... with some examples from Jay Freeman's article (since perhaps not every one read everything ;-). Jay wrote:
"Let me illustrate the benefits of observing skill and experience. At a star party I once attended, a relatively inexperienced observer had bought a 15- or 18-inch Dobson, and was looking for the Horsehead Nebula. It's pretty faint, and he was having trouble locating it. I know the field for the Horsehead, so I offered to help. Yet when I stepped to the eyepiece, what do you know? He had it centered! The object he was looking for was right square in the middle of the field of view, but he couldn't see it!
Now, the reason I could and he couldn't was surely not that I have superior vision: I know that I do not, because I have compared notes with many other experienced observers, and we can all see about the same things in similar circumstances. But I do have a lot of experience, and I have deliberately worked hard to try to develop my observing skills. In my opinion, that made all the difference. I hope you will excuse my talking about it, because I am not really boasting -- there's nothing I have learned to do that you can't learn to do just as well, and perhaps knowing of my experiences will make you decide to try.
Let me give another example. At another star party, the owner of an eighteen-inch Dobson had chased down NGC 6822 -- Barnard's Galaxy -- which is fairly large in angular size, but has a relatively low surface brightness. It is fairly difficult to see, and the owner of the big Dobson was legitimately proud to have located it. I asked if he would like to see it in my telescope, and led him over to the 90 mm refractor that I had set up on the other side of the observing area. At first he couldn't see a thing, but after I reminded him about averted vision, shielding the eyes from stray light, and a few other tricks, he did indeed see the galaxy in the smaller telescope."
Ron B[ee]
"Let me illustrate the benefits of observing skill and experience. At a star party I once attended, a relatively inexperienced observer had bought a 15- or 18-inch Dobson, and was looking for the Horsehead Nebula. It's pretty faint, and he was having trouble locating it. I know the field for the Horsehead, so I offered to help. Yet when I stepped to the eyepiece, what do you know? He had it centered! The object he was looking for was right square in the middle of the field of view, but he couldn't see it!
Now, the reason I could and he couldn't was surely not that I have superior vision: I know that I do not, because I have compared notes with many other experienced observers, and we can all see about the same things in similar circumstances. But I do have a lot of experience, and I have deliberately worked hard to try to develop my observing skills. In my opinion, that made all the difference. I hope you will excuse my talking about it, because I am not really boasting -- there's nothing I have learned to do that you can't learn to do just as well, and perhaps knowing of my experiences will make you decide to try.
Let me give another example. At another star party, the owner of an eighteen-inch Dobson had chased down NGC 6822 -- Barnard's Galaxy -- which is fairly large in angular size, but has a relatively low surface brightness. It is fairly difficult to see, and the owner of the big Dobson was legitimately proud to have located it. I asked if he would like to see it in my telescope, and led him over to the 90 mm refractor that I had set up on the other side of the observing area. At first he couldn't see a thing, but after I reminded him about averted vision, shielding the eyes from stray light, and a few other tricks, he did indeed see the galaxy in the smaller telescope."
Ron B[ee]
