Finding something without a finderscope...?

[Juliette.x]

I recently borrowed an 8inch telescope from a society I've joined, and it's the first I've ever used. (It's a DIY one, and looks a bit like meccano )

I took it out, and found the finderscope WAY out. It took me ages to get the scope pointed at Venus and a ridiculous amount of time to find the moon.

So in daylight, I looked at how to adjust the finder, and one of the adjuster screws was completely broken! The society have taken the finderscope to fix it, leaving me without anything to help me find my way around.

It's been so dark and clear recently that I've really got frustrated at not being able to find anything other than Venus, Jupiter and the Moon; because I just don't know where I am.

(Don't get me wrong, I spent ages gawping at these three!)

If you have any tips on how a beginner can tell what they're looking at without a finderscope...I'd love to here them.

Thank you

P.S. I've only recently joined and reading through all the threads has been really helpful, so thanks again!

[onesmallstep]

Hi and welcome to SGL

Hopefully you should have at least two eyepieces that came with the scope, usually 10mm/25mm or 6mm/20mm but could be any size.

A way to find objects without the finderscope is to use the larger eyepiece (that gives the lower magnification) and align the scope visually in the area of the sky you want to look at. The eyepiece field of view should be large enough for you to see the chosen object within the fov. Centre the chosen object and then swap the eyepiece over to the smaller EP (higher mag), refocus and you should have a larger image of the same object.

HTH!

[marcosscriven]

I have a 72mm Apo, so don't want to put a finder scope on it. I will get a red dot finder, but in the mean time I found I could reliably find things.

1) line the scope up roughly in the right section (really roughly)

2) lean down so one eye is right behind the telescope, and adjust the altitude setting until the object is just in view above the scope.

3) then adjust the azimuth, whilst looking at the star (above the telescope). You should see a double image of the scope - just make sure the star is between those two images (a bit like when you go cross eyed)

4) finally move your eye to one side of the telescope, and centre the star along that axis.

5) pop in a low power EP, and hopefully your object is in view, ready for you to centre and then use a higher EP.

Edited March 30, 2012 by marcosscriven

[hes not well again]

I have an 8" newt with no finder on and think the above advice is good, however with my scope the tube is too wide and low to sight along it properly so I align it roughly in the area and slightly above what I want to see and swing the scope from one side to the other and then adjust the altitude down a bit, do another sweep and keep doing that until you find it. It takes a while but I find that I find all sorts of things I'm not looking for as well, Stellarium is handy for finding out what they are. A low power ep is the best thing for that. Or you could just cruise around Cassiopea which is about on the milky way, plenty of things to stumble across there.

[kniclander]

I have found that you need to aim quite a bit lower than you think. not sure why this is but i think it might be due to atmospheric refraction(?). Also, like many things, you get better with practice and you also get to tell how a star of certain brightness will look through your scope.. but as a beginner, I would have been completely lost without a finder so good luck:)

[Uhwaz]

I found Red Dot Finder the best way to find things

put it on scope align on something like Moon / jupiter / venus / mars thats easy to find and then just point red dot on want u want to see

[glowjet]

As this is only a very temporary thing while the Soc is repairing the finder, you might try the Blue Peter approach, two blobs of bluetack on the top of your scope tube, one at the front, the other at the mirror end, then insert a couple of short small diameter nails with a large head, or you could use a small screw eye at the mirror end, paint the tips with tipex or white paint. Set your scope up, focus on a distant object till it is in the center of the FOV, than adjust your pins till the tips align on the target as you sight along them just like a rifle. If you shine a red light on them at night you should see what you are about and get fairly close to what you want to look at, this is just an idea and could work for you, have fun

John.

Edited March 31, 2012 by glowjet

[Nazim]

So I know a way to align the telescope easily without the finderscope what you have to do is just look at the back of the telescope and try to move it to an object let's just say that that object is jupiter so by looking from the back of the telescope to the front move it near jupiter now move your head near the back of the telescope in such a way that whenever you close one of the eyes you cannot see the tube of the scope but can see the objects clearly, now move the scope until you can see jupiter right on the edge of the tube now if you mover your head a little down you wont be able to see jupiter after that so to the eyepiece and look through it you maybe able to see jupiter if not while looking through the eyepiece try to move the scope ery slightly either up or down if you still didnt find it try doing the process again i was able to align jupiter is just 6 seconds with this

[John]

Hello and welcome to the forum Nazim

Thanks for sharing your finding technique

Edited December 17, 2020 by John