[ngcles]

Hi Adam & All,

Well done and congratulations on the find. Seeing iconic objects like Centaurus A* for the first time is a great thrill and I'm so glad you enjoyed it. Just a coupe of notes on your report:

From what you have written, it seems you may not be entirely comfortable with your finderscope -- which is a right-angled finder. You might want to try a straight-through or a telrad-type. Finderscopes (and I include all the telrad-type devices here) are a very personal choice. Everyone likes what they like.

I find right-angled finders a pain in the you-know-what. I don't like them at all! Personally I like a straight-through and use it with both eyes open. I guess that is probably because when I "grew-up" in astronomy, that's really all there was and learning to use a straight-through finder with it's inverted image was a right-of-passage. I'm not a fan of the telrad type because they dew so easily and because they only show naked-eye stars -- and the batteries always seem to run out at the most inconvenient time.

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 or 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.

Easy as !


Best,

Les D