Telescope Reviews: Re: Using the Questar Standard finder

Chris,
the standard Questar finder does take a getting used to, You Have to remember that the field of view is about 2-1/2 degrees with your 16 mm brandon eyepiece, In the 32 mm Brandon it is approximately 5 degrees (see page 36 in your owners manual eyepiece magnification and field of view) To best visualize the field of view set up and point at polaris, the field of stars gives you an approximate size of the view, it is narrower than 10x40 binoculars! The easiest way is to use the widest field view eyepiece that you have . One trick is to sight along the top of the barrel of the OTA (optical Tube Assembly) and then look thru the finder. It takes a little practice. You can always sweep in RA (Right Ascension=east to west) and declination until you come across the object. this what I do and I star hop to where I want to go. To polar align use the finder to find polaris ,Keep the Q at 90 degrees declination only adjust the center leg or if using a Tristand ajust the stands polar axis to read your latitude. Center Polaris in the field of view with the finder, then switch to telescope normal view recenter then use the barlow, recenter at the higher magnification. rotate the Q in RA only if it is centered there should be only a little bit of shift in the position of polaris. This should give you rough alignment. point the Q at a bright star that you know look up its RA in hours. set the hour circle to align with the current RA with your scope pointed at this star turn on the drive, the alignment indicater for RA hour is located below the eyepiece on the hour circle, align with the line in the plastic indicator. You can now find anything by using the manual setting circles. Just be patient and take your time each time you use you telescope this will become easier each time you use it.

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CELESTRON/VIXEN C102 GP REFRACTOR
CELESTRON SUPER C8 PLUS
VIXEN 90 CUSTOM REFRACTOR ALTAZ. MOUNT
QUESTAR 3.5 STANDARD POWER GUIDE II ON TRISTAND
CORONADO PST DOUBLE STACKED
BRANDON 94mm f/7 ON VIXEN POLARIS MOUNT
VIXEN PORTA MOUNT, QUARTER HALF HITCH MOUNT
BRANDON EYEPIECE SET (circa 1986) 8,12,16,24,32, 2.4X DAKIN BARLOW
VARIOUS NAGLERS 3-6 ZOOM,7,9,11,13,16,24PANOPTIC
ETHOS 6mm, 10mm
ZEISS 10X40B/GA T*P* BINOCULARS

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