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Manual navigate the sky

swedonator

By swedonator
in Getting Started With Observing

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

Posted
Posted

You can have engraved setting circles on an equatorial mount and calibrate them using a known star. If the mount is motorized they will remain correct. If it isn't motorized then you point at a star near your target, set the circles to that star's co-ordinates and then quickly move to the RA and Dec co-ordinates on the setting circles. OK in theory, pretty useless in practice.

With a Dob you can use a Wixey angle finder for altitude and floor markings for the points of the compass (Azimuth) then use a computer to convert RA and Dec co-ordinates to Alt Az for your time and location.

Or you can buy a star chart, a red torch, a Telrad finder, look up at the sky and stop messing around with gadgets!!!

Olly

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swedonator

swedonator

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I am talking about when using a eq-mount with degrees on it. If u do not have a phone or app or anything like in the 1800 century, how do you align the scope to the corrct position only having the coordinates for the star, u do not know where it is :-)

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swamp thing

swamp thing

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You have to find a Star with known coordinates first, look up its positions then set your setting circles to read correctly (the dec one should be near if you've polar aligned correctly) then you can index the star you're looking for. As Olly said "in theory". In practice, unless your setting circles are really big they're pretty much guess work.

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

Posted
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You have to find a Star with known coordinates first, look up its positions then set your setting circles to read correctly (the dec one should be near if you've polar aligned correctly) then you can index the star you're looking for. As Olly said "in theory". In practice, unless your setting circles are really big they're pretty much guess work.

Exactly. However, if your setting circles look like this please ignore us and use them! https://sites.google.com/site/neilmaron/IMG_1228.JPG

:grin: lly

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Moonshane

Moonshane

Posted
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you really don't need goto to navigate the sky. as Olly said above, a red torch, telrad (in my case RACI finder) and a map will get you where you want to go easily. no gadgets, no batteries (ok AAs for the telrad and torch) no electronics to go wrong and fun all the way.

I expect that goto when it works well is great but I think I'd get bored quickly being shown everything.

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Paul M

Paul M

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I never used setting circles. They were just too much faff and not particularly accurate even at 6in diameter. Dare I call them a gimmick?

I still have my old Sky Atlas 2000. It guided me through endless hours of star hopping fun and missed targets!

SkySafari has already replaced it though.

Sent from my ZT ICS using Tapatalk HD

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twotter

twotter

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I don't think setting circles are a gimmick. More like a tried and tested way of navigating the stars, just probably not as popular these days since there are goto mounts, smartphone apps etc...

I use either Turn Left at Orion or Stellarium, though I'm going to try using a smartphone app next time I'm out observing :)

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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Is it possible without control too? just screw the wheels? let us say that the power is cut and batteries dead, you have to navigate like you navigate on simple scope sets.

On all but one of the motorized mounts I've used you can release the clutches and move the mount by hand. The excepton is the Mesu roller drive which has no clutches.

However, you have no slow motion controls so if you've no electricity you have only coarse control of where the scope is pointing and this can be very tricky to use. On some motorized mounts (Takahashi, 10 Micron and others) you can release the clutches, move the scope by hand, relock the clutches and the GoTo remains unaffected. On other mounts the GoTo is lost if you do this.

Olly

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Scott

Scott

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Is it possible without control too? just screw the wheels? let us say that the power is cut and batteries dead, you have to navigate like you navigate on simple scope sets.

some mounts such as eq6 and heq5 (I think) don't have the fine tuning wheels. I guess if you're out of power, you're out of luck :)
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Paul M

Paul M

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I don't think setting circles are a gimmick. More like a tried and tested way of navigating the stars,

I knew that would come out wrong :)

I was trying to say that they are often a gimmick as supplied on a lot of amatuer scopes.

They just don't have either the accuracy or precision.

In many cases they won't get you near enough to avoid having to use a star atlas in the end.

And anyway, who ever takes their telescope out under the stars with a list of coordinates and no atlas? :unsure:

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cotterless45

cotterless45

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It's a useful skill to acquire if you can star hop and find your way around the sky. It's like riding a bike , you won't forget where things are. I used imaginary compass points and clocks, M44 has been at 6.35 to Gemini for example.

I see that the original question referred to a C6 ota. This can be mounted to a suitable manual or motorised / GOTO mount.

i'd advise anyone to go strictly manual and learn through the seasons. GOTO is ace, but it helps to know what and where things are,

Nick.

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