Using Hours and Degree scale on eq mount

[jetset]

Hi, I've got the bug again after 5 years and have my scope set up, polar aligned and in the 'home' position.

If I look at Stellarium and click on an object, it comes up with loads of info at the top left including position info and none of it makes much sense to me.

Which figures should I be looking at in order to aim my cheap crappy Tasco in the right direction?

Thanks

[jetset]

Well I found out they're called setting circles and this video which kind of explains it.

 

[Cornelius Varley]

The video also explains why they are not very accurate on small mounts.

[LukeSkywatcher]

I thought they were just there for decoration. I never bothered to figure out how to use them because i dont understand the whole hours,minutes thing in relation to astronomy.

[brantuk]

Hi Jetset - the setting circles are usually not very accurate - however they can be used to get you pointing in the right direction and if you're lucky the view will be in the nearby area of your target object. But you can also get there with a well aligned finder scope and knowledge of the constellations.

Pick a star in a constellation near your target to start with - then follow a pattern of stars hopping from one to the other - it's just as quick or quicker. Use Stellarium to familiarise yourself with the star patterns around your object and you should find it by just panning around the area with the right eyepiece. It's free to download: http://www.stellarium.org/en_GB/

Hth

 

[chiltonstar]

With a slightly larger/better built mount, setting circles can be useful - a kind of manual GoTo for old folks like me! With my Vixen mount, I can get to easily within 1 degree of a target even without precise polar alignment, particularly useful if the sky is hazy or obliterated by the Moon so that too few stars can to seen for star hopping.

Chris

[skfboiler]

I've had some success with the setting circles on my EQ mount.  You really have to get a good polar alignment though.  Also, if use the RA and DA coordinates of a star or an object you already found that is fairly close to your target object, you can get decent results.  In my light polluted backyard, using the setting circles helped me find M11 for the first time as I could not see any good stars to star hop to it.  I centered the scope on Altair.  Dialed in the RA and DA coordinates.  Then I dialed in the RA and DA for M11 and moved the mount accordingly. There it was, M11 at the edge of the field of view of my low powered eyepiece.  Now if I wanted to find something in Cygnus, I would center M11 and dial in the RA and DA.  Then dial in RA and DA of  NGC 6826 and move the mount and NGC 6826 should be in the FOV or very close by.

Here is an article that best explains the use of setting circles.  It really helped me find a lot of stuff that I could not star hop to.

 http://astro-tom.com/telescopes/setting_circles.htm

 

[Putaendo Patrick]

On a good mount, setting circles can be very useful - old skool go-to, especially when the telescope is fixed permanently. On cheaper mounts, they'll get you in the general direction. Another rough technique which with practice is surprisingly accurate is using hands and fingers to estimate degrees:

As with mileage, your hands may vary.

http://www.fortworthastro.com/beginner1.html

[jetset]

Thanks for all  the advice. Some useful info on here