Hi,
I bought a telescope a few months ago (Skywatcher Black Diamond 12" Collapsible Dobsonian Telescope), and have since tried to view it from my urban house a number of times but all I can see is white dot "stars". The best thing I've been able to view was the moon in all it's detail, however anything else in the sky just looks like white dots, nothing like what I see in photos captured.
I understand that those photos I see on the web, complete with all the nebula gas, galaxy, etc are under exposure and taken over a length of time, however I'm trying to figure out why I can't see absolutely anything.... except white dots, like as if I had no telescope and was just looking directly up to the sky.
Do you think this is because of the urban city I live in and everything is hidden? I do notice that on a few ocasions when I was at my friends place (he lives far out in the city), I could see the arms of the milkyway with my bare eyes, but have NEVER seen that from my house. When I go up to the mountains, I can also see a huge fog like dome around the city. Could this be why?? city fog/smog?
When I take my Canon 5D with a 70-200mm and point it up to the sky and exposure it for 30 seconds, I can see thousands of stars, and different colours, but it seems anything I view under the telescope is just black, with a few white dots. Am I doing something wrong??
I tried buying astrophotography gear, but it seems because of the way my telescope is setup (Collapsible Dobsonian), it's impossible to shoot galaxies etc.
I should of gotten a normal telescope like this:
http://www.ozscopes.com.au/cassegrai...star-6-se.html
This is what I bought:
http://www.ozscopes.com.au/dobsonian...e-12-inch.html
I fail. Anyone want a cheap 12" scope?