Confused by RA Dial on Skylux

Heyho,

I bought a skylux from Lidl last week, to see what all this stargazing lark is about. I set it up last night, and had a look around for a while, though I hadn't aligned the finder scope at that stage, so I was aiming from the hip, so to speak. Got a good look around Orion however (first thing I saw out my back garden), and a clear view of the orion nebula. Saw plenty of shooting stars also.

I aligned the finder today, so if the sky clears this evening, I'll have a go at doing the polar alignment thingy. I understand what to do (broadly), but I'm confused about the RA dial. Heres the plan in my head:

1) Set up scope, balanced.
2) Set Dec dial to 9 (aka 90 Deg)
3) Point weight verticaly downwards
4) Set Latitude on Latitude dial (53 Deg - Kilcullen, Co Kildare)
5) Rotate mount so that telescope points north.
6) Use mount rotation control and latitude control to align Polaris in finder, and then scope.

Ok, so when this is done, what do I do about the RA dial? Does it need to be set at 0 during all of the above (I don't think so, as it results in a very horizontal scope) Also, should the RA dial rotate independant to the mount? Some sites have mentioned doing this, but it seems to be fixed in place on the skylux. Or do I just ignore the numbers on the RA dial? (Seems wrong to me - why would they be there...)

Maybe a worked example would help me - once my setup is done, what would I do to point the scope at Orion Nebula (for example - any suitable easy to find star would do...)

Thanks for any pointers!

Dave

Sorry i cant be of help but so many people here have said they have bought the same scope from Lidl.....................i'm sorely tempted to buy one. I saw them tonight in my local Lidl and they look impressive (but what the hell do i know because i'm new to telescopes).

dont worry about the ra dec circles, try and track down a few more objects the same way you did with the orioin nebula. Down load the binocular challenge from the home page here , lots to keep you going

I should mention that I'm well used to looking at the stars, and finding my way around, as I was into it as a child/teen, just could never afford a telescope. Forgot about it for years, and when I saw them in Lidl, I figured I'd try it out.

So, the point of the exercise is to figure out what the RA dial is supposed to do, and how to set it to find objects using celestial coords.

Dave

Hi Dave,
Point the scope at a bright known object, then using an atlas set the RA dial to what the object is at, you can then use it to find your way across the sky, if you track an object for a length of time, the scope will move but the circles wont so you'll need to reset them to the object before you move onto the next object
To be honest star hopping is alot easier, very few people bother with setting circles these days.

I agree with Dave on this (star hopping across the universe slowing going forward cuz we cant find reverse)

Those dials are just there to make the scope look technically gifted (they don't actually do anything...but DON'T tell anyone else that). Like you i finally own a scope (after 20+ yrs of only having bins). Now what i tend to do is make a list of a few things i want to observe by referencing The Sky and/or Stellarium. I use a well known oject close to each of the items on my shopping list and then i go hunting wabbits.