So I got my 8" dob out last night, luckily there were not as many clouds as the night before. Decided to clear out for my birthday I think
I pretty much winged it, because I just wanted to get some viewing in ASAP, as I had been working, missing out on my first go!
I saw the Moon in GREAT detail! Absolutely loved it.
Then I decided to look at a really bright, possible star or planet that I'd seen earlier in the week. I'm pretty sure it was just a light on the mountains, incredibly bright though for some reason, and huge, not sure why it's there.
But I could see details on those mountains in the trees etc that I couldn't even hope to see with my naked eyes, it just looked like a blob with my eyes lol
Then I looked at another bright star, which turned out to be Jupiter!
I could see the 4 moons, and Callisto was further out than I expected.
They really just looked like really small/far away stars, I was surprised at how bright they were! I could even see the "rings" (Layers, not rings of rocks, don't know what you guys call them).
There was no colour at all to it really, just grey and white. But the viewing condition weren't ideal either.
Do you think I could expect colour with an 8" in good conditions?
I also found some other cool stars, just looking for the brightest ones by eye and then finding them in the scope by relation to the other stars.
Figured out how to collimate my finder scope by myself also, was really easy. At least I hope I'm doing it correctly lol
I just adjusted the screws, which moved it around, and aligned the crosshair with what I was seeing in the telescope.
Was really fun, I spent about 2 hours or so out there, felt like 20-30 minutes haha
I did find it a bit annoying with the Dob mount though. It does move with about a few millimetre give. Like I was trying to centre Jupiter in my eyepiece and it kept moving back to where it was before, when I was only moving it a few mm. I might be able to fix that somehow though. I also didn't like how easily it spun around, moved a lot when I was focusing and aligning the finder scope etc.
One question.... What is the highest magnification eyepiece you would use on an 8-inch?
The Moon so often gets ignored but it's an absolute wonder in its own right for observers. Nice description of Jupiter and moons too. The 'rings' are usually called 'bands'. As far as colours go, it's very subtle and it is probably just something that will grow on you as you continue to observe, rather than being tied to particular conditions. As far as magnification goes, on planets, say, the conditions will dictate it. Might look good at low powers but when you zoom in the planet goes mushy and you find you can't focus properly. That will be the 'seeing' (atmospheric distortion). Then you might get that one magic night when you can keep zooming in, obtaining crisp focus & seeing very fine detail - it's what all observers hope for every time they set up! For deep sky, generally stick to lower powers except on tiny objects like planetary nebulae, or double stars etc. But play around with it to see what limits the light grasp of your scope will allow.
