The planet keeps drifting away

[maximR]

Saturn, to be precise. When I use a high mag eyepiece (10mm), Saturn drifts away from my field of view very very fast ! I didn't know this would happen and I had to constantly search for it again when it disappears.

Why is this thing happening ??

Oh and, can I align my scope to the North Star using an altaz mount ? If it is possible, then how ?

[Euan]

I take it you are using an ALT/AZ mount then? What type is it?

The reason it is drifting is that to align one of these mounts with the celestial north is you need a wedge to offset for your latitude

[Brett]

Hi Maxim what mount are you using ? If its of the skywatcher brand then maybe the tracking is set to sidereal and not solar. I managed to keep Saturn in view for a very long time Tuesday night using a 130p with a 6.3mm and 2 x barlow.

Brett

[philj]

Hi Maxim, in just the same way that the sun and moon rises and sets so do the stars and planets. Its because the earth is rotating. Therefore when you point your altaz mounted scope at a celestial object it will appear to drift out of view. In actual fact your the one drifting:D by being on this spinning planet.

Tilting the azimuth to point to the pole will help, then you can track the object by only having to push in azimuth and you can leave the altitude untouched.

Phil

[Cornelius Varley]

Saturn, to be precise. When I use a high mag eyepiece (10mm), Saturn drifts away from my field of view very very fast ! I didn't know this would happen and I had to constantly search for it again when it disappears.

Why is this thing happening ??

Oh and, can I align my scope to the North Star using an altaz mount ? If it is possible, then how ?

With your simple alt-az mount (Skywatcher 70 alt-az) you will need to keep readjusting the telescope to compensate for the Earth's rotation. With the mount you have it is not possible to polar align the telescope.

Peter

[hemihaggis]

question to maximr ..why does the sun come up ??

[Brett]

question to maximr ..why does the sun come up ??

[maximR]

Hey there,

I'm using a Skywatcher 70mm Alt-Az ( AZ2 ).

How do I point to the north star ( I can't find it ) so I don't need to fiddle with the altitude ?

[pvaz]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Finding_polaris.png

Find the big plug in ursa major, then imagine a line as in the picture and follow it to polaris (aka north star).

Bare in mind the image is much smaller then the real sky, the real distance is quite big.

[Euan]

Is this the one then?

Sorry but I don't see how you can align this with north unless you go about modding the mount?

[maximR]

Is this the one then?

Sorry but I don't see how you can align this with north unless you go about modding the mount?

Yes, so I have to constantly search for the planet again ?

[maximR]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Finding_polaris.png

Find the big plug in ursa major, then imagine a line as in the picture and follow it to polaris (aka north star).

Bare in mind the image is much smaller then the real sky, the real distance is quite big.

Thanks for the link.

[sgazer]

I'm afraid that as the earth is rotating 360 degrees every 24 hours, then objects viewed through the telescope will drift out of the field of view quite quickly. ie. if you are looking at 1 degree of sky which would be typical for a 15mm eyepiece with your scope (very low magnification of just x46), then Saturn will drift through the eyepiece view in just 4 minutes (24hrs/360). At hundreds of times magnification, it will disappear in seconds.

The only solution is to move your scope manually to follow it, as you will need to do with any manual alt/az setup including a dob, or get a computerised alt/az setup which will follow it, or an eq mount with at least a RA motor drive which will also track it.

HTH/