There are too many stars...

[Stub Mandrel]

I feel like Dave in 2001 when he goes into the obelisk... "its full of stars!"

Last night after my obligatory ruin at Jupiter it finally was clear enough to start looking for interesting things. I failed to see the Messier objects in Leo, so I thought I would point the scope more or less vertical and try and see M101. I failed but I didn't use the setting circles, partly because I wasn't sure I was looking at Miraz or not. There seem to be vastly more stars about! I was using a 20mm eyepiece, Stellarium only showed me about 9, but I'm sure I could see more. I know Miraz is really a binary and the brightest star had a tiny dot next to it - could I really see that at this magnification (x48?).

Also, it's incredibly difficult getting used to how little the RA moves the scope when it's pointed high up!

Will try again tonight, I will see if I can get the dials sorted by targeting something like Procyon that I can't go wrong with.

[mikeyrea]

You could just try star hopping.

I've never used the dials - I usually just get the telescope pointed in the right direction, taking bearings off stars that I can see and using the finderscope, and then have a 'fish about'

[John]

I find the best combination is a red dot type finder combined with a 90 degree optical finder. The red dot gets to the right part of the sky then the optical finder allows more detailed positioning before turning to the eyepiece.

The setting circles on most equatorial mounts these days are just too small to be useful.

[Cath]

There seem to be vastly more stars about!

Particularly when you look straight up (Zenith), which I'm sure you know is due to looking through less gas.

[Stropper]

As a relative newbie I have the same problem of not being able to see what I'm looking for. It's good to know we're not alone

[cotterless45]

Forget all those hundreds of stars, just look for and id the brightest. For starters keep things as simple as possible. This is so great free starter,

http://www.skymaps.com

Just concentrate on one constellation at a time.

M101 is notoriously difficult. Under pristine skies you can see it's spiral structure. It needs dark sky , as being low surface brightness , you could be looking straight through it. Best to kick off with the clusters and brighter targets such as M82 and M81.

Don't expect to be blown away by photographic images. It's fun to star hop and catch targets.

Of great used is a Telrad or red dot finder. Even better with the charts ,

http://www.atmob.org/library/member/skymaps_jsmall.html

It's a great time of year to start and get used to the skies before those lovely long cold crisp nights arrive ,

Nick.

[damnut]

The setting circles on eq mounts drive me batty. I prefer az mounts or nudge to!. The addition of a raci has saved my back

[D4N]

The setting circles are mainly decorative. They aren't really practical.

A reflex sight like a telrad or Rigel quick finder is really great for finding stuff. They are far more accurate than the red dot finders as they suffer from very little parallax.

TSED70Q, iOptron Smart EQ pro, ASI-120MM, Finepix S5 pro.

[Stub Mandrel]

Well I struggled again last night, maybe teh sky wasn't dark enough to see M101?

I did an experiment on Mizar with my webcam, I was surprised how low I could turn the exposure/brightness and itthey just kept getting smaller and brighter. This is a stack, but it's not much different from the single frames. About 17 seconds a with no tracking. Probably the most boring picture ever uploaded to this forum ... sorry!

[ghostdance]

Not boring! Stars just aint!

Did you spot the little fainter star forming a triangle with Mizar and Alcor?  Sidus Vicious or something...

A good star chart is a friend for life. Hours of fun relating what you see in the eyepiece to the chart, then hopping back to the ep with a big grin on your face  

[ollypenrice]

I never saw M101 in the UK, though people do. It's a dark site object.

Setting circles on budget mounts are 100% decorative and best forgotten.

Paper charts, a Telrad and a decent finder are the things to go for. Once you get your eye in on scale it becomes a lot more succuessful. FInding things is a skill in which success breeds success. Be patient!

Olly

[gooseholla]

I agree with setting circles being useless. On the the Celestron mount I had with my 8" reflector, if you spun the scope about the RA would read a certain number to start with, if you spun it back to the same point it read a different one. The circle would get stuck or move if it wanted to. Not really accurate at all. A Telrad revolutionised my viewing experience. Downloaded some maps and now I can find anything pretty much instantly.

John

[Stub Mandrel]

I must admit, the dec setting circle seems to be spot on. I'm a bit confused about RA though - I'm assuming you have to set it on known object then whiz straight to the next one as after a  minute or two it is 'out'.

When I make an RA stepper drive I will make sure it has a basic goto function, it shouldn't be too hard to add.

[D4N]

Goto is nice, it does require a decent polar alignment for it to work though.

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[mikeyrea]

The setting circles are mainly decorative. They aren't really practical.

A reflex sight like a telrad or Rigel quick finder is really great for finding stuff. They are far more accurate than the red dot finders as they suffer from very little parallax.

TSED70Q, iOptron Smart EQ pro, ASI-120MM, Finepix S5 pro.

I always thought about getting a telrad but never went for one.   I've kind of convinced myself I don't need one.   When I'm trying to find a target I look for the nearest star I can see with the naked eye and get this in finder scope by keeping one eye on it and the other on the finder until they both 'converge' somewhere near the centre of  cross in the fs.   Usually works quite well, although sometimes the 'naked eye' view becomes almost like av.  

Would this all be easier with a telrad?

[D4N]

Yes, you just put the star where you want on the concentric circles, I just use one eye but it doesn't seem to make any difference.

Sometimes I will put the star on one of the circles rather than in it if the object I am looking for is off to one side of the star.

I like the pulsing light too, helpful for really faint stuff.

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[Matt Scunthorpe]

I got a Telrad and it is incredibly useful, im sure you've seen the maps for them, so you just match it with the real life star. Only trouble is over reliance on it and then you go for an object with no nearby stars. Star hopping is still a brilliant skill to have.

Matt.