Telescope Reviews: Greetings from an extreme beginner

Welcome to Cloudy Nights Donna! It sounds like the trouble with the 2-inch eyepiece stems from the focuser not being able to rack in or out far enough to focus it. That is a problem that sometimes affects a Dob because there's often two inches of travel at most. If you can't rack out far enough to focus it, an extension tube will cure the problem. If it's the reverse, you'll have to shorten the trusses to get it to focus, which when I was finishing my 15-inch I had to go to get any of my eyepieces to focus. I wouldn't do that until you try the fix that you've found online. Hopefully tweaking the setscrew will eliminate the need for either course of action. If it's still a no-go, there's plenty of other 2-inch barrel eyepieces that will reach focus, and probably be much better than the stock eyepiece. For now, the ones that came with the telescope will get you started, and later you can peruse the eyepiece forums and try different eyepieces in person at starparties before buying additional eyepieces.

From a dark site, you will start seeing spiral arms and other features in galaxies through a 12-inch. There's places within two hours of you that are so dark you can see the zodiacal light with ease, and the Milky Way looks like a photo. A good 12-inch shows more objects than most people will ever get to see in a lifetime, most will be faint but there will be a good many that are impressive through a 12-inch. Right now there's a lot of spring galaxies in view for you to try your telescope on.

But for now, try it out on the moon, Jupiter and anything else you can find. If you don't already have an observing chair, red LED flashlight and some sort of star atlas, you will want to get them next. Before you can get good views, the optics will have to stop heating the air around them, so you'll need a hour or longer for the mirror to adjust to the ambient temperature. Sometimes the seeing here is just plain awful, if you cannot get sharp stars on some nights and they snap into pinpricks during other nights, you have bad seeing. Also, if you don't have a shroud for the truss poles, I would either sew one from black fabric or buy one. It keeps stray light out and slows down or prevents dewing of the main optics. I live across the bay from you, and almost every night it's a battle to keep the dew off the optics. I use heater strips, a controller, a shroud and a hefty 12-volt battery to keep the optics clear. There's also two local clubs near you, one in Mobile, and another one in Pensacola.

Most of all, take your time and have fun. Astronomy is like fishing, the point is to have fun and enjoy the stars, and the company of family or friends. Congratulations on your new telescope.

Taras