Compass Questions

[mrwhippy14]

I know this sounds dumb but ive purchased a couple of books. That should help me with star finding.

But I had a compass in the pack that i recieved with my skywater goto 102.

I really dont know if i need it/ i havent actually aligned my scope yet with the goto system as i was awaiting the books to indicate particular stars in order to calibrate the system.

So just wondering if i need this at all.?

P.S. i was looking a jupiter the other day using a 6mm ep. But i used the barlow to double my mag and it didnt really add any Mag to the image is this due to the atmosphere or my scope itself ?

Thanks guys.

[roundycat]

the compass will help you with the initial polar alignment but be careful to allow for magnetic variation and deviation due to nearby ferrous metal objects.

I'm guessing you had a magnification of 120-150, increasing that will not be of much benefit through our mucky skies.

Dennis

[John]

The compass is probably intended to help you point the scope north, which I think is part of the initial set up process for those mounts.

The barlow lens would make the 6mm eyepice the equivilent of a 3mm so give twice the magnfication. So Jupiter's disk would have appeared larger (twice the apparent diameter of course) but you would not necesarily see any more detail.

If your scope is one of the F/5 types - 500mm focal length, 100x is about it's max in practical terms - the 2x barlow and 6mm eyepiece was giving 166x.

[Uplooker]

Not sure which scope you are using. Probably down to the fact that you exceeded the practical magnification for your scope, general rule is 50 times the diameter of your primary mirror in inches. Seeing and quality of eyepiece also have an impact.

[bcfcciderhead]

A compass will help with the alignment but like roundycat said be careful of the magnetic types and the metal of your mount, i use one of those hicking/walking type should not be a problem with those.

Also you will soon know where the north star is and find this better to align your scope with, but most use a 2 or 3 star location to align.

[mrwhippy14]

Thanks for your help !

[ollypenrice]

A compass will help with the alignment but like roundycat said be careful of the magnetic types and the metal of your mount, i use one of those hicking/walking type should not be a problem with those.

Also you will soon know where the north star is and find this better to align your scope with, but most use a 2 or 3 star location to align.

Isn't your hiking-walking compass magnetic? Mine are (and made by Sylva.). Of course there are GPS devices but a hiking compass is magnetic, I'd say.

Olly