Hello and help from North Bucks

[starpilot]

Hello all

Have just received my first scope a few weeks ago. Have only had a chance to use it in anger once, but was blown away with a nice look at Saturn.

Looking forward to some clear skies for my next go.

What I'd really like to do is go to a star party near me and get some help from some experienced guys. Where can I find out some info on local meets ?

Also, as a commercial pilot I have a pretty good understanding of lat/long, global positioning, precession etc but for some reason I can't get my head around positioning in the sky. For a starter can some one tell me the reference point for right ascension i.e where's the starting point/what's it measured from ?

Many thanks

Starpilot

[themos]

This is the perfect day to ask because the Sun is more or less right on it!

As wikipedia says:

for RA, the zero point is known as the vernal equinox point (also known as the First Point of Aries), which is the place in the sky where the Sun crosses the celestial equator at the March equinox.

The sun, now, is at an RA of 2 mins and 4 seconds, according to my "kstars" program.

[lunator]

SP

Welcome to SGL

RA is a subject that has confused many people.

The way I think of it is that the Sun has 4 key points in its 'trip around' the Earth in the year.

It has the point where it is most Northerly, the point where it is most Southerly and the 2 points where it crosses the equator heading either North or South.

It was decided that where the Sun crosses the equator heading North should be the zero point for RA.

This used to be in Aries but is now in Pisces.

The way I understand RA is if you stand facing due South at midday today you would be looking at the Sun at 0.0 RA. If you stayed looking due south for 9 hours you would be looking at an object that crosses infront of you with a RA of 9 hours e.g the star Alpha Cancri.

I have produced 3 jpegs from my software that hopefully shows this graphically.

Cheers

ian

[geppetto]

Welcome aboard SP

Make yourself at home

[SteelRat]

SGL welcome from me too

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Welcome to SGL Starpilot. I just learned something I didn't know about where RA starts from. Its good here.

Captain Chaos

[Cloudgazer]

Welcome to SGL SP

Scott

[FLO]

Welcome aboard SP

[starpilot]

Thanks all, and thanks for the explaniation of RA.

I'm still confused though. I understand everything you've said, but when I take my scope into the garden at night what do I point it as a starting reference to move it into RA to find a particualr object at XXhrXmin RA ??

Ta

SP

[daz]

SP

It doesn't matter what you point it at, what matters is that you know it's coordinates in the sky. Then you can set your setting circles on your telescope to match the object - assuming of course that this is why you want to know the coordinates

Then, when you want to move to a new object, you simply rotate the scope until the setting circles point to the new object's coordinates.

OK, questions:

1) What scope and mount did you get?

2) Where in North Bucks are you?

Visit www.fedastro.org to find your nearest society.

Finally, WELCOME :)

P.S. In case anyone is interested, in about 25,000 years time, The First Point Of Aries will be back in Aries!!!

[lunator]

Hi SP

The way to use the RA dials on the mount is actually very simple.

Find a bright star close to the object you want to find.

Point your telescope at the star.

Move the RA and declination dial so it shows the correct RA & DEC for the star.

Then move the scope to the RA and declination of the object you are looking for.

With a low mag eyepiece (25mm+) the object should be visible in the FOV.

I hope this helps

Cheers

Ian

[MartinB]

Welcome to SGL starpilot.

As for your question - yes, what they said!

Always interested to know what you can see as a pilot from 30 000+ feet. For instance can you make out M81 - Bode nebula or are you too busy flying the plane!!

[tom.yates]

Welcome to sgl

[dazza1639]

Welcome to SGL

Darren