My first night among the stars - and now some questions!

[EcksMarksTheSpot]

Hello!

Albeit a blustery night, there was absolutely no cloud and other than the rather bright moon, a wonderfully clear evening here.

My first impression - wow! Infact, that was my first impression looking down the finder scope - let alone the main eyepiece! (I am using a SW 200p and I used a 32mm eyepiece for the majority of the night).

All the reading this week really helped - I found ursa major, cassiopeia, ursa minor, cepheus, draco, lyra and cygnus by eye (and without a book, which was exciting enough for me to start with!).

I slightly wimped out even though I knew exactly where polaris was, and pointed the scope straight at the moon. I can't actually type what I said out loud, even if it is after the watershed. I took a few snaps with my camera in amongst the lndustrial language and even the wife was gobsmacked when I dragged her out to have a look.

The rest of my time I have to admit I struggled a little (and this is where my questions come in).

I knew exactly where polaris was, yet... how the heck do I point my scope at it?! I realise this sounds a daft question, but I really had no confidence in what I was pointing at. I don't think it helped that everything is in reverse, so taking points of reference from the top of a tree or the roof of my house proved really confusing when it was moving equatorially.

I did however find Vega and Deneb - I guess because Vega was so bright and there wasn't a lot else around it I was confident I had that in the eyepiece. So I was quite chuffed about that!

How do people know what they're pointing their scope at? The finder scope is still relatively magnified - it would have been easier could I have seen an entire constellation in this. Unless I'm missing the fact that it isn't on a fixed focus...

Are there some things to look for around Vega/Lyra? I realise that Alberio is very close, as is epsilon lyrae, but I suffered again from wandering away from Vega and getting hopelessly lost - y'know, in all that other millions of white jobs!

Still, that was absolutely brilliant! Getting the hang of pointing the thing where I want it next would be a good next step... so any advice is truly welcomed.

Jon.

[Astro Imp]

Hi Jon,

Glad you enjoyed yourself.

Must admit it is really confusing to start with but after a while it all starts to make sense.

To help you around I would advise you to download Stellarium. This is a great free planatarium program. When you have it installed open the location window and enter your Longitude and Latitude and you will have a customised view of what you will see above . If you don't do this the default location is Paris.

One of the little tricks that a member of this forum gave me when I started was to keep both eyes open when I was using the finder scope. This way you can see where you are going.

It does take time and patience but the satisfaction of finding and observing something you have only ever read about makes up for all the frustration.

Enjoy and let us know how you get on.

Good luck.

[jimmyjamjoejoe]

Great to hear you're enjoying it!

About the finder - its gonna take a while to get used to the flip-reverse thing, another confusing thing is that it'l show you stars your naked eye won't see, so you point it towards a lone polaris and suddenly see 5-10 stars in the field of view... Thats probably the hardest thing for me to get used to.

A lot of people recommend a telrad (though they can be tough to find), or a red dot finder. Neither of those are magnified, so you won't get the extra stars, and no flipping either.

[EcksMarksTheSpot]

Thanks for the replies already :-)

I've been using Stellarium to practice learning the constellations and it's really helped. What a great piece of software to be open source. Keeping both eyes open sounds like a great tip!

And like you say Jimmy, with all the extra stars I see when I look down the finder (in reverse), I'm getting very confused. I'd read about a telrad before as a replacement for the finder when I was originally looking at the 130p, so that sounds like a good idea!

Jon.

[brantuk]

I take it your scope is on an equatorial mount seeing as you are wanting to point at the pole star. First thing to realise is that you want to point the mount at the pole star - you can do this roughly by pointing the end with the weights magnetic north using a compass and raising the altitude scale on the side so it points at your latitude on Earth. See Here:

Lat - Long Finder: This page helps you find Latitude and Longitude

Now you are very roughly polar aligned and will find it good enough for casual observing. To look anywhere else just loosen the clutches and move the scope on it's axes to the object (remember to lock the clutches up again when you find the object). You'll find you can use the slo mo controls to track mostly in RA with odd tweaks in Dec. HTH

[JamesM]

I will second the virtues of the Telrad and yes, they seem a little hard to track down - probably due to our constant recommendation of it! In addition, I would consider as well a right angel finder. It is more comfortable to use (avoids neck ache) offers a more versatile viewing position and more importantly, it presents only a back to front image, where as a straight through variety shows both a back to front AND inverted. These two together will find so much stuff, you'll think you are starring in, "Who Do You Think You Are"! :D

Seriously, I have found them make a tremendous difference and make the whole process so much easier.

James

[EcksMarksTheSpot]

Thanks guys.

James - is there a right angled finder you could recommend? (That would fit on the shoe and replace the finder I have on the 200p).

Would the image then be the right way up, but left is right? That I can cope with - and it would be a good purchase for my brain... or is it upside down still, but correctly moves laterally?

I realise the eyepiece will still be inverted which isn't a problem. It's getting to point to the right star, that is!

Jon.

[HippyH]

I've been having the same problem. I usually end up looking along the scope and lining up the OTA ring bolts with what I want to look at, and fine tuning it in the finder scope. I did stumble upon this ( which I have yet to try out )

http://stargazerslounge.com/primers-tutorials/137298-star-hoping-how-find-anything-sgl6.html

[pvaz]

I would still have a problem knowing where the telescope is pointing if it wasn't for the trusty Telrad. They should ship one with all new scopes.

[JamesM]

Jon, I believe the cheapest one to be had is the Skywatcher 8x50 which is £68 (FLO) but I think you will need to get the bracket which is extra though I'm sure this bracket fits on the existing shoe. Ring FLO for the correct info on that. Some of these finders can resemble miniature refractors and can cost quite a lot. Harrison Telescopes sell a good right angled finder too but I think its a little bit more money again, check them out also.

Yes, the image in the right angled finder is the correct way up as you would see looking at the sky but the left side of the view appears on the right and vice versa. The view at your eyepiece is of course the last optical device that you use to study the object and so its inverted, back to front appearance is irrelevant to that inspection. I mean what is upside down in space? This is why the Telrad will get you 90% there, the right angled finder will close in on the majority of what is left, leaving the eyepiece to centre it all.

Hope that helps but I personally will be having a lie down as my head is spinning!

James

[Neil McRae]

I prefer a red dot finder as once aligned you point to the left it is left up is up etc.

Neil

[EcksMarksTheSpot]

Thanks guys. I ordered a Telrad - I'll see how I get on with that (thanks for the RA model recommendation, James) - if I still need the right angled finder I'll look into buying that next month :-)

I'll let you know how I get on!

Jon.

[Charon]

The Orion 9x50 right angle finder is a good, bit expensive mind.