Field of View

[Andy274]

Hi all,

not a scope question this time!

In the week that I've had my 10x50DSP's, I've been out looking at the stars with the naked eye & the bins.

Ive been concentrating more on learning the constellations & being able to pick them out by eye, which I'm having some success with - just starting with the obvious ones, ursula major/minor, polaris, cassiopia, orion etc. Trying & failing at consistently picking out draco - but persevering!!!!

My problem is - after I've identified the constellation by eye, I'm having trouble relating what i can see with my mk 1 eyeballs & then picking the 'guide stars' (a term I've self created to point to the next star in the constellation) through the bins.

Are there any tips, or advice you guys can offer me to bring me on in my understanding??? Im sure I'm not the 1st person to come across this.

Many thanks guys

Andy

[sabana]

Practice practice practice. There is not technique for switching betwwen the two. The more you do it the more easier it becomes.

[Mr Spock]

Practice on something bright and recognisable. For example, you could start with Orion's belt - easy to identify with the eyes and looks the same but bigger with bins. You can the get an idea of the scale and brightness change for when you look at other objects.

[brantuk]

I do various things. Sometimes I pick row of stars from a main constellation star and hop from one to the next till I get there - sometimes just 3-4 will be easy enough to remember in your "minds eye". Sometimes I use two bright constellation stars and imagine a line between them (eg. The Beehive is half way between Castor and Rigel). Sometimes I imagine a triangle peak made with two bright stars for the base (eg M101 is top of a triangle made with the first 2 stars in the Plough handle).

You'll develope your own techniques I'm sure with practise

[Andy274]

thanks for this guys. Now i know there isn't an arcane art to it, i'll be sure to persevere! Will try it on orion's belt - thats the easiest & most recognisable cluster for me to recognise through the bins.

[brantuk]

Good choice for a starter constellation. It'll take a year of seasonal movements to build up a working knowledge of objects and how to find them. I found the second year was much easier. So you have plenty of time to concentrate on each one as they appear