Thread: Pointing a dob?
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Old 27-05-2011, 12:16 PM
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kitsuna (Adam)
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Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Adelaide
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practice practice practice. That'll be your first option.

Another suggestion (though pricey), is to get a nice wide angle eyepiece. The wider the field of view, the less impact excessive movement will have. It also means that your target will stay in your field of view longer, meaning you don't have to move the scope to follow it as much.

I'll give an example.

I have 2 eyepieces of nearly identical focal length;

25mm plossl, with an apparent field of view of 52 degrees. In my 10in dob with a focal length of 1200mm, it gives me a magnification of 48x.

and

24mm Televue Panoptic, with an apparent field of view of 68 degrees. In my 10in dob with a focal length of 1200mm, it gives me a magnification of 50x.

To find the actual field of view that an eyepiece gives on your scope, you divide the eyepiece's apparent field of view by the magnification it provides.

So, my plossl would provide 52/48 = 1.08 degrees.

my panoptic would provide 68/50 = 1.36 degrees.

The result is that with the pan, I have 25.9% more actual field of view at the eyepiece.

Thus, you can see how the wider the APPARENT field of view, and the lower the overall magnification translates into a wider (and therefore easier to manage) actual field of view.

The absolute lowest you can possibly go for a telescope is to multiply the scope's f-ratio by 7 (7mm is the diameter of a fully dark adapted youthful eye. Any bigger than this, and not all light will make it into your eye, wasting it).

So on my f/4.7 scope (4.7x7 = 32.9). therefore, I wouldn't want to get an eyepiece with a focal length of longer than 32.9mm. If I did, not all the light would get in my eye, and because it's a newtonian, the secondary mirror might appear to obstruct the view.

I have to say that good wide angle eyepieces are not cheap, but they will make your life with a dob easier, and they provide some excellent views of the sky. I strongly recommend you try before you buy.

Some possible choices (listed from generally most expensive to least) include:

Pentax XWs
Televue Ethos
Televue Naglers or Panoptics
Vixen Lanthanum LWs

but there are a few others out there. Keep in mind though, that if you get a good, reasonably wide angle eyepiece at a proper focal length, you'll use it quite a lot, and keep it, even if you sell your scope to upgrade later.
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