35 replies to this topic

[Cajundaddy]

Line everything up during the daylight and test your eyepieces on a terrestrial object at least 10 miles away.  Once everything is carefully aligned, the 7mm will find Jupiter easily.

[csrlice12]

I use distant radio towers to align my finder...the lights on top are excellent and can be seen from far away.

[MarkGregory]

Hey Mark

When you say "hand slew" do you mean that you unlock the clutches and move the scope with your hand or do you mean that you use the controller and the arrow buttons to move the scope? I think a lot of the posts here think you are moving the scope with your hands, I have the etx 125 and have found using the controller to go from one object to another very difficult. An aligned finder makes this more possible, but I would not try it at the magnification (177x) that you are using. Moving a longer optical tube by hand is possible at high mags as the tube can help you point at the object.

The etx is so short that it is more difficult to use it to help with pointing.

 

Terry

Hi Terry. Guess I should have explained myself a little bit better. I move the scope by hand, that's is what I meant by hand slewing. Thanks for your input. Mark

[csrlice12]

Jupiter stickers!

[faackanders2]

First rule find first bright object with lowest power (widest TFOV) first.  

Jupiter is a very bright object!

Center and increase to higher powers and refocus.

 

If you have you higher powers focused, it is easy to find a different object.

 

P.S.  When you switch eyepieces, focus on any stars in the FOV, once focused you can search for your object )I usually would keep one star in FOV and move it to top, bottom, left, right positions, and they search further out, and repeat (or go to lower power).

 

P.S.S.  For bright Saturn, Jupiter, Venus, and Moon even when out of focus I can usually sense the brightness when just outside the FOV and move the scope in direction of brightness. You can center the unfocused planet, and then focus.  Sometimes I can even sense and find these planets looking in the focuser without an eyepiece, by the bight light and center before putting in the eyepiece.

[faackanders2]

 

 

 

Mark

Try to get Jupiter to drift through the center of your field of view, you want Jupiter to be able to drift across the field of view when your High Power eyepiece is in.. ( I am assuming that your Telescope is non Go To) .

I am thinking that by the time You change to the Higher Power eyepiece, Jupiter has drifted out of view. I hope that this helps.

Mark

 

If you don't have tracking, the higher the power, the more you need to lead the object, so hopefully it is near the center when you finally install the desired eyepiece and focus.

[faackanders2]

 

Hey Mark

When you say "hand slew" do you mean that you unlock the clutches and move the scope with your hand or do you mean that you use the controller and the arrow buttons to move the scope? I think a lot of the posts here think you are moving the scope with your hands, I have the etx 125 and have found using the controller to go from one object to another very difficult. An aligned finder makes this more possible, but I would not try it at the magnification (177x) that you are using. Moving a longer optical tube by hand is possible at high mags as the tube can help you point at the object.

The etx is so short that it is more difficult to use it to help with pointing.

 

Terry

Hi Terry. Guess I should have explained myself a little bit better. I move the scope by hand, that's is what I meant by hand slewing. Thanks for your input. Mark

 

higher powers require smaller physical movements because TFOV is smaller.  high power magnifies the movements relative to the apparent FOV.

[faackanders2]

I appreciate everyone's input.  I know for sure I need to better center my finder scope.  And I'll try some of the other suggestions from you guys.  Amazing, that this is such a pain the the #$%. Mark

The TELRAD is easy to allign, so I almost always make sure it is alligned/centered.

My ST-80mm finder is much harder to allign, so once the object is centered in the eyepiece, I look and remember where the object is in the finder (and that becomes the new focuser desired point). 

[samuelpkco]

I sometimes do side by side 8"CAT with 3"ED on planets. They are perfectly aligned with a red-dot and a 9X50 finder. Its fun to go red-dot > finder > 3" > 8"..... and with this sequence, target is in 300x FOV of the CAT spot on! Never a miss!

 

Kidding aside, that demonstrates the fact that the less difference in your FOVs the easier your aiming going to be, albeit we all use slightly different methods.

 

Samuel

Edited by samuelpkco, 02 March 2017 - 04:25 AM.

[tomwall]

A trick that works for me, sometimes, when my very bright planet/Moon target is close, is that I just take the eyepiece out and look for brightness on the inside of my tube. The object is towards the side opposite the shine. Like I said, the target needs to be bright and no more than a degree or so off from where I'm pointing.

[Zapp Brannigan]

Have you tried leading Jupiter and waiting for it to drift into view?  Center it in the 32 just a little closer to the side it appears to move from in the field of view.  This will give you a little time to swap eyepieces carefully without bumping the scope out of position, then let it drift towards center with the 7mm in place.  It will take a few moments to appear.