Hint for Beginners - Like Me

[Bart]

Go and get a Wixey, used it for the first time tonight - Wow. Where have you been all my 10 months of stargazing? Actually, had it a while and never got around to using it.

Anyway, level it, get the Alt coordinates, set the scope and then use the Telrad to get the Az about right and if its not in the FOV, it wont be far off. Great help.

Bart

[brantuk]

Congrats Bart - all you need now is an AZ setting circle for the base and (combined with the Wixey) you'll have a very accurate pointing system for your dob

[LukeSkywatcher]

There was a thread on here some months back by someone that made an AZ setting circle for their Dob base (card marked with 360 degrees). There was also a link posted to where you can download templates to print out for the same purpose. Wonder if the thread is still on the SGL server.

I use a wixey also for my Dob. Its great because at least i know i have the scope pointed to the correct elevation.

[imarcs]

Heres the link to the Setting Circles Website.

Setting Circles - You are not logged in

[Bart]

thanks folks

[Dude]

ummm... what is a Wixey?

[Bart]

A digital altitude guage, tells you are at least pointing at the right angle into the sky, the circles will then point you to the correct azimuth position.

[JimB]

Buy a real Wixey. I had a clone, (a 'Bevel Box'), bought for me. On testing it out of the box it was awfull. You could tilt to over 5 degrees before it registered and on returning to zero it might still read up to 2.9 degrees. We returned it and asked for a refund. OK it might be defective but who wants to take the chance that another might be the same. So we got a Wixey, spot on in every respect, and cheaper than it's counterpart. So if you are considering one stck to a proper Wixey.

[Pug]

Can you read a wixey ok in the dark? Might have to invest in one.

[MorningMajor]

Can you read a wixey ok in the dark? Might have to invest in one.

You'll need your red torch to read it

[lquinlan]

I nearly bought a wixey the same time I bought the scope.

Do they really help that much ?

Will getting to know constellations as reference points be just as good ?

Lee

[Bart]

knowing the constellations is something you should do, but the Wixey can get around it if you have circles . A Wixey and a Telrad is another good combination. Its just that I found a couple of tricky galaxies very easily with it that night and was very pleasently surprised how easy it was

[Admiral Crispy]

If you have Stellarium, or some other program to tell you the Alt of stars, I would suggest finding a nearby star, and then adjusting your Wixey's angle to that on the pogram. Do this by finding the altitude, and if the star is 2 degrees lower than it should be on the Wixey, then press Zero on your Wixey when it reads -2. That will reset it to read the correct angle for your star, and then help you find what you are looking for. If the angle is 2 degrees too much, set the zero on the Wixey when it reads 2 degrees.

This only works if the star you used to adjust the wixey is very close to being vertically above or below what you are looking for.

The reason I suggest this is because unless your site is completely level, the scope will tilt slightly, altering the angle your scope is pointing to.