Quote:
Originally Posted by -George-
Don't know. Saturn is visible pretty easily, I never used it before and I found that straight forward, so...
|
Learning the night sky is pretty easy. If you have a planisphere and a flashlight with several strips of red insulation tape over it, you just go outside, hold the planisphere over your head facing north or south, and you learn the major stars and bigger constellations. (But if you can find Saturn by yourself, you probably don't need the planisphere)
Then get a small atlas like Tirion's Bright Star Atlas. Locate those bright stars and constellations in its pages, point your telescope there, and then move the telescope to the brighter Deep Sky Objects plotted near the point you've identified. You'll soon get the hang of it. Later on, get a bigger atlas and do the same thing.
Though I'm still not sure how you are pointing your telescope easily without a red dot finder.
I don't use the planisphere much anymore, except to find planets by reading their rise time in the paper of internet, and seeing roughly where they are along the equatorial belt on the planisphere. Bright Star Atlas I still use a lot, despite having much bigger atlases.
Regards,
Renato