First time out with my Rigel Quick finder

[Davee]

Went out with my colleague Simon who was curious to see what the fuss is with astronomy around 21:00 and set up my scope on the golf course behind the hotel I am currently living in Monday – Thursday and waited for it to get properly dark.

Somewhere between 21:30 and 22:00 we could see a reasonable number of stars.

Our first target was Vega – just to try out the alignment of my newly fitted Rigel Quickfinder. I was amazed at how much easier and more accurate the Rigel was compared to the stock RDF on my Celestron Astromaster 114eq and with a couple of tweaks we were properly aligned.

With the help of Turn Left we set about looking for M13 using Vega and Arcturus for reference and I had a huge grin on my face when the Keystone within Hercules just magically appeared after about 10 minutes of looking straight at it!!

I pointed the scope at where M13 should be and was truly blown away when, using my 32mm plossi EP I saw what looked like a small gassy smudge up in the sky – my first DSO – in fact my first anything beyond Jupiter and the moon. All the time I spent struggling with alignment last year was a distant memory.

Sadly clouds rolled in from nowhere and completely covered the sky before we could get a look at a higher magnification.

We had a great time however for the next hour getting the odd peak between clouds and using the star walk app on my ipad for the next hour or so until by 11:45 we decided to call it a night.

Although I didn’t see much I came away feeling great and eager to get back out and see more. Simon too expressed an interest in coming out again and was asking me about binocular recommendations J. I of course pointed him to this forum to get some expert advice.

Hoping to get back out tonight weather permitting (doesn’t look good at the minute though!)

One question regarding Turn left…. Should I be looking at it’s summer or autumn recommendations at this time of year – or maybe even both?

Thanks for reading!

Dave

[paul schofield]

Well done on a good night. Shame the clouds rolled in, hope you get more luck soon. The Rigel is a great bit of kit and helps a great deal in the location of DSO''s. I saw m13 a couple of months back using the Rigel. I found it looks better with more magnification, I used my 10mm Radian and it looked totally amazing through that. Hope you find lots more. M92 and M57 are not too far away from M13. Clear skies.

[pvaz]

Glad to know you're getting along with it! About TLAO, start with the summer ones while they are still visible.

[Rig3l]

Did you notice a parallax error?

Anyway, good job, I use a telrad which is similar, and I really like it too

[Astro Imp]

Regarding your question re Turn Left if you look at any of the objects you will see that it has a heading Best Seen: then the months that object is in view. For instance M13 Best Seen: May through October.

Look for the objects listed under Summer in the early part of the evening and as the night goes on the Autumn objects will move to a better position to view.

HTH and enjoy your exploration of the skies.

[PorkyB]

I have also just joined the ranks of Rigel owners. I have used it twice and am very impressed with it. A bonus was that it came with two bases, one fitted my 200p and the other my little Mak. I lined up the bases using manufacturers stickers on the scopes and I'm pleased that I can swap the Rigel between the scopes without having to adjust it.

I was making a dew shield for the Mak from Funky Foam and used a left-over scrap to make a "hat" for the Rigel to keep the dew away.

[RikM]

I love my Rigel QuikFinder; best astro accessory I ever bought.