold one of the mirrors near the top of the scope) and the mirror obstructed the view.

What we did see was just white light. Nothing discernible, other than the circular shape of what we were pointing at (in our case we looked at both Venus and Jupiter).

We were definitely pointed at them, as moving away removed the white circle from view. However the circle was ill-defined and nothing on the surface was distinguishable, and as mentioned it was partially obstructed by the restraints and the mirror.

I don't know what to do next. Any help will be much appreciated.