possible dumb question.

[DougM43]

Hi folks,

A couple of night ago I took my telescope out for the first time in a good few years (tal 100R) to take a peek at Jupiter, although a few people had said the seeing was poor that night I wasn't disappointed with the way it looked at all.

The problem I had was when I tried to take a look at the orion nebula, the main stars of the belt were visible but the sword was mostly obscured by a light mist, although I had a good idea of its position and sighted along the top of the telescope tube to position it roughly, the finder scope was now almost underneath the scope. So in a rather ungainly position (for a 54 year old) kneeling on the wet grass with my arms at almost full stretch wrapped around the scope to turn the knobs that finely adjust the position of the scope I was able to find it. 

tracking it wasn't so bad as I was using a low power eyepiece so just every now and then I had to contort my arms round the scope and move it so the object was at one side of the eyepiece and I could get comfortable again until it drifted to the other side.   

all I can think is I must be setting it up wrong, nobody would invent something best suited to an octopus's use surely, yet everything I've read says I'm setting it up right. So is that just normal when star hopping from one object to another? 

[coulthamst]

Will yor telescope rotate in its mounting rings to place the finder etc. in a more  convenient position?

[nightfisher]

Will yor telescope rotate in its mounting rings to place the finder etc. in a more  convenient position?

You beat me to it, the TAL tube will rotate iin its rings to bring the finder scope back into play and by rotating the diagonal this will bring the eyepiece back to a good viewing position

[DougM43]

Thanks guys,

how obvious I feel a bit silly now,, why did I not think of that?

I think I had it stuck in my brain that once set up no more adjustments were necessary.

I'm sure there will be more equally dumb questions to come. 

[Peter Drew]

Why not pop up and see us sometime this year at the Astronomy Centre. 

[DougM43]

Why not pop up and see us sometime this year at the Astronomy Centre. 

Thanks I would love too,, and often thought about it but for some reason I've always thought it was a closed shop to us mere mortal folk. When do you open the doors to the public?

Cheers Doug.

[coulthamst]

A useful tip is to stick short lengths of electician's tape or similar to your telescope tube next to the mounting rings (assuming you have first balanced the OTA) so you can ensure that you don't lose balance during rotation.

[paulf]

"when I tried to take a look at the orion nebula, the main stars of the belt were visible but the sword was mostly obscured by a light mist" - that 'mist' was likely the Great Orion Nebula, assuming your scope hadn't physically fogged up

[nightfisher]

Thanks I would love too,, and often thought about it but for some reason I've always thought it was a closed shop to us mere mortal folk. When do you open the doors to the public?

Cheers Doug.

Open night on Saturdays weather permitting, you will enjoy it

[DougM43]

Open night on Saturdays weather permitting, you will enjoy it

Thanks, looking forward to it lets hope for a clear night. There's one thing for sure, there's no star gazing going on round here tonight :-(

[Geospacial]

Hi Doug,

I had that same predicament the other night and thought I had it all set up wrong. My wife asked if I could rotate the tube in the brackets.....I could and I did......and it worked!! She is a complete lay person in astronomy (I certainly felt like one when she pointed that out!!!).

The post by coulthamst suggesting the use of electricians tape is a good one.

[RWB]

As an aside to the electrical tape idea I believe some people use an embroidery

ring around the telescope tube this has the added advantage of stopping slippage and 

doing it by feel alone

any use to anyone ?? C.S.

Robin

[DougM43]

Hi Doug,

I had that same predicament the other night and thought I had it all set up wrong. My wife asked if I could rotate the tube in the brackets.....I could and I did......and it worked!! She is a complete lay person in astronomy (I certainly felt like one when she pointed that out!!!).

The post by coulthamst suggesting the use of electricians tape is a good one.

At least its not just me then,, makes me feel a bit less of a plank.

yep done the thing with the tape, a good and simple idea.

[rwilkey]

Hi Doug, this is one of the reasons I prefer an alt-az (AZ) mount, on EQ mounts you have to keep turning the barrel as you have found, a pain for me to do.  Then you get what is called the 'meridian flip', not much fun in my view, esp. if you have mobility problems like I do!