Filroden

Have you found an alternative that gets you closer?

2 hours ago, RS buckell said:

Did you have this issue or am I barking up the wrong tree?

As I have StarSense I no longer use the finder. However, I remember it took me a while to align the finder with the three screws. It's best to do it in daylight on as distant an object as you can find (being careful not to point in the direction of the sun). You can use corners of roofs, aerials, etc. My Celestron scope came with a starpointer - basically just an illuminated cross hair with no magnification - which I never liked. My Skywatcher came with a much better finderscope that had two sets of rings with three screws on each, so you could adjust it at both ends. I don't know what your finderscope looks like but it should be held in two places with at least one of them being adjustable.

1. Put in a low powered eyepiece and focus on a distant object using the main scope. Swap in a higher powered eyepiece (smaller in diameter) and fine tune your object.

2. Without moving the main scope, adjust the three screws to centre that same object in the finderscope.

3. Check the main scope is still centred on the object. If not, repeat the three steps.

You're right. When I started writing this entry in my blog I'd intended just to talk about my latest experience but as I wrote it, it became a series of questions.

16 hours ago, gnomus said:

I am sure that you will soon get used to the set up and it will become second nature.

My first attempt (now added to the blog) suggests the process is much simpler that I thought and I'm already eager to do it again

16 hours ago, gnomus said:

A lot of folks are using these Polemaster thingies now for polar alignment.

The StarSense routine, which allows polar alignment using any star, really is easy and it also aligns the goto too, so I'm hoping it will prove accurate enough. I used Betelgeuse and it took a matter of minutes to get it aligned (though not, due to a simple newbie error of entering the wrong date in the handset).

16 hours ago, gnomus said:

However, there is a simple solution to the storage problem.  It inolves building a shed in the garden with a roof that rolls off ..... well ... you know the rest....

Yep, another money sink! Though I'd love to sink the shed underground and have astro-turf parting, James Bond villain style, revealing the scope beneath. Of course, I'd also need to flatten all the houses surrounding it.