Re: finding m34 and Double Cluster and others with Dob
- From: AstroSketcher@xxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 06:20:57 -0800 (PST)
On Jan 29, 7:16 am, brucegooglegroups <brucegooglegro...@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I was able to find the Double Cluster and M34 using binoculars with
advice from this group However, I couldn't locate them with my 4.5
Dob. Also, in general, I can locate larger sky objects with my Dob
such as M44 and M41, but I haven't been successful with smaller sky
objects. I am still getting used to the inverted image, but I may be
following the skychart in the wrong direction. I view mainly from the
southeast, south and Northwest.
Hi Bruce, you mentioned not having an equatorial mount in a related
thread. The method I mentioned (for determining directions in an
eyepiece) works for *any* telescope or mount. Look through the
telescope's eyepiece and allow time for earth's rotation to move a
star across your field of view (there's no need to turn off the drive
if the scope has no drive!) The direction in which the star appears
to move is west.
It looks like your difficulty is in getting the telescope pointed at
targets that are not visible to you in your finder.
Different people sometimes use different approaches when it comes to
pointing their telescopes at such targets. I prefer to try to point
the finder at the exact location of the object (even if it's not
visible with the finder) prior to looking through the primary
telescope. Often, when I next look through the telescope the object
is immediately visible. If it's not, it's likely to be just outside
the field. This technique works better under darker skies (with more
reference stars visible), but it's doable in somewhat brighter skies.
Sometimes I'll "navigate" while looking through the primary telescope,
but when I do so I usually use more detailed atlas charts that show
enough stars to enable me to match the star patterns seen in the
telescope's eyepiece to the star patterns shown on the charts. (This
means using Uranometria, Millennium, or custom printed charts).
In all cases, success is easier to achieve when using eyepieces that
have wider true fields of view. Your 25mm eyepiece probably provides
a true field of approximately 1.4 degrees with your telescope. Often
I "cheat" by using eyepieces that provide true fields of 2 degrees or
more! In other words, if it appears that some of us can find things
easier than others it's often because we have access to different
equipment -- though the added experience is helpful as well.
Hang in there. I'll try to write more on this later when I'm less
pressed for time.
Bill Greer
To sketch is to see.
.
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