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Thinking about getting back into Astronomy

I finally got to try out my larger 8"telescope last night. Looked at the moon a little and a few stars. It's sweet. I got such a great deal on that. When we start getting some warmer nights around here, I will break it out more often. I am going to need to buy a nice right-angle finder for it though. I think a Telrad would be too hard with the way this one sits on the ground.

 
Installed my new raci finder on my scope and tried it out last night. I went to align it and it seemed blurry. I thought something was wrong with it. I kept playing with it and couldn't figure it out. I thought something must be wrong and I will have to send it back and get a new one. Come to find out there is a focuser on the top, but you must do the unlock ring first by spinning it out. Once it's spun out of the way, grab the front, and adjust the focus, then run the lock ring back up to lock it into place. Everything is fixed now, and the image is nice and sharp. 

 
I am kind of mad that I didn't get to see the great alignment of all the planets here lately. I took the trash down last night and noticed that you can see a lot of the plants visible right now with just the naked eye. I know @ryanator and @C Pav were telling me about Venus and the moon the other night and how everything was aligned up nicely, but unfortunately our skies were too cloudy.
 
A couple of things that I have noticed, has anyone else noticed that it seems like about the last 4 years none of the evening are warm at night anymore? I used to get out my telescope because the evening were warm at about 11, but it hasn’t been that way in years now. My second observation is has anyone else looked up at the night sky lately? There are objects floating by all over the place, and no it’s not the string of Starlink satellites, it must be other satellites and they are everyone. I went out for 5 minutes last night and there were objects wizzing by left and right.
 
nodle said:
A couple of things that I have noticed, has anyone else noticed that it seems like about the last 4 years none of the evening are warm at night anymore? I used to get out my telescope because the evening were warm at about 11, but it hasn’t been that way in years now. My second observation is has anyone else looked up at the night sky lately? There are objects floating by all over the place, and no it’s not the string of Starlink satellites, it must be other satellites and they are everyone. I went out for 5 minutes last night and there were objects wizzing by left and right.
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Must be Elon's space lasers.
 
So my wife was at a thrift store yesterday, and she messaged me, and they had an Orion Starblast 4.5 there for $10.00. It's somewhat in rough shape, not bad; it did not have a lens cover on, but surprisingly the primary mirror is in good shape and looks dust-free. It's a shame I can't find replacement parts for it, but overall, what a steal!

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