If you got the scope polar aligned and it's tracking that's great. Your Lat/Long have nothing to do with the sky. The seting circles are a way to get you close to the object your looking for. I don't know anyone who really uses them. They are not that accurate, more just for show. Most people just star hop. You find the item on the charts, locate the stars close by and hop from star to star till your close enough to find the object. You can use the setting circles by setting them to zero when first polar aligned and turning them to the proper Ra/Dec. But that will only you close because again their not real accurate. You can do it better and faster star hopping. Also you can use the off set method. Point at a know object and turn the the difference in Ra/Dec you need to get to another item. Again, I've been doing this for years, never actually saw anyone doing that. You can get really frustrated real easy looking for an easy target. I tried it once or twice, waste of time. Star hopping, that's the way to do it. Most of the objects you'll be looking for with the 5" are bright and easy to find. Dimmer items will be a challange. But that's art of the fun.
Filters, A blue filter is supposed to bring out the details on Jupiter. I tried it, thought it looked better without the filters. You can try it, Orion sells a set of 4 color filters at a good price. I think its really more for photography.
That's it;
BOB SAL

• Star Hopping and thanks - ss8793 - February 18, 2002 - 22:48 UTC
  • DSC - comet61 - February 19, 2002 - 02:22 UTC
    • Been star hopping... - ss8793 - February 20, 2002 - 02:38 UTC
      • Good Stuff - bobsal - February 20, 2002 - 13:56 UTC