Need Help with R.A

[gold123456th]

Hi First time in this forum!

This morning I was surfing the web, hoping to learn how to use Dec and R.A to locate objects in the sky. However, I ran into some questions, and none of the sites were helpful.

I understood the declination/celesial equator stuffs, and I understood what is R.A and where the 0h is. However, I don't know how to identify the right ascesions when I open my garage door and look at the meridian. In other words, I don't know which righ ascensions I am looking at.

(All the websites only explained what is R.A, but never explain how to use it when you open the garage door and stare at the sky)

Thanks!

[brantuk]

Hi Gold - a very easy way to do this is to download Stellarium (unless you allready have it).

Using an ordinary compass stand in the garage door and work out which way you are facing (take a compass bearing).

In Stallarium you can set the cardinal point to your bearing and switch on the grid lines to establish sky RA/Dec for a chosen object. Left click the object for an exact reading.

Alternatively - get your scope polar aligned then slew to an object that faces the garage door and take a reading from the setting circles on the scope.