|
Rod,
Great work , well done !!
Your off and running now ......
I had the same comment from my youngest daughters, 68 year old father in law ( I sold him my 10” manual dob a number of years ago ) He was struggling, having trouble finding objects , Star hopping etc.. almost gave the hobby away
So I marked thin lines on the base of the dob using a white paint pen with cardinal points and degrees in 5 deg increments. Marked the south meridian line on his pavers ( he didn’t mind a thin line scored on his pavers) Gave him my old digital inclinometer accurate to 2 decimal places ( I bought a new one ) and chose 47 Tuc as a test object.
I guided him what do , set up dob with central axis aligned to south line ( we used 2 plumb Bob 600mm apart over the tube to centre it and get as accurate as possible ) Jumped on Stellarium and found the Az and Alt values for 47 Tuc. He raised the dob’s tube up using the digital inclinometer close to the Alt value and then rotated the base close to the Az value , then looked in the finder-scope and saw a tiny edge of a fuzzy ball just in the field of view , I told him to centred the fuzzy blob ,he plonked his 22mm Nagler in the focuser and adjusted focus. He called out “I did it , I found it , wow”
From that moment he was hooked
After that night he was off and running too , never calls me anymore, use to call me every week about his woes and goes trying to find objects
I hope my story didn’t bore you but I thought your experience and reaction was similar
Clear Skies
Martin
|