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Frustrated newbie trying to locate objects


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Hola,

I have a reflector telescope on EQ mount ( I know, big mistake for a beginner ).

Please help me, I'm having trouble understanding RA and Dec for manual locating.

I use stellarium app but I don't understand the signs of RA and Dec shown in the application.

 

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Hi and welcome to SGL.

Ignoring the confusing names RA is left and right or east and west, Dec is up and down or north and south.

Could you post a bit more detail about your equipment.

Dave

 

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22 minutes ago, Davey-T said:

Hi and welcome to SGL.

Ignoring the confusing names RA is left and right or east and west, Dec is up and down or north and south.

Could you post a bit more detail about your equipment.

Dave

 

Skywatcher 130P with Equatorial 2 mount.

10mm and 25mm eyepieces came along with it.

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I have a goto myself (which takes its own learning I've found!), but I know there is a recommended guide to a method called 'star-hopping' in the sticky in this forum.  It might be worth a read?  Here: 

I also understand that a lot of people find a telrad finder with its red circles which appear to be a fixed distance apart a useful thing to get hold of too

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Hi. The setting circle thing is not great, unless they are huge, the scale is just not up to it. I am fairly new as well and struggled to begin with. I would recommend a RACI finder scope, a star atlas and a pair of binoculars that help get orientated of where things are. 

Summer is not great for finding faint objects so keep motivated by trying to find easy objects or bright stars, doing some star hopping, dark nights are not too far off. 

Here's what I spent my money on and every pound well spent:

https://wordery.com/sky-telescope-pocket-atlas-roger-w-sinnott-9781931559317?currency=GBP&gtrck=NnJ0R2c3ajNSU085TDNCWG1KUmMyd1N1WDVzR3lCakpHZHBoUDNMNXdDMFdqbUd1eDNna0hsVGZjV1JJVS9lTUhjdDY4Nk5BMzYyVDdwSzRBZCtobUE9PQ&gclid=CPqRvMbt49QCFa637QodTHcHXA

http://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/skywatcher-right-angled-magnified-finderscopes.html

http://www.rothervalleyoptics.co.uk/celestron-skymaster-15-x-70-observation-binoculars.html

 

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For general observing, I am not keen on Newtonians on eq mounts. It might be possible to set your declination to 90 degrees (i.e. straight up and you then have an alt az mount which is much more user friendly. You then need to learn how to star hop. This is straight forward enough. 

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4 minutes ago, Moonshane said:

For general observing, I am not keen on Newtonians on eq mounts. It might be possible to set your declination to 90 degrees (i.e. straight up and you then have an alt az mount which is much more user friendly. You then need to learn how to star hop. This is straight forward enough. 

That's what I did with my EQ5, I found it much easier than when it was polar aligned - and it was 1 less set-up step

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13 hours ago, Moonshane said:

For general observing, I am not keen on Newtonians on eq mounts. It might be possible to set your declination to 90 degrees (i.e. straight up and you then have an alt az mount which is much more user friendly. You then need to learn how to star hop. This is straight forward enough. 

I wanted to know what the signs of RA and dec mean like from where it starts?

The app has given + and - signs, I am having difficulty in understanding where to begin with like what is the origin.

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16 minutes ago, Greenleaf27 said:

I wanted to know what the signs of RA and dec mean like from where it starts?

The app has given + and - signs, I am having difficulty in understanding where to begin with like what is the origin.

If you look  on Stellarium you will see that Dec goes up in  + from the 0 dec line and below that is - the  zero line is the celestial equator

The RA starts  from zero hours at what is called for historical reasons the " First point of Aries "

These co-ordinates mean that an object will always be in the same place, if you put the co-ordinates into a GoTo mount it will slew to these no matter what the actual terrestrial time of day is.

Do not confuse these with the Alt / Az co-ordinates that are terrestrial based and change continuously.

Dave

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roughly declination is how high (degrees) in the sky an object is and right ascension is how far round the clock (time on a 24h clock) something is (with Polaris being at the centre). If you want to get to know how to use an equatorial mount there are lots of tutorials online. just google "using an equatorial mount"

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13 hours ago, rockystar said:

That's what I did with my EQ5, I found it much easier than when it was polar aligned - and it was 1 less set-up step

Never thought of doing that, purely for observing though, useful for getting to know your way around. May try this. 

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17 hours ago, rockystar said:

are you planning on using the setting circles on your mount?

 

Do setting circles directly lead me to the object? ( I get the RA and Dec from the application I am aware of that)

 

So far I have observed people use nearby bright objects to find the one they want to observe aka Star Hopping

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They can, but you need one more piece of information....the sidereal time - this is the RA coordinate on your meridian (north south line) knowing this you can see if the target RA is to the east or west in the sky (hour angle)

As others have said the small circles on the mount is usually more for decoration than accuracy.

 

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21 hours ago, Moonshane said:

For general observing, I am not keen on Newtonians on eq mounts. It might be possible to set your declination to 90 degrees (i.e. straight up and you then have an alt az mount which is much more user friendly. You then need to learn how to star hop. This is straight forward enough. 

Really? I never though of that. Genius!

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On 29/06/2017 at 21:38, wookie1965 said:

When I had my old EQ3-2 mount could not use setting circles, I had a RACI finder and a telrad made it much easier to star hop, Turn left at Orion is a brilliant book to help star hopping.

This would be my suggestion for making progress too - good luck!

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3 minutes ago, steppenwolf said:

This would be my suggestion for making progress too - good luck!

 

On 6/29/2017 at 21:38, wookie1965 said:

When I had my old EQ3-2 mount could not use setting circles, I had a RACI finder and a telrad made it much easier to star hop, Turn left at Orion is a brilliant book to help star hopping.

I agree regarding finder and telrad although it pains me to say I never got on with TLAO. :hiding:

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Having had a real fight to point the telescope at the bit of sky I wanted to look at I got a cheap holder so I could mount two finders.  An elementary red dot finder gets me nearly there and a magnified RACI completely zoned in on the telescope view puts me bang on whatever I decide I want to point at in <30 seconds assuming I know what I wnt in the sight.  Stellarium android app. Outside on phone and google sky help with the location.

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On 6/29/2017 at 12:17, Greenleaf27 said:

Hola,

I have a reflector telescope on EQ mount ( I know, big mistake for a beginner ).

Please help me, I'm having trouble understanding RA and Dec for manual locating.

I use stellarium app but I don't understand the signs of RA and Dec shown in the application.

 

I have to disagree with that statement (in red). Maybe you chose a hardest path but in now way I think it's a mistake, you will learn a great deal with the EQ. Assuming you don't have a Synscan EQ mount and depending of the mount, for a small amount of money, you could add a single axis RA clock drive to track your targets, can't live without it now.

--> I am enjoying life with my EQ mount, it's easily feasible.

:icon_queen:

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9 hours ago, N3ptune said:

I have to disagree with that statement (in red). Maybe you chose a hardest path but in now way I think it's a mistake, you will learn a great deal with the EQ. Assuming you don't have a Synscan EQ mount and depending of the mount, for a small amount of money, you could add a single axis RA clock drive to track your targets, can't live without it now.

--> I am enjoying life with my EQ mount, it's easily feasible.

:icon_queen:

My first scope was a C150HD on an EQ 3-2 mount. The scope was a Bird-Jones design so I made supposedly two 'no-no' mistakes from the outset.

Did it put me off Astronomy? Not at all! The scope was capable enough, showing me quite a number of targets plus Jupiter, Saturn and Mars over around 5 years. Understanding the EQ mount has stood me in good stead for future setups and although that awkward at times, it was never a major deal.

Even though it went soft over x150, and I struggled with collimation because of the design, because Jupiter and Saturn were so high in the sky, the views were actually lovely!

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