[ngcles]

Hi Tony

Welcome to the world of amateur astronomy -- I hope it gives you as much pleasure for many years as it has for me.

Rather than using the term upper and lower, or right and left (as these are all related to which direction you are facing when looking), it is best to use north, south, east and west.

If you look at our moon (naked-eye) not long after it has risen (ie you are facing roughly east), the bottom of the disc is roughly east, the top is west, north is to the left and south the right. This orientation changes as it moves across the sky relative to the observer. By the time the moon is almost ready to set (and you are now facing roughly west), west is at the bottom of the lunar disc, east is at the top, north is at the right and south at the left. Having said that the features on the moon are stationary relative to these directions, as it always keeps one side facing us here on Earth (it is in a tidally locked orbit) which is very common among other planets and their moons too. (Apart from the effects of libration that allows us to see fractionally around the edge to the "far-side" at various points during the month). I'll leave you to go and research what libration is and how it affects which bits of the moon we can and can't see. Search: lunar libration.

So, during the course of the moon crossing our sky here in the southern hemisphere (again naked-eye), not long after the moon rises, Tycho will be on the right-hand side (southern) of the disc. When the observer is facing roughly north and the moon is crossing the imaginary line in the sky that connects north and south here on Earth called the "meridian", Tycho will still be in the south, but is now near the top of the lunar disc as seen from here. When the moon is about to set, it is still (as always) in the south but is now on left-hand side of the lunar disc.

That all should allow you to nut-out where Tycho will be if viewed from the equator or the northern hemisphere during the course of it crossing the sky.

Of course, all this is naked-eye. The view in the eyepiece will differ to naked eye according to the number of refractions and reflections within your telescope. A Schmidt-Cassegrainian like yours, when used with a diagonal has three reflections/refractions and will show a right-side-up view (ie not inverted) but is mirror reversed. Without the diagonal (which is almost always not the case), the image is inverted (upside-down), but not mirror reversed. This inversion and mirror reversal is a normal and natural part of observing with an astronomical telescope and eventually, you will get used to it. It makes no difference once you have worked out which directions are in fact north, south, east and west in the eyepiece -- takes a bit of practice. There is no up, down, left or right, out in space -- these are all man-made arbitrary terms.

As you move the 'scope around while looking through it, it will take some brain-training to comprehend (with many 'scopes -- and the finderscope) that when you move the 'scope "that way" the view seems to move "this way" -- don't worry a bit of persistence and you'll get used to it. All part of the "rights-of passage" into astronomy.

Best,

L.