Part 2
As regards instructions for using setting circles, here are some directions for polar aligning from the celestron.com site: “First, choose your star near where the celestial equator (i.e. at or about 0o in declination) and the meridian meet. The star should be approximately ½ hour of right ascension from the meridian and within five degrees in declination of the celestial equator.” Hey, I didn’t know I needed to learn how to navigate a ship with an astrolabe in order to setup and use this thing. I think that Alan MacRobert got it right on the skypub.com site when he acknowledged: “In practice, experienced observers generally regard setting circles as decorations to help sell telescopes, as a source of false hope for beginners, and possibly useful as makeshift frisbees.” He goes on to add that, “Conventional setting circles are not a substitute for learning to find your way around the sky by looking with your eyes.” (Amen).
About three years ago I decided to take up that challenge. First, I started buying books about observing and about optical instruments, and read them cover-to-cover. I now had somewhat of a working command of the nomenclature of amateur astronomy. My library includes Turn Left at Orion, (which I believe is probably the best book ever written for newbies in the hobby), Star-Hopping, The Messier Marathon, Starware, and a number of the books in the Practical Astronomy series edited by Patrick Moore. I started subscribing to Sky and Telescope and have used the monthly pull out to find my way around the night sky.
As regards instructions for using setting circles, here are some directions for polar aligning from the celestron.com site: “First, choose your star near where the celestial equator (i.e. at or about 0o in declination) and the meridian meet. The star should be approximately ½ hour of right ascension from the meridian and within five degrees in declination of the celestial equator.” Hey, I didn’t know I needed to learn how to navigate a ship with an astrolabe in order to setup and use this thing. I think that Alan MacRobert got it right on the skypub.com site when he acknowledged: “In practice, experienced observers generally regard setting circles as decorations to help sell telescopes, as a source of false hope for beginners, and possibly useful as makeshift frisbees.” He goes on to add that, “Conventional setting circles are not a substitute for learning to find your way around the sky by looking with your eyes.” (Amen).
About three years ago I decided to take up that challenge. First, I started buying books about observing and about optical instruments, and read them cover-to-cover. I now had somewhat of a working command of the nomenclature of amateur astronomy. My library includes Turn Left at Orion, (which I believe is probably the best book ever written for newbies in the hobby), Star-Hopping, The Messier Marathon, Starware, and a number of the books in the Practical Astronomy series edited by Patrick Moore. I started subscribing to Sky and Telescope and have used the monthly pull out to find my way around the night sky.
