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Old 08-06-2011, 12:29 PM
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stephenb (Stephen)
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Congrats Adam, nice story and well rewarded at the end for your efforts.


Quote:
Originally Posted by ngcles View Post
.....To help to know your finder's field of view, use it centred on something like the Southern Cross and draw every star you can see through it easily. Do the sketch quickly of the siderial motion of the sky will ruin its usefulness. Then take the drawing to whatever atlas you are using and determine how big the circle of the FOV is on the atlas.

Use the your drawing to draw a circle lightly in pencil on your atlas that outlies exactly how big the FOV of the finder is, then get some clear film (like photocopier film used to make slides for overhead projectors -- 15c a sheet at the paper-shop. Place the film over the circle and trace the circle on your film in permanent marker (only don't use red!).

You can now transfer the film anywhere on the atlas (assuming it is all at the same scale) and you can see how big your finder FOV is anywhere in the sky.....
This is an excellent tip from Les . I had an overhead sheet for each star atlas I owned and on each sheet was a circle representing the FOV for each of my eyepieces. I still used them until recently.

Stephen
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