Distance in degrees between Procyon & Aldebaran

[Scotlandyard]

Hello everyone,

I am having trouble with the settings of my Orion Intelliscope system. I am supposed to calibrate the intelliscope with 2 stars distant from at least 60 degrees.

 

Could someone tell me if the 2 stars I am using (Procyon & Aldebaran) are at least 60 degrees apart from eachother? Using the fist/finger way of measuring seems to me that they are just over 60 degrees.

I am having wrap errors of 3.4 so that is quite a lot. Maybe another issue is that my balcony is not totally flat.

Thanks for your confirmation.

Scotlandyard

[Stu]

Procyon is 46 degrees from Aldebaran

Algol would do the trick

[Astro Imp]

If you download Stellarium you can measure the angular distance between any two objects. Stellarium:- http://www.stellarium.org/

BTW from my understanding of the Orion Inteliscope system your balcony not being level won't be an issue.

HTH and good luck.

[ghostdance]

So long as you initially carefully set the scope absolutely level ( on first set up, with a spirit level), my understanding is likewise that your observing surface (ground, decking, concrete whatever) is not a factor in getting a good low reading.  I've managed a couple of 0.0, but usually not! Good enough to get (for example) Uranus in my eyepiece, even if not centred.

Persevere - it's a good (nice and) simple system

 

[Scotlandyard]

thanks all for your ideas. I have Stellarium but I don't manage to measure the angles. Do I need a plug-in or something to enable that feature?

[rockystar]

yes, you need to enable the plug in - they are in the settings section.