STGZR_102_NE

Thanks I do have a tablet with sky safari which of course gives the altitudes and I have it set to also simulate a 9x50 finder view for hopping. But I wanted to see if a chart might work better for protecting my night vision. I think a percentage of viewers use aps like sky safari and don't seem to indicate it bothers their night vision. But for those more faint objects I was wondering about it. For example I couldn't see M30 the last time I tried. I know its not the brightest cluster, but then I 'm not sure if it was due to the seeing conditions or my eyes due to exposure to the tablet - even though I have it in red-light mode. Not a very difficult object to star-hop to. But still couldn't see it.

Hi all, I just started thinking about a process for finding objects - I plan on trying the next time I'm out. Lets say I'm comparing a constellation on my chart with it in the sky - and there is an object nearby. I rotate the chart so that the constellations rotation is identical to what I see it in the sky. On the chart I imagine a straight vertical line going up from the object - looking for the closest naked eye star on that line. Using the Telrad - I center on that star and then obtain the altitude of that position using an inclinometer on the scope. By this, I've set my scopes azimuth position. Then on the chart I measure down from that star to the object of interest to obtain the altitude difference between the two. I subtract that number from my inclinometer reading and move the scope down to that altitude. Theoretically I should be pretty close to the object - I think. Has anyone tried this kind of method? Thanks