Re: Got a Telescope, Now What?

Lauren the Ravishing wrote:

I also downloaded the free Stellarium, which is visually very nice but
has a crucial flaw; the celestial sphere doesn't pivot around Polaris
but some other arbitrary point. Another annoyance is that the time zone
setting isn't clear, I think it showed me a sky that was a few hours
ahead.

Many thanks,
~ L



For Stellarium,
Have you checked weather you have it set in RA,
or ALT AZ mode ? Also you can adjust for your time
zone under configuration. On slow machines, and or
those without a real video card, it does not run
well.
I run both OS versions, and it is the same.
Also if you run Linux, you should definitely try
XEphem. Down to mag 15 in trial version, mag 20+
in full version.

Cartes Du Ceil is easily one of the best programs
out there now, both Linux, and Windows versions.
EXCELLENT software !! (I still preffer XEphem)


For planning software, AstroPlanner seems to be
the best.


Oh... for your telescope, you got it right about
the big screw. Set it for your latitude, and move
the entire mount to get Polaris into the field of view.
You are right, it only gets set once. If you want to
do a polar alignment, than yes you will need to adjust
it. Really no need for this except for using setting
circles to find things, and or photography.
Forget about the RA circle for now. Now when you look
at an object, you should only need to turn the fine
adjustment for RA to keep it centered in the field of
view, (FOV) for the most part. I dont have one of these
telescopes, but know EQ mounts, give me a holler if ya
need more info.


As soon as possible, definitely learn collimination,
and check it when you setup to observe. After a while
it gets second nature to adjust it. (others here know
far more about newtonian collimination here than I)






--
AM

http://sctuser.home.comcast.net

CentOS 4.3 KDE 3.3
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