View Single Post
  #5  
Old 03-07-2013, 11:30 AM
barx1963's Avatar
barx1963 (Malcolm)
Bright the hawk's flight

barx1963 is offline
 
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Mt Duneed Vic
Posts: 3,982
I slightly disagree (with all due respect!) about Uranometria being overkill. Subject of course to budget constraints, I think it is great with an 8", provided you know what you are looking for.
An atlas is used for star hopping. Most star hopping is done with a finder scope. The scale of Uranometria makes it really easy to hop using the finder on most dobs. The smaller atlases (Nortons, Cambridge etc) make it quite hard. Also the faintest stars in Urano are 9.5, which is about the limit for a 9x50 finder under reasonable skies.
Obviously, it shows a lot of objects that will never be visible in an 8", but that also applies to a 12" or 16" scope and even my 20"!
Obviously it is a substantial expense, hence I mentioned cheaper alternates, but at only $100 now for an All Sky edition it is an investment worth considering.

Malcolm
Reply With Quote