[erick (Eric)]

Andrew

Pop your wide field eyepiece in (26mm or similar) and focus on the stars. When there are no planes in the sky (!!), place your green laser on the tube, holding it beside the focusser base, pointing at the sky (this works on GSO solid tubes fairly well), touch the button and see if enough light bypasses the end of the tube (that is, it doesn't all hit the rim and scatter brightly around!). Then you'll have your usual beam into the sky. Look into the eyepiece and see if you observe the end of the laser pointer in the field of view - it's a neat view. Depending how your tube and focusser are set up, you might be lucky. If not, then a bit of blu-tack under the appropriate part of the laser pointer can be used to redirect the beam until it is in your field of view.

That sorted, you then hold your laser pointer in place, press the button, then move the scope, observing the sky until the end of the beam is where you believe the object you want to observe should be. Laser off, look into the eyepiece and you should have the object in the field of view.

That's the way I do it. Once I am on the target, I pop the laser back into my upper pocket to keep it nice and warm for the next use.

Cheers
Eric