Finderscopes - chasing stars!

[Charic]

13 hours ago, JOC said:

.......close enough.......

From my less than perfect,street illuminated garden, Polaris is visible to my naked eyes ( Its not the brightest Star up there! and excepting  the two stars Pherkad and  Kochab Ursa Minor itself is not  clearly visible under my conditions , but  away from home, Ursa minor  is  clearly visible.) but more importantly, Polaris   viewed from my garden  appears to be isolated  from its surrounding stars, making it easier  for me to locate and  Polaris has become the centre of my  limited observable sky.

[JOC]

Hi Charic, that is interesting as the star I am sure is Polaris is, I also feel, not the brightest up there to the naked eye.  An observation which concurs with your own.  With the naked eye it does seem alone in the sky when I run across from the pointer stars in U. Major, but in the RACI, with its magnification, more stars seem present when I am looking for a fix.  However, picking the brightest of those seemed to work last time.

[noah4x4]

I have read through three pages and not one person has mentioned that Celestron Starsense is now available for Skywatcher mounts.

I have a vision problem and hence struggled with RDFs and conventional alignments.  Starsense is THE alignment tool that stopped me giving up. It's not cheap but it is just fantastic. I can be aligned in two minutes, when previously the clouds would roll in before I ever had an alignment solution. 

Another thought, if you want to accurately centre an object in an eyepiece try this. Defocus until you have a big doughnut that almost fills your FOV. Then centre the doughnut. That is far easier than trying to centre a tiny pin prick of light. You can check your collimation at the same time. 

[Charic]

12 minutes ago, noah4x4 said:

Celestron Starsense

Its not something that I could use, or was aware of until you raised the point, but no doubt someone else like yourself, could make use of this device.

[SilverAstro]

26 minutes ago, noah4x4 said:

 that Celestron Starsense is now available for Skywatcher mounts.

for JOC's (OP)  Dob ??

 

[Charic]

.................Compatible mounts: HEQ5, EQ6, AZ-EQ5, AZ-EQ6, EQ8 and AZ SynScan compatible mounts

[SilverAstro]

If that is a "yes" I'll have to think about one for me  !

[Charic]

1 hour ago, SilverAstro said:

for JOC's (OP)  Dob ??

 

Skywatcher Skyliner 200P (8") FlexTube GOTO 1200mm F/L (F6); Alt-Azimuth Mount; SynScan AZ Computerised Handset

If his SynScan is compatible I would assume it will work.

[SilverAstro]

8 hours ago, Charic said:

Skywatcher Skyliner 200P (8") FlexTube GOTO 1200mm F/L (F6); Alt-Azimuth Mount; SynScan AZ Computerised Handset

If his SynScan is compatible I would assume it will work.

Yer, assuming !  that is why I am hammering on about it, cos I get confused about all the Skywatcher designations  -  all the Starsense/AZ SynScan pictures/tubes I have seen are all alt-az on top of a tripod.

If they said "Compatible mounts: HEQ5, EQ6, AZ-EQ5, AZ-EQ6, EQ8, Dob SynScan compatible and AZ SynScan compatible mounts " then I wouldnt be questioning !

I know that you know that Dobs are Altaz, but do they distinguish, just curious  ! One way to find out is :- ask the dealer first

 

[BRUN]

Image on FLO shows it on a Dob, interesting !

Pricey though @ £400 but would make things so easy 

[JOC]

The FAQ on the celestron web site says that it won't work with other brands.  Debit card breathes huge sigh of relief!  Actually I am very keen to try aligning the scope along its tube length like a rifle.  I'll try using Google sky to identify stars a bit more positively and try using the scope like a rifle!

[SilverAstro]

2 hours ago, BRUN said:

Image on FLO shows it on a Dob, interesting !

Pricey though @ £400 but would make things so easy 

AH, that is interesting, thanks.

JOC,  and the rest of us, are doing the right thing I'm sure in getting to know the sky at our leisure but I am all in favour of anything that can make things a bit quicker for when we are freezing our bits off to see the latest supernova or whatever before the next bank of clouds, or worse, arrives !!! It is all a race agianst time , , , 

It is a bit of a thing though, we spend all this time learning, and loadsa time on fora   preaching  suggesting to others that they should   suffer like we did  enjoy the sky, then we get upstaged by a wee gizmo that can do it all in a coupla mins.  life just isnt fair

here endeth today's grand thought.

 

[JOC]

FWIW I belive there is a version of the goto device that is on my dob. which has another connection into which you can click a GPS device, my instruction book mentions it.  I think then all you do is point it a three random unknown stars and it says "OK guvnor, I know where I am" and off it goes.  I will confirm this later, but I know I've tried clicking buttons in the goto handset and been told 'GPS not installed' so I know facility exists within the goto software if not my own goto device.  It looks a bit like a short wire with a small sending box on the end end.  You can buy it separately for about £267, but you do need the spare connector in the goto unit itself.

[popeye85]

Thought I would revive this thread to get a bit of advice regarding my 8"rev dob!

At the minute I don't have a finder I only have a telrad and unfortunately funds/wife won't allow the purchase of one!

I am finding it pretty difficult to find targets- should I just keep practicing with the telrad or do I need to bite the bullet and upgrade?

Thanks.

Popeye

[rockystar]

3 hours ago, popeye85 said:

Thought I would revive this thread to get a bit of advice regarding my 8"rev dob!

At the minute I don't have a finder I only have a telrad and unfortunately funds/wife won't allow the purchase of one!

I am finding it pretty difficult to find targets- should I just keep practicing with the telrad or do I need to bite the bullet and upgrade?

Thanks.

Popeye

I use the telrad to quickly get me to my naked eye visible starting location, then use a RACI to star hop, when I'm in the right area, I have my wide angle low power EP to zer in on the target - this worked very well for me when hopping to M81/82 the other night; there weren't enough visible stars for me to do this with just the telrad (I tried...and failed), so it may be time if you are struggling, I'm sure you'll have plenty of time to save up with all these clouds around at the moment...

 

[John]

If I had to have just one finder on a scope, it would be a Telrad. Combined with a good star atlas (I use the Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas) and a low power eyepiece in the scope for the final centering, the Telrad is very potent. Obviously make sure your scope and the Telrad share as close as possible to exactly the same alignment.

In another thread someone had the excellent ruse of using a ring that is the same (to scale) diameter as the Telrad outer circle when placed on the star chart as an aid to finding stuff. Seems a great idea to me