360 degree setting circle ?

[dazd798]

Hi all,

Had my first light with my new SW130P Supatrak last night, everythng works great, auto tracked jupiter and the moon with no trouble. But then i opened up stellarium and looked for some messiers to locate, looking at the co ordinates on the program i then went to the telescope and started to set the altitude it was telling me. Then it needed moving left when i realised there was no scale on the base. I just could not locate any objects after that apart from M42. So how would i go about adding a setting circle to the base of the mount, how is the scale layed out exactly. Sorry if this has been asked before, or a dumb question lol. I would also like to do some AP with my dsi II aswell, I know i will be limited with the alt/az mount but a setting circle of some kind will certainly help.

Thanks.

[Nova]

If your using an Alt/Az mount have you considered a compass for your az and a wixey for your alt?

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[spaceboy]

Are these what you mean ??? Setting Circles - You are not logged in

[great_bear]

Actually, setting circles don't really help much.

I consider them purely decorative

The level of accuracy is so low that it's easier to eyeball where the object is within a given constellation and then figure out how to hop to it. Simply pointing a mount at a co-ordinate won't accurately get it into an eyepiece so you've got to star-hop or sweep-scan even if you had a scale.

I know that's not what you want to hear, but I'd be very surprised if many folks on the forum use the scale on their mounts for any serious purpose.

[dazd798]

Are these what you mean ??? Setting Circles - You are not logged in

Yes that's what i'm looking for thanks.

[dazd798]

Actually, setting circles don't really help much.

I consider them purely decorative

The level of accuracy is so low that it's easier to eyeball where the object is within a given constellation and then figure out how to hop to it. Simply pointing a mount at a co-ordinate won't accurately get it into an eyepiece so you've got to star-hop or sweep-scan even if you had a scale.

I know that's not what you want to hear, but I'd be very surprised if many folks on the forum use the scale on their mounts for any serious purpose.

Hmm, they should get me pretty close though no? I realise i would have to make slight adjustments to centre in the eypiece.

[Bizibilder]

You may well be better off with a Telrad or red-dot finder. These project a dot or circles onto the sky that you line up with - very easy to use and will get your object into the field of view of a low power eyepiece every time.

[great_bear]

Hmm, they should get me pretty close though no? I realise i would have to make slight adjustments to centre in the eypiece.

The chances of it actually being in the eyepiece are very slim - a 60x magnification (for example) in a Plossl covers about one degree - so you'll need to be lined-up accurate to 1/360th of a turn (unlikely), and since you'll be pointing to an arbitrary area of the sky, you won't really know where you are, and on the SupaTrak you can't sweep randomly like you can a manual mount.

I mean - by all means give it a shot if you're really keen - but don't get too frustrated if you find it doesn't help

Rgds,

Jeremy (130P SupaTrak owner )

[dazd798]

You may well be better off with a Telrad or red-dot finder. These project a dot or circles onto the sky that you line up with - very easy to use and will get your object into the field of view of a low power eyepiece every time.

Ah, just realised i was using the red dot finder, and missed a vital step. Aligning it to the telescope:embarrassed: No wonder i was having trouble locating anything.

[sunshine185]

FWIW am in the process of doing the same with my skymax

http://stargazerslounge.com/diy-astronomer/161912-skymax-127-autotracking-diy-goto.html