|
Hi Leinad,
My first scope was a tasco on an eq mount and I have to say I never succeeded in using the setting circles to reliably find stars. I now have a dob and love to star hop.The thing that I found most useful was some leftover knowledge of some constellations from a star camp years before. If you've got someone who can point out a few salient constellations it makes a huge difference. I've found that I can work out others from there. I find dark skies help, as a lot of constellations (like Fornax) consist of fairly faint stars. I've been finding my way around for about a year and am still discovering constellations.
My joy in finding things was greatly enhanced by a telrad. It made things so much quicker to just be able to point the scope reliably at the patch of sky that I'm interested in. I still use the finder to hone in on fainter things, but these days I seem to be more able to just pop onto something with the teltrad.
I also find the Atlas of the Southern Night sky very helpful, but I use it in conjunction with current star charts from AS&T or Sky and Space. These reflect the sky as it is currently oriented, whereas the Atlas requires a bit of spatial gymnastics to reflect what you see as you look up.
Hope this helps and I hope that you come to enjoy star hopping as much as I do - I find it evokes quite a sense of accomplishment!
|