Setting Circles on Amateur Telescopes

under construction; I'll fill this out when I have a chance to collect photos - not till summer. (I don't stop observing in the winter, but I do stop spending time outdoors just photographing equipment.)

But the message will be:

If you have setting circles (round scales on the Declination and Right Ascension axes) on an inexpensive telescope mount, forget them. The setting circles on inexpensive amateur-level telescopes are just decorations to give the gear a "scientific-looking" appearance. They are nowhere near accurate enough to be used for locating things in the sky, and often don't even have the necessary adustment capabilities.

Beginners are often given the impression that they can use these setting circles to point the telescope to the location of an object (looked up in a catalog) and it will then be in the eyepiece ready for viewing. Sorry, that is just misleading advertising. A well-aligned electronic system (a go-to scope or digital setting circles) will work that way, as will carefully built and engraved setting circles on large mounts costing many thousands of dollars.

On an entry-level scope, you might be able to use the setting circles to assist with "star hopping". i.e. rather than trying to point the telescope to an absolute location in the sky, point it manually to a known object near your target, then use the setting circles to move the distance you calculate from that object to your target. But even that requires a very precise polar alignment, and precision in the setting circles that may be beyond their capability.

You will learn to find things in the sky by moving in planned hops from better-known objects to lesser known, not by using the setting circles. Your distance reference will be the distance between objects you can see, and the width of your finder scope's field of view.