Keep Getting Lost.....

[perkil8r]

I'm still a newbie so that's probably got more to do wuth it than much else, but I'm really struggling to find my way about in the sky.

The biggest problem I have so far is finding even the brightest stars in the finderscope. I've set it up correctly, and focused it, but when I look say at sirius for example, I can see it with the naked eye no problem, but I struggle like mad to get it in the finderscope. When I get close eventually I can see it and manouver no problem, it's getting it in the finder in the first place, so it's more a case of driver error, IE I can't drive the damned thing lol.

Is there a method to this, or is there an alternative "sight" I could use to get the finderscope lined up to then line up the main scope? Sort of a finder scope for my finder scope.........

Or is it more a case of practice, practice, practice? I don't think it helped tonight the fact that the clouds kept rolling accross, so as I thought I might be getting close, the target had disappeared from naked eye anyway. What I don't want to do is spend money on a goto, I think that might ruin part of the fun for me, but at the minute this isn't fun either

[nicnac]

some swear on RDF's and a telrad or a wixie, a laser pointer works too

i take it you know how to operate the EQ, how it moves and works?

[Adz]

I can't quite understand, is the finderscope aligned to the OTA and focuser? Or is it that the drives don't work like you think they should?

You can get straight through finders for your scope, like a telrad or rigel. Many, many people have them and find they work well as a combination with an optical finder too. I normally use mine to whack a star in view.

[perkil8r]

The finderscope works ok, has good optics and is aligned with the OTA. I'm having trouble pointing it in the right direction. I can see where I want to go, and when I get it in the finderscope it's bang in the middle of the OTA as it should be, I just can't get to the target with the finderscope without a lot of back and forth, up and down and round and round..... as I say, more than likely operator error rather than anything wrong with the equipment. Just wondering if there are any tips, or any gadgets to help.

Will have a look now at RDF's, telrad and wixie to see if I can figure if one or other might help.

[Mr Q]

Point the scope at a distant daytime object that's easy to find, then center it in your field of view. Then look through the finder scope and see how far off the object is from the cross hairs. Only a very slight mis-alignment of the finder scope can cause you lots of problems, since the area of the sky you are looking at through the scope is very small. Make sure the test object is "at infinity" focus...say a telephone/utility pole top a mile away.

[Adz]

Dont be too quick to think the finders might solve things, I was just sprouting random thoughts in my head

I had the same sort of conundrum when I had an EQ5, you just cannot push it easily where you want to find an object because it don't work on an up down axis.

As Mr Q says, it would also pay to make sure in daylight that the finderscope is exactly aligned. Use an object as far away as possible.

[Nexus 6]

Have you tried to align the finder scope in the daytime? Its a method commonly used for finder scope alignment, pick a distant target like an electric pylon and adjust the finder to it, then use your telescope to move to centre the image and check the finder, adjust until both views are central.

When you go out to observe make sure you use your lowest power eyepiece to begin with, giving you the widest view possible. Once you have the object in the field of view (fov) you can use a bit more power and so on until your happy with the view.

I am sure you already have Stellarium, it is very useful for helping you understand which objects will be visible from your location.

also, I would recommend a couple of decent books such as

Turn Left at Orion: Hundreds of Night Sky Objects to See in a Home Telescope - and How to Find Them: Amazon.co.uk: Guy Consolmagno, Dan M. Davis: Books

The Backyard Astronomer's Guide: Amazon.co.uk: Terence Dickinson, Alan Dyer: Books

[Adz]

Have you tried to align the finder scope in the daytime? Its a method commonly used for finder scope alignment, pick a distant target like an electric pylon and adjust the finder to it, then use your telescope to move to centre the image and check the finder, adjust until both views are central.

When you go out to observe make sure you use your lowest power eyepiece to begin with, giving you the widest view possible. Once you have the object in the field of view (fov) you can use a bit more power and so on until your happy with the view.

I am sure you already have Stellarium, it is very useful for helping you understand which objects will be visible from your location.

also, I would recommend a couple of decent books such as

Turn Left at Orion: Hundreds of Night Sky Objects to See in a Home Telescope - and How to Find Them: Amazon.co.uk: Guy Consolmagno, Dan M. Davis: Books

The Backyard Astronomer's Guide: Amazon.co.uk: Terence Dickinson, Alan Dyer: Books

Didn't recognise you with your new picture

[Nexus 6]

heck, was left behind by the guys replying so quickly.

Hope some of the advice given may be of help anyway.

[Nexus 6]

Didn't recognise you with your new picture

yup, you know I love film and am running out of time, will soon be 30 :D

[perkil8r]

All points taken on board, but this isn't the isue as such. The finderscope is as close to being aligned as it's ever likely to get. IE object on crosshair is bang in the middle of the OTA and is in sharp focus. My problem is pointing the finderscope to where I want to look. It takes ages for me to get anything in the finderscope, but when I do the OTA is bang on.

[Squagnut]

An alternative, or at least a finding aid, could be to make two small rings out of paperclip wire and blu-tac them on top of your OTA, one at the front, the other at the rear end. Position them precisely so that they line up following the length of the tube, then to use them, go to the back of the tube, look through them like rifle sights, and shift the 'scope until you can see your target object through them. Then check to see if the same object is in your finderscope. Might work, might not, costs very little to find out.

[perkil8r]

An alternative, or at least a finding aid, could be to make two small rings out of paperclip wire and blu-tac them on top of your OTA, one at the front, the other at the rear end. Position them precisely so that they line up following the length of the tube, then to use them, go to the back of the tube, look through them like rifle sights, and shift the 'scope until you can see your target object through them. Then check to see if the same object is in your finderscope. Might work, might not, costs very little to find out.

Simple, I like it I'll have a go at knocking something like that up for next time. Gotta be worth a try. I'm liking the look of the Telrad RDF though, it looks like it will get me close enough to find the object in the finderscope. I'll have a go at knocking something up, if that helps I might go for the Telrad as it's just a more sophisticated version from what I can tell.

[Nexus 6]

you could also try a fight angled finderscope shown here Skywatcher Observing Aids

very useful to some who struggle with the standard finders that come with many telescopes

[brantuk]

Try refining the alignment of your finder scope with the main tube. Do it first with a 20mm-25mm eyepiece and get it bang in the cross hairs. Then change to a 10mm and you'll find it's way off - so recenter the finder. Now it will be more accurate.

Make a list of objects before going out - find out how large the object is and note an appropriate eyepiece alongside each one. No point scanning for a large nebula with a high power eyepiece - it'll take all night lol. Make sure you know what magnifications you are using.

Use main constellation stars as a start point and organise your hops to a degree of familiarity you are comfortable with. Turn Left at Orion is good for this cos it shows you the route, all info you need on the object, and what to expect in the eyepiece

[Kai]

I find that having both eyes open whilst moving the scope is the trick.

One eye looking down the finderscope and the other looking at the target and when they merge you will see the target in the finder.

Sounds a bit weird but it works

[Sarah]

I too sometimes have trouble using the finder and other times no problem. Kai's suggestion of both eyes open does help, but I still get lost at times!

We now have the Rigel QuikFinder (similar to the Telrad) and use this on all our scopes. I find this makes it so much easier to find stuff. And what I also like about the Rigel is that it is very lightweight and it has a small footprint.

[glowjet]

The RDF by Williams Optics with the large screen is also very popular, but a tad on the expensive side new, but they often crop up on the s/h market

[Tinker1947]

All points taken on board, but this isn't the isue as such. The finderscope is as close to being aligned as it's ever likely to get. IE object on crosshair is bang in the middle of the OTA and is in sharp focus. My problem is pointing the finderscope to where I want to look. It takes ages for me to get anything in the finderscope, but when I do the OTA is bang on.

If you use a Telrad (my preference) or a Red Dot Finder, you will be able to use both eye's one through the finder and one looking past at the point in the sky where you want to go, couple of practice runs and you will be sorted...

[valleyman]

It seeems the problem is you moving the OTA in the right direction to align the scope. remember left is right and up is down.

I keep both eyes open using the left eye to look at the object and the right eye looks through the finder

[smolloy]

I keep both eyes open using the left eye to look at the object and the right eye looks through the finder

Doesn't that get very confusing since left/right & up/down will be different for each eye?

I can imagine getting quite sea-sick.... :S

[perkil8r]

Here's a plan then. If I get out there tonight I'll try the two methods, I'll botch some sort of homemade pointer together and try that, and I'll also try the keeping both eyes open method. It seems to make sense what you all mean, it's just if I can get my head around it all and co-ordinate my hands to my eyes (especially as one will be right way round, the other upside down and back to front lol).

I'm guessing it'll get easier with practice, I just found it so frustrating last night. What doesn't help is how many points of light there are up there, with the naked eye there are a few constelations, but look through the scope and bang, there's a few thousand.

[smolloy]

For what it's worth, I got very frustrated with this the first few times I used my scope, but I find I am getting better and better with practice. Objects near the zenith are still pretty tough to find, but I'm getting faster and faster at bulls-eyeing lower objects in a couple of seconds.

One technique I found works well for me is to line my eye up just above the finder scope, and move the scope up and down slowly to see if it looks like the star is on the same line as the up-down movement of the scope. If not, then I move the scope left or right until this looks like it will work. Then I put my eye to the finder, and slowly move up until the star I'm interested in pops into view.

This takes longer for fainter objects, and might be tricky to do with an EQ mount (I have a Dob), but last night I found M35, 36, 37, 38, as well as the Double Cluster, the 37 cluster, Jupiter, Andromeda, and the Orion nebula -- all using this technique. (Remember, that was only the 3rd night I have ever used a scope!). The triangulum galaxy evaded me though

Good luck. Please let us know how you get on.

Steve