[CarlJoseph (Carl)]

Hi all,

I'm having a little trouble figuring out "distances" when moving about the sky. Hoping for some tips and guidance from the good folks here.

I didn't have too much trouble matching what I saw on the screen (Stellarium) with what I saw naked eye. Constellations and the like were mostly fine.

After aligning my scope to roughly the right spot, getting the target in the finder scope was sometimes problematic. You see so many extra "things" in the finder scope and I tended to get quite lost. I have a 6x30 finder scope.

Are there any "tricks" or things that I can do to help? For example, people talk about "degrees" or "arc seconds" between objects. How do I relate these to what I see in my scope or naked eye?

Some of the targets I couldn't catch were:

NGC 4755 (The Jewel Box)
I think I managed to find this but am not certain yet. What I could figure out was how far away from β Crux I should move my finder scope to locate the area. I wasn't even sure it was β Crux I was looking at in my scope because of all the other stars that appear when looking through it.

NGC 253 (Sculptor galaxy)
I had no luck finding this at all. Perhaps it's beyond a basic 4.5" reflector? I found the Sculptor constellation and ɑ Sculptor. I then drew a line down to β Centaur. Half way between somewhere should be the Sculptor Galaxy. No luck. The moon was up so perhaps this was part of the problem. :-(

NGC 5139 (Omega Centauri, Globular Cluster)
Perhaps I didn't stay out long enough for it to be high enough in the sky, but even finding the vague location was problematic.

What I DID see:

47 TUC
After a bit of work on this a few nights ago, I managed to find it again really easily. I can't resolve any of the stars and it just looks like a bit of a blur in the middle, but I definitely know it's it.

Orion Nebula
I've been exploring this for a little while now. Every time I can make out more detail and see more of the nebulous gas. I can now easily make out the trapezium although it isn't all that easy in my scope.

So, any tips for a beginner about making the leap from naked eye to the finder scope and knowing what I'm actually looking at?

Thanks,
Af.