Experienced amateur astronomers: Do you use a computer (GoTo or PushTo) to find your targets?
I am interested in knowing the rough proportions of those who rely on computer finders vs. those who find objects with a Telrad, finderscope, star-hopping, etc.
If you do not, why not? If you do, why? Are you limited by time? light pollution? Do you find that searching for objects is a frustrating or rewarding part of the hobby? Or do you just like the gadget nature of the computer finder? If you use a computer finder on a regular basis, do you find that you do not know the sky as well as your friends who do not?
I am not talking about tracking, auto guiding, or astrophotography, although I suppose that if you have the equipment for that stuff, you may just be spring loaded to use it for finding a target as well...
I will pick best answer based on logic and attitude, and not on whether I happen to agree. Thanks a lot..
2008-07-26T07:23:17Z
Excellent! A full spectrum of reasoned responses. edward_o - Thanks for jumping in first - I thought for a while there that nobody was going to answer. I also like the old fashioned way - I think I learned more, also. suitti - I liked what you said about outreach; that's one of my interests as well. But the stuff I use for outreach I can find in seconds. I must admit I was a little disappointed that you cut and pasted most of your answer. Al - I identify most with Al - The hobby is knowing the sky and finding things, although I haven't laid down on the ground in a while. nuscorpii and Tina - have similar issues - bright sky, good compromise with DSCs injanier - I share your experience helping GoTos find dim stuff, and I like the opinion that star hopping is frustrating but fun. I also feel it's worth it to buy gas to find dark skies. skymaster - I am not into astrophotography yet. If I was, I would probably do the same thing - sounds like you have star hopped extensively.
injanier2008-07-25T19:48:18Z
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I have a refractor on a motorized, but not computerized, German equatorial mount, and a totally manual dob. For me, not having go-to is partly feeling that the hunt for objects is a good deal of the fun, and partly preferring to spend the money on eyepieces, atlases, and gas to get to dark sky sites.
Finding objects by star-hopping can be frustrating, but it makes me feel like I know the sky, and often leads to serendipitous discoveries along the way. I have sometimes helped observers with go-to scopes find things, because their scope either pointed just slightly off, or the object was so small or faint you had to know where in the field to look in order to see it.
I probably would get go-to if I got into astrophotography. I'd want to upgrade my mount anyhow, and astrophotography is enough work already without spending time hunting for things.
Dobs offer the biggest aperture for the buck, and still give you a stable mount. I have a 10". With the computer, the Orion xt10i is about $800. This scope has a 48" tube, which fits across the back seat of any car. My scope can be extracted from the car, set up and the 2 star alignment finished in under 3 minutes. When i have a choice, i use my own scope. But i'll peek through anyone's scope if they have it pointed.
I use my dob for outreach. Sure, at high magnification, i have to repoint after almost every customer. But it's in a predictable way, and doesn't take long. The pushto allows me to move to new objects quickly.
Here are the 3 P's for picking a telescope. Price, Performance, and Portability. Price and portability can be show stoppers. Price less so, since you may be able to wait until you have more cash. But a scope that doesn't fit in your car is stuck where ever it ends up. That leaves performance. For deep space, what you need is as much light gathering as possible. In your budget, that points to a reflector.
The push-to computer also comes under the category of performance. Before buying my scope, i joined a local astronomy club and borrowed each of their loaner scopes in turn. One was a ten inch reflector. I spent half an hour not finding a fairly bright galaxy in my back yard. It was too dim for my sky conditions. Then, i repeated this for another galaxy. Spending an hour to not find two galaxies is not something that will sustain me in the hobby. With a push-to computer, i can observe a dozen objects an hour. In in very short time, i found that very few galaxies can be seen from my heavily light polluted back yard. And, an oxygen 3 filter lets me see most nebulae.
Did i mention this? You should join a local astronomy club.
I am a keen observer and know your question is not really related to astrophotgraphy but most certainly use Go-To all the time, with the scope connected to TheSky6 to drive the telescope via a laptop. and the guiding software, the camera control, the auto-focus the guide camera etc..
Provided your polar alignment is good, the Go-To puts the object in the field of view 90% of the time which saves a lot of down time if you are imaging all night. (finding an object a few arc-seconds across without a viewfinder or eyepiece is difficult with a CCD which doen't have one).
Obviously I have spent a lot of time star hopping before Go-To became commonplace, (and when I was much younger) and I agree with all those guys who say that it is half the fun (learning your way around the Sky) but with light pollution as it is, its very difficult to find the stepping stones which are now submerged in a murky pool.
I just do not have the time or patience any more to even try, but my years spent star hopping taught me more about the sky than a Go-To (or Push-To) ever could.
I still spend a lot of time when I am not imaging deciding which objects to pursue visually before attempting to image, but use the Go-To "because it is there" despite having invested many evenings trying to locate objects unsuccessfully I still persevered.
That's all I wanted to say, thanks for the question.......interesting.
I still lay down on the ground and "rough point" my 10" Dob at naked-eye objects to this day. I have a Dob (Alt/Az) mount, no setting circles and no computer. I think that knowing the sky and being able to find objects manually IS the hobby. Computer equipment is great, in fact, I wrote one of the first computer aided pointing programs (SkyMap - 1982 for a Commodore Vic 20), but, to use a computer to find objects without knowing the sky is robbing the hobbyist of one of the best aspects of the hobby - KNOWING THE SKY!
Call me old-fashioned, but I'm also a big advocate of knowing Morse code as a Ham Radio operator. I can also use a slide rule and an abacus. ...and yes, my hair is gray! I think "kids" these days miss a great deal because of technology - at least as much as they gain from it's use.
I use digital setting circles on my 10-inch. Although I can starhop using my Telrad and 50mm finder scope, nights where I can observe galaxies and nebulae are few and far between thanks to the cloudy weather and rampant pollution here in coastal Alabama. I know my way around the sky quite well and use my Sky and Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas and others to find objects, but the DSC's allow me to make the most of my limited dark sky observing time. I would much rather spend my limited time observing objects rather than hunting for them, and I'm also watching supernovae in other galaxies. It's very helpful to be sure of what galaxy you are looking at.