What is the most useless Astro device you've come across?

[Startrek (Martin)]

I have no view of the SCP at both viewing and imaging sites so my polar scopes are a redundant accessory

[croweater (Richard)]

I found the setting circles that most mounts have pretty useless. I never used mine anyhow

[JeniSkunk (Jenifur)]

I'll likely be decried as a heretic for saying this, but here in badly light polluted suburbia, a planisphere is useless, since we're lucky to see barely a fifth or less, of the stars displayed in it.
At a dark site, or at least somewhere not badly light polluted a planisphere might be usable. Unfortunately, no-one makes planispheres for the various Bortle levels of light pollution, so the worse the light pollution is where you are, the less useful a planisphere becomes, because it shows so many stars that are simply not visible.

[raymo]

Saying that a planisphere might be usable is a huge understatement, they
having been many an observer's right hand man, as it were, for many decades.
How much one pays largely decides what limits the star magnitude shown
on the planisphere. I have one which goes to mag 6 which would obviously be
useless to you, but I have one that goes to mag 4, and unless you live in
Shanghai or somewhere similar, enough of the stars shown on it would be visible to you to make it useful. Over my 70+ yrs of observing I have always
had one in my bag of tricks.
raymo

[JeniSkunk (Jenifur)]

Where I live in Brisbane, I have to set Stellarium to emulate Bortle 8, to make it show how few stars are visible to the naked eye here. Comparing what I see in planispheres, to what my naked eyes can see, the vast majority of those stars do not exist in the sky here. They're washed out from visibility due to the light pollution.
Look at the light pollution map, and then look at Nundah, Brisbane in it.
https://www.lightpollutionmap.info/

[raymo]

If you let your eyes become reasonably dark adapted [say 20-30mins] at
Bortle 8 you can see down to around mag 3.5, which means that the majority of stars on a mag 4 planisphere will be visible with a little effort. It helps a
lot of course if you have a reasonable working knowledge of the sky.
Your astro experience is not going to be that good anyway at B8.
raymo

[Renato1 (Renato)]

Originally Posted by skysurfer

* Straight-through large binoculars on tripod. Only useful for terrestial viewing or astronomical objects low in the sky. Otherwise, you have to be in a very acrobatic position to look through the eyepieces and the tripod is in the way as well.

True but....if you have a tripod with a handle that easily raises the height of the binoculars, you can just bring the tripod back to stand on two legs and raise the height of the binoculars to match your eyes. Then you can see much higher, and still have a steady image.

But if you want to go higher still, just pick up the tripod and look through the binoculars - the image is a lot steadier than hand-holding the binoculars.
Regards,
Renato

[Ukastronomer (Jeremy)]

Originally Posted by JeniSkunk

I'll likely be decried as a heretic for saying this, but here in badly light polluted suburbia, a planisphere is useless, since we're lucky to see barely a fifth or less, of the stars displayed in it.
At a dark site, or at least somewhere not badly light polluted a planisphere might be usable. Unfortunately, no-one makes planispheres for the various Bortle levels of light pollution, so the worse the light pollution is where you are, the less useful a planisphere becomes, because it shows so many stars that are simply not visible.

Never used one, can't get used to it

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

The AZ3 mount...

Seems like a good idea, but oh my goodness, what a horrible bit of gear when you actually start using it

Puts the scope in a very precarious unbalanced position when pointing towards zenith, at terrible risk of toppling back on itself! Happened to me one time and thankfully was able to catch the scope, with my face!! Can't reach zenith anyways! Can overcome most of the unbalanced issue with a bit of DIY and still can't reach zenith, and for the DIY effort involved best to chuck the AZ3 and buy a better az mount.

Alex.

[skysurfer]

Originally Posted by croweater

I found the setting circles that most mounts have pretty useless. I never used mine anyhow

Not quite. I use them for pointing to an object for astrophotography when a clip in filter is installed in my 6D and hence the optical finder is blocked. In that case, I can only see the brightest stars on Live View and then I use the setting circles to move the mount to the target.

And I use it in daylight viewing of bright stars or planets.

[croweater (Richard)]

Originally Posted by skysurfer

Not quite. I use them for pointing to an object for astrophotography when a clip in filter is installed in my 6D and hence the optical finder is blocked. In that case, I can only see the brightest stars on Live View and then I use the setting circles to move the mount to the target.

And I use it in daylight viewing of bright stars or planets.

Fair enough Skysurfer I just found it easier to starhop for visual but with your situation makes sense. Cheers, Richard

[Ukastronomer (Jeremy)]

Originally Posted by mental4astro

The AZ3 mount...

Seems like a good idea, but oh my goodness, what a horrible bit of gear when you actually start using it

Puts the scope in a very precarious unbalanced position when pointing towards zenith, at terrible risk of toppling back on itself! Happened to me one time and thankfully was able to catch the scope, with my face!! Can't reach zenith anyways! Can overcome most of the unbalanced issue with a bit of DIY and still can't reach zenith, and for the DIY effort involved best to chuck the AZ3 and buy a better az mount.

Alex.

I was given one of these, I agree it is terrible, you have to manually set the gears 1/2 way, point the scope and then you can track.............. for a while you then have to rewind the gears manually point the scope again then track again and keep repeating this.

[Ukastronomer (Jeremy)]

Binoviewers, after finally getting them working what a waste of money

[thunderchildobs]

Ultra bright red led torches and headlamps.
Why does anyone want to light up a scope from 20m away?

[Oddity (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by croweater

I found the setting circles that most mounts have pretty useless. I never used mine anyhow

I have found one very useful scenario for a setting circles with goto mounts. I use it in conjunction with SkySafari to find true astronomic (rather than magnetic) level north, when 2-star aligning my mount in alt-az mode. It's very simple, too:

- In SkySafari, point your phone at any bright star and select it
- Go to Object Info, scroll down to find the azimuth and altitude values
- Manually point the scope at the object, centering it an eyepiece
- Set and lock each setting circle to the respective value reported by SkySafari
- Move the scope to point at 0,0 on both circles.
- Switch on your mount

Done! Your scope is now astronomically level north.

I've found this to result in a significant accuracy improvement with my gotos over using a compass and spirit level. In conjunction with an illuminated reticle and proper star selection criteria, it's nearly perfect.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Originally Posted by Startrek

I have no view of the SCP at both viewing and imaging sites so my polar scopes are a redundant accessory

I love my polar scope. I'd chop a tree any day for it.

[iborg (Philip)]

Originally Posted by Oddity

I have found one very useful scenario for a setting circles with goto mounts. I use it in conjunction with SkySafari to find true astronomic (rather than magnetic) level north, when 2-star aligning my mount in alt-az mode. It's very simple, too:

- In SkySafari, point your phone at any bright star and select it
- Go to Object Info, scroll down to find the azimuth and altitude values
- Manually point the scope at the object, centering it an eyepiece
- Set and lock each setting circle to the respective value reported by SkySafari
- Move the scope to point at 0,0 on both circles.
- Switch on your mount

Done! Your scope is now astronomically level north.

I've found this to result in a significant accuracy improvement with my gotos over using a compass and spirit level. In conjunction with an illuminated reticle and proper star selection criteria, it's nearly perfect.

Hi Oddity



Thanks for mentioning this, I'll have to try it!


Philip