Which reticle?

[groberts]

Up until now I have just approximated the central location of items within the FOV but, as I enter the world of DSO imaging and focusing becomes more and more critical (difficult), it seems that the use of a reticle could be worthwhile.

Any thoughts + suggestion for a best buy (not too expensive but good quality), in particular, for use with a WO GT81? 

[Leveye]

Using a program like CDC or Stellariumscope will help locating the objects. Focusing can be assisted with BYEOS or APT or just using a zoomed image in liveview.

[Steve Ward]

I use "Al's Reticle" , simply overlay it on the liveview screen , fully adjustable and free .... 

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=21798

[ian_bird]

This one is free.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/203018-cross-hair-eyepice/

Scroll down to my reply.

Hope this helps.

Cheers.

Ian

[Earl]

your camera capture tools normally have one built in, even eos utils has a grid you can use.

[wuthton]

Astrotortilla or Sequence Generator Pro, quicker and easier than a reticle.

[lensman57]

Up until now I have just approximated the central location of items within the FOV but, as I enter the world of DSO imaging and focusing becomes more and more critical (difficult), it seems that the use of a reticle could be worthwhile.

Any thoughts + suggestion for a best buy (not too expensive but good quality), in particular, for use with a WO GT81? 

Reticle is of very little use unless the DSO has a very bright star inside the nebula, NGC 6960 with a MAG 4 star nearby for example. Accurate use of GoTo mounts will help you get near the target but to do accurate framing a test exposure has to be made. Software such as astro tortilla will help to correct the GoTo's errors but for framing taking a test exposure is the best way. I use a reticle EP only for tweaking the polar alignment but not for locating targets.

A.G

[groberts]

OK thanks. So what is the use / point of a reticle? 

[Earl]

OK thanks. So what is the use / point of a reticle? 

Some people like to drift align with an reticle  eyepiece, a CCD is just as good its just down to choice.

[lensman57]

OK thanks. So what is the use / point of a reticle? 

Earl is quite correct, the only point is that the modern GoTo mounts and their respective polar align routies almost have put drift aligning to rest. It is still good to know how to drift align just incase.

Regards,

A.G