Re: [guide-user] Guide 8 draws nigh
Patrick J. Madden Jan 11, 2002
Jerry,
I'm an "old guy" (53). I started learning my stars when I was 11. My
Dad was a B-47 pilot, and he had to learn some stars for navigation, and he
started pointing some of them out to me. When I was 14 I completed a 6"
telescope (alt-ax mount, and no finder), and received a copy of Norton's
Star Atlas as a present. If I wanted to find some globular or galaxy I had
read about, the only way was to learn what constellation it was in and aim
the telescope at the approximate position, then sweep till I found it.
Finding the object was confirmation that I had in fact located the right
constellation! I became surprisingly adept at putting the 1 degree field
near the desired object.
Now that I use software to locate my objects, I find some much more so
fast (I would never go back to the "old way"). But I don't have near as
intimate a knowledge of the sky. For example, I can point a flashlight
right at M92 (one of my objects from the "old days") but I don't have a clue
about NGC 247 except that it is "somewhere" in Cetus.
In the early 80's I was a visitor to the USNO, a member of the last tour
group to go through one evening. The last scope on the tour was a 12"
refractor that the astronomers had restored for their "personal" use. At
the end of his presentation the guiding astronomer said he was in no hurry
to leave, and asked if there was anything we would like to see, and several
of us started naming favorite objects. He asked for coordinates, and we all
laughed; we were "star hoppers." So we had to stick our heads outside the
dome to orient myself to the sky, and he let us point the big telescope.
Occasionally I find it fun to leave the dome closed, and to sit out on a
lawn chair with binoculars and a "field guide" (or my old Norton's) and
trace out the constellations. In short, software is great, but keep on
learning your stars.
Clear skies!
Pat