First telescope and first pic!

Hi!

Got bought a telescope for xmas , a celeston firstscope 114eq short , 114mm
reflector, 1000mm f/9 - still learning slowly what this lot means!

It came with 3 lenses, a 25mm, 12 and 6 , and a 3x barlow lense

and i have a few beginners questions please!

First thing i looked at was the moon, just to be original! , i was suprised
how clear and sharp it was seeing as i'd never used a scope before, think i
used the 25mm lense and took this photo via holding a digital camera to the
eye piece

http://img68.imageshack.us/img68/2854/moon4pc.jpg

i was impressed! , any good for a first photo?! guess i really need a moon
filter to see more details, and a proper mount for the camera

last night i had my first real play with it in the countryside where it was
lovely and dark, and i was amazed i found saturn, on the 25mm lense it was
very small, but really sharp and clean enough to see stars around it and the
rings on it, i was impressed again ! , it was small and just a creamy color,
but was there!

anyway question about the lenses, i understand the most important thing is
the light not magnification etc.. putting on the 12mm lense saturn was
larger but less sharp, and with the 6mm lense i couldn't focus at all

would this be a limitation of the scope (had similar issues with the moon)
or might it need adjusting? , when i first bought the scope by mistake i
undid the bolts holding the mirror on the back!, duh i know, didn't take
them off but was enough to loosen it, did them back up again ok, and
everything thro the 25mm lense is pin sharp, but the other lenses are not as
sharp, i do know that the top lense wont be as sharp as the lower lense, but
was wondering on the moon if it should have been as sharp. or could have
my unscrewing knocked out the focus or something?

i've got a 3x barlow lense with it, altho using that on any of the lenses
makes them not very sharp, is this just because it was a cheap plastic one
that was supplied?

thanks for any advice about focusing and lenses, and any hints or tips for a
beginner!

thanks

Chris

"Chris S" wrote in message
...

First thing i looked at was the moon, just to be original! , i was
suprised how clear and sharp it was seeing as i'd never used a scope
before, think i used the 25mm lense and took this photo via holding a
digital camera to the eye piece

http://img68.imageshack.us/img68/2854/moon4pc.jpg

Well done, nice pic

You may find the below helpful......
http://www.astronomyforbeginners.com/astrophotography/