Need Guidance on Orienting

[rabbithutch]

Anticipating a night out when my binocs arrive, I was going through a mental exercise of how to orient myself and tripod in order to identify objects. Because I can't answer my own questions (correctly ), I thought I'd post my protocol and ask for critique.

After expanding and setting up the tripod, I attach the binocs.

Then, I orient the binocs toward a compass heading of 180° (South). Because I live in the northern hemisphere this will give a partial view of the southern sky.

Having the compass, I now want to get my equatorial point. Given my latitude as -31° 6' North (thirty-one degrees, 6 minutes) my declination to get to the celestial equator should be 58° 54' (90° less 31° 6').

I should now be pointing - albeit roughly - toward the middle of the southern sky. I have a small level. It should give me a rough start point for setting the declination. I also have an angle finder that I use in my woodworking hobby that should help me find the approximate declination.

This would put Polaris behind me and Jupiter - depending on the time - somewhere to my left with its declination being higher the closer it get to daybreak.

How am I doing so far? I realize that all I would have done is to position myself very roughly, but from that position I should be able to swing the binocs to any compass heading and declination to find an object if I know those two factors.

Close? Cigar? Or back to square one? If I'm good thus far, on to understanding RA.

[Talitha]

TBH, i think you might be over-complicating things. I just use a widefield chart to get into the ballpark, and then a more detailed one to starhop with my binos.

[rabbithutch]

Thanks, Talitha!

Yes, the description was a bit of hyperbole, but what I was trying to do was to demonstrate my understanding of various factors about the night sky. For example, does my description approximate insight into the Celestial Equator? I chose a southerly view set up to indicate that I might be able to see some of the southern sky from my latitude. As far as levelling and declination, my description was to evoke faults in my understanding or to solicit better advice for tools - when the day comes that I might need to level a scope, for example.

I should have been more precise if phrasing my question, but it was late and my brain was not up to it. ("That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!")

[The Warthog]

You don't need a map and compass to walk about your own town. Take a decent star map, such as the one published in any current astronomy magazine, take it outside, hold it up, and learn the constellations. Set yourself little exams and check them against the map. ("OK, if that's Cassiopeia, that must be Perseus to the south" kind of thing.) Some of the constellations are fiddly to pick out, so for now just do the brighter ones. I can't see Cancer at all from my location because of the LP, so I just skip over it with my naked eye. Once you get the feel of the neighbourhood, you will be much more able to find things than you will fussing with RA and Dec, or Altitude and Azimuth. I use my setting circles only for offsetting from a bright object to a dim one. I don't need them to find Jupiter or Vega.

It really impresses the muggles if you can just point to the sky and say, "Look at Auriga tonight; isn't it magnificent!"

[rabbithutch]

Happy Thanksgiving Day, a bit belatedly!

I'll do some looking as you suggested.