Star hopping at high altitudes

[Paz]

I would be interested to hear any tips for star hopping and manually finding targets at high altitudes close to the zenith. For me this means anything around 70 degrees or higher.

I sometimes find it ok and some nights I really struggle.

Earlier this week I was hopping around Cepheus jumping off from beta and I kept getting lost!

[cloudsweeper]

Hopping from a good starting point is usually OK, especially with a wide FOV.  The problem I had the other day was losing the target on raising the mag - nudging and tracking are the issues here.  A zoom EP would probably help in this situation.

(GoTo of course makes everything easier, although mine played up last night, and I spent hours updating the firmware.  Hope it's OK now!!)

Doug.

[Rob Sellent]

I think there are a couple of places in the skies where it's difficult for telescopes to navigate. Scopes on EQ mounts maneuvering around the Celestial Poles and AZ mounts negotiating the Zenith are often recipes for frustration.

In this particular case, when you are near the zenith the manual observer doesn't have much authority in AZ and needs to move a lot on ground in order to move a little in the sky. Indeed, so vexing is the situation, grappling with the scope to observe the Zenith, that it has actually created its very own dance movement called the Azimuth Dance Movement - ADM. In the image below, we can see an ADM performer offering a particularly graceful Azimuth movement with an AZ mounted frac:

 

 

Not to be out down, the Dob mob have not only created their very own progressive version of the Azimuth Dance - commentators often point out the similarity between grappling and twirling grizzly bears and the Dobber's ADM - but have gone a stage further and have actually coined their own terminology to desribe the place where very few Dobsonians will ever care to venture. Dobo-foraminis in Latin, commonly referred to as the Dobsonian Hole or Dobson's Hole, casually abbreviated to the Dob Hole.

😄

Edited September 21, 2019 by Rob Sellent

[Paz]

10 hours ago, cloudsweeper said:

Hopping from a good starting point is usually OK, especially with a wide FOV.  The problem I had the other day was losing the target on raising the mag - nudging and tracking are the issues here.  A zoom EP would probably help in this situation.

(GoTo of course makes everything easier, although mine played up last night, and I spent hours updating the firmware.  Hope it's OK now!!)

Doug.

I had a zoom eyepiece with nearly 3 degrees maximum fov but with a mirror diagonal flipping the image and my varying head position rotating the image which don't make it easy!

[Paz]

4 hours ago, Rob Sellent said:

In this particular case, when you are near the zenith the manual observer doesn't have much authority in AZ and needs to move a lot on ground in order to move a little in the sky. Indeed, so vexing is the situation, grappling with the scope to observe the Zenith, that it has actually created its very own dance movement called the Azimuth Dance Movement - ADM. In the image below, we can see an ADM performer offering a particularly graceful Azimuth movement with an AZ mounted frac:

Problem solved ... I need to attend some dance classes, and maybe do a bit of yoga! 😎

[scarp15]

On 19/09/2019 at 23:39, Paz said:

 

Earlier this week I was hopping around Cepheus jumping off from beta and I kept getting lost!

This can often happen to me to, when looking overhead, even losing my balance a bit and become slightly disoriented comprehending the intended constellation. Actually it is great, something to relish looking close to or up, within the blackness, at zenith for targets such as you imply within Cepheus. A Dobsonian requires careful manoeuvring with both hands, my VX14, the Telrad on a 4" riser base, I can get close to within proximity of a target, finetune if necessary with a RACI finderscope, always carefully handling the dob - quite a tactile procedure. Hanging onto the dob is good, because looking up continually, you might almost fall backwards (well I do anyhow), would make a great slapstick silent comedy sketch. The dob can go into the dob hole, I use a (rubber car) ground mat and can kneel if necessary or use a sit mat to kneel (one knee) whilst aligning the Telrad. Being 5' 10 1/2" tall, I can stand comfortably with the VX14 and observe a target at zenith. Best memory for this is of M101 and the accompanying galaxy group.

This is also possible with my VX8L, which I use a Rigel Quikfinder, a bit trickier to initially align, easier afterwards with the raci and a bit more kneeling required. Again careful manoeuvring and turning with both hands, followed by comfortable observing, this time on an adjustable observers chair.    

[joe aguiar]

raise tripod upwards?

and use a telrad rigel if u don't have one

joejaguar