OK.
Having read some threads regarding Naglers, dobs, EQ's and wotnot, I have come to the conclusion that my starter equipment is just enough to whet my appetite and may never allow me to view anything other than the Moon. Now don't get me wrong, My beloved relatives, newly emigrated from England, purchased all my current equipment as a thank you gift for providing them a home after they first arrived and I love it. But I could do with some advice which helps me to understand the real limitations of my telescope so I don't continuously keep looking up at the sky hoping that the reason for the blurred edges of Venus are just a poor seeing phenomenon or hoping that suddenly Mars will reveal all its colour or confirm that I have found Saturn its just too small to make out any detail whatsoever.
So, I have a Celestron Nexstar4 (4" Maksutov Cassegrain) with what I imagine to be 2 very standard eyepieces (Both Celestron)at 25mm and 10mm). I find the tracking system useful to save constantly moving the tripod, and the alignment procedure is pretty quick and easy. The Goto function is slightly innacurate which leaves me wondering what I should be looking at most of the time but I am studying the use of skycharts etc.
I want to be able to look at most of the closer planets and photograph them. (another old passion of mine). I would be interested to hear from anyone who might be able to give me a clue as to what I should be seeing. eg Saturn as I failed to discriminate this from surrounding stars - unless I was looking in the wrong place! Now maybe with appetite whetted I need to consider something larger, if so what would be my best investment given my photographic interests, which is likely to last me a few years. I am concerned that I may already have outgrown my fab gift.
