Looking up or Looking down

[westmarch]

I recently took advantage of the ‘good’ weather and arranged to meet a mate at a dark sky site. He had his new goto Mak and I had the dob. We each took about 30 mins to set up but that is where the similarities ended.

I was slightly frustrated by the poor transparency with haze extending to about 40 degrees but concentrated on deep sky targets overhead, despite a dob’s known problems with manoeuvring around vertical targets.  I had six hours of enjoyment, star hopping, locating and viewing deep sky targets, albeit not the ones I had intended.

Sadly my friend could not get his scope to align. He then spent the next three hours troubleshooting - eliminating the Starsense, power tank, bluetooth dongle, SkySafari controls and then hand controller setup as the cause of the problem. To add to his frustration he was obviously trying to do this in the dark to avoid us both loosing dark adaptation. He failed and left deeply frustrated with the session, having had no opportunity to look up and, frankly, having lost all inclination to do so.

I saw something similar while on holiday - two anglers with a radio controlled bait dinghy, fishing rod rests that alerted their smart phones when there was a bite......  

Sometimes technology seems to become a hobby in itself.

John

[M40]

The Dob really comes into it's own for ease of setup and use; been there with the technology challenges as I am sure most have. No point in the coulda shoulda woulda, it's all a learning exercise and hopefully it hasn't put your friend off. 

[Paz]

Hopefully it's just part of the ups and downs we all have from time to time.

I have been to meets a couple of times where the weather was marginal and nobody else wanted to set up due to the complexity of the set ups they happened to bring. I was up for it as I happened to have a simple visual set up and I observe in dodgy conditions all the time but I didn't want to be the only one so on both occasions I just chatted until it was decided to give up and go home.

[F15Rules]

Mk1 eyeballs, eq RA drive only (or Altaz) mount, and comfy seat..KISS - Keep It Simple, Stupid!!

Dave

Edited March 27, 2022 by F15Rules

[cajen2]

I agree 100% with what everyone has said about the technology, keeping it simple, etc, but for some reason, I have terrible trouble finding targets that I've never seen before (galaxies, planetary nebulae, etc). I see someone with a fully-functioning GoTo just slew to a target which is invisible to the naked eye and I get very envious! I suppose I forget the hundreds of times it hasn't worked.....

[UKDiver]

7 minutes ago, cajen2 said:

I agree 100% with what everyone has said about the technology, keeping it simple, etc, but for some reason, I have terrible trouble finding targets that I've never seen before (galaxies, planetary nebulae, etc). I see someone with a fully-functioning GoTo just slew to a target which is invisible to the naked eye and I get very envious! I suppose I forget the hundreds of times it hasn't worked.....

Much as I like the idea of kit that shows me where something is without having to find it, it does add to the overall faff. Messing about with more gear, power etc for relatively small amounts of visual observing does not currently seem like a reasonable ROI. This is from someone who's already spent the money too! My mistake.  Both of us being in relatively high light polluted areas can't help.

[cajen2]

Exactly. I can hardly see Polaris with the naked eye where I live, never mind M31!

[rojay]

I do find that using a homemade setting circle and a digital inclinometer helps with finding things amid the light pollution, either directly going to the object, or to a nearby star to start the star hopping. I haven't permanently fitted the inclinometer, so my Dob is gizmo-free by default. And for objects where the starting point is easy, I don't bother with coordinates, just star hop the "old fashioned" way...

[apaulo]

technology is great, when it works. there was many a time i wished for a goto.  however i didnt fancy  powerpacs etc etc. technology seems to breed more technology.  start of setting up everything carried under your arm, next wheel barrow, then car boot, next thing is i need a van.  oh yes and live near an astro shop incase you need more gear fast. so for my diy dob mount and 200p scope i decided to get a setting circle made by a local sign makers, just a flat plastic sheet with a protractor printed on it. £20. then onto amazon for a digital incline meter. now its a simple matter of centering polaris in the eyepiece twist the dob until its zeroed  job done. i get my alt az numbers of sky safari plus and im close, very close. occassionally bang on centre.  i go a small step further now after using this setup a few months. i put a bubble level on the base and level it as i noticed it dosnt have to be very far of plumb to affect the accuracy.  so for about £30 i have a system thats improved veiwing sessions immensly. i hope this is of interest and help to someone.

[bosun21]

I can set my go to Mak up with a two star alignment and sometimes a three star if targeting across the meridian for increased accuracy. The leveling and alignment takes about 15 minutes and has become second nature. This is of course dependent on the equipment working. I have two go to mounts now. One equatorial and one alt/az. Though I love using my Dobsonian I would never get rid of my go to’s now as I have become somewhat spoiled.