Review of first night out !

[Astorix]

Evening all!

well about 2 or 3 days ago we had the first clear night here in Sussex for a long time! i managed to take my scope outside and enjoy my first nights observing! it probably took me about 15 minutes to get the scope set up and aligned and after that i was away! i started on the easy things like Saturn, moon etc, they were A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! the sw evostar 90 gave me very clear and sharp images of saturn and the moon! after that i moved to M44 which was breath taking! my brother was there so had a look and he loved it too! i managed to split the double on the handl of the big dipper (Not sure what it's called) and much more!

One question though.. I looked into using my setting circles so i could find objects in the sky without having a goto mount. I read the manual that came with my scope and it said first off to locate a known star and sets its co ordinates, so i found vega in Lyra and when it was centered i set the cordinates on the circles on my scopw. In theory the maunal said as long as i know the co ordinates ofany other celestial object i could point to it! so looked up the co ordinates for m13 and the scope ended pointing no where near hercules! what went wrong?

[John]

Congratulations on a successful 1st light !.

I think the reality is that very few people try and use the setting circles on EQ mounts to find anything - they are not really made or engraved accurately enough to be honest. Many years ago I had an EQ mount equipped with a set of setting circles that were engraved precisely enough to be useful but each circle was 8" in diameter ! - the ones on todays EQ mounts are rather too small to be useful I think.

I'm glad you had fun anyway - sounds like you have worked out how to find things in the sky without the need for setting circles !

[barkis]

Pleased you have started on your exploration of the Universe.

So much to see, so enjoy your new scope.

I am in total agreement with John regarding the circles. They are time wasters, and will spoil your enjoyment.

Setting circles are useful on a permanently sited mount, and then only if they are large enough in diameter, and accurately divided.

Teach yourself to find the targets you want to observe, it's a great way to et famliar with the skies populace.

Ron.

[steppenwolf]

I agree with the others, small setting circles typically found on modern mounts are really not that accurate, however, they should have got you at least into Hercules! Quite often there are two rows of RA engravings, one for the Northern Hemisphere and one for the Southern Hemisphere - could you have chosen the wrong set?

Having no idea of your current knowledge, did you enter RA and DEC figures and definitely not Alt/Az figures - sorry to ask this one but it happens!

All that aside, it sounds like you had a great evening - the journey begins ....