So as a surveyor you??d think it wouldn??t be that hard to figure out how to use a telescope. My daughter got me a Powerseeker for Christmas and my wife got me a motor to track the stars as they move. ?ÿIt has an equatorial mount. ?ÿIt has what a surveyor would call a horizontal and vertical motion, plus a motion that moves at an angle called right ascension.
So in the past I just tracked objects using the horizontal and vertical motions. ?ÿYou don??t realize how fast the moon, planets and stars are moving until you really zoom in and magnify them. ?ÿWell the wife helped me figure it out, it??s not that hard, but once you get it setup and pointed north, you can easily track objects using only the right ascension motion, and with the motor turned on, you can tweak the motor speed to easily track and zoom in on objects.
Any other amateur astronomers on here and did you have any trouble figuring out the setup?
Any other amateur astronomers on here and did you have any trouble figuring out the setup?
Took 2 semesters of Astronomy in college. Had some time on the school's 8" Celestron.?ÿ I have always wanted one of my own.?ÿ Had a 4" non-motorized job at one time but quickly got frustrated with it. As you say, things are moving (relatively speaking) so fast that you just can't do anything but work the controls. Motorized or don't bother.?ÿ
I've been considering a telescope (now that I live where you can actually see the sky), this is very helpful information, thank you.
I've built several reflecting telescopes, from 3.5 to 8", all f4. Astronomy classes in college, and years tracking variable stars with the AAVSO. I'm listed in the USSR's general catalog of variable stars for my research. The years with the AAVSO were great and they had fabulous fall meetings in Massachusetts. All my kids were star enthusiasts and we had regular star parties. My wife and I still step out back and eyeball the constellations.?ÿ
The current equipment is beyond anything I could have imagined.
As Nor-Okla mentioned,?ÿ yeah, the motor/computer set up for tracking is the only way you'll see stuff and enjoy it.
My brother (the money guy) and I took his 11" Schmidt Cassigrain Celestron, and the newly acquired Lunt out for the 2017 Totality Event. FWIW, he has the ?øA=0.65 Hydrogen Alpha set up. No, not cheap but wow.?ÿ WOW!!
It was amazing how easy it was to observe the sun spots and coronal ejections and ended up give lots of kids their first and maybe only access to that type of event ever.
Yeah,?ÿ stuff far from earth is pretty cool to oogle at when the gear works.
And the Big 7+ minute totality is less than a year away, so start planning now for a pretty amazing event, I know we are!
