Help needed with co-ordinates

[beavyg]

Could someone explain declination to me please. I decided to try and find things using co-ordinates, followed all the instructions to polar align my skywatcher and set the R.A setting circle. After doing that I went to find M57 which is 33 deg and my telescope was practically horizontal pointing at the wall of my house.

I dont understand how I am going to find things when the telescope tube is not pointing at the sky.

What am I doing wrong?

[Merlin66]

Google is your friend....

Coordinate Systems

Equatorial coordinate system - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Your telescope mount should be set up with the RA axis pointing to the Pole star.

[brantuk]

You need to ascertain if something is actually viewable from your location. The co-ordinates should tell you this - but just in case they don't - download Stellarium and you can search for objects at your location to see if they're visible or not at the time of night you're looking

[acey]

First of all, are you sure that this wasn't the direction of M57 at the time?

RA and Dec aren't fixed with respect to the ground: an object moves across the sky, keeping the same co-ordinates, which are measured with respect to the North and South celestial poles and the celestial equator.

Imagine you were at the North pole. Then the celestial pole would be right over your head and all the stars would be seen to wheel around this point. The celestial equator would be (effectively) your horizon, and declination would measure the fixed height of any star above this line. A dobsonian at the North pole would work as a (fork mounted) equatorial scope.

At other latitudes you would need to tilt your dobsonian (or alt-az) scope, because the pole star is no longer overhead. The celestial equator is likewise tilted, tracing an arc across the sky. You are now measuring declination from that arc. Objects no longer remain at a fixed height in the sky, but rise and set (like the sun), though their declination remains fixed.

Declination - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia