"There MUST be a better way!" - Ralph McConnell

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Meeting

This will be a program describing Ralph's quest to find a solution to the frustration he had with star hopping. "I have always had problems with star hopping to the point of not even wanting to use my telescopes. I will focus mainly on the Dobsonian style telescope mount, and the different types of setting circles I have experimented with over the past twenty five plus years. We will briefly look at the history of the Dobsonian mount and the progression setting circle designs over the years. Then I will tell about my stumbling onto a design for digital setting circles on the Internet. This is a design that is simple to build, reasonably priced and best of all the software is a free download. It can be used on both an alt-azimuth as well as an equatorial mount. If you have a telescope that is not a go-to mount and would like to be able to find objects with less effort, this push-to system could be the answer for you."