Scope Display Help

Use the scope display settings to customize the display of the telescope's field of view in the sky chart.

Finder & Eyepiece Fields of View

Here, enter the field of view of your narrow field eyepiece, the field of view of your widefield eyepiece, and the field of view of your finder scope. The finder field typically ranges from 2° to about 8°, and the field of view of a telescope eyepiece varies from 2° to a few minutes of arc (about 0.05°). Enter values that describe the finder and eyepieces that you actually use with your telescope.

Any of the above field of views may be selectively shown or hidden by touching the relevant on/off switch.

Crosshairs: Lets you turn crosshairs on or off, which precisely show the field of view center, and indicate the directions of movement of the telescope mount axes.

Telrad Circles: Shows the field-of-view indicators of a Telrad as red circles in the sky chart. These circles are 0.5°, 2°, and 4° across, always centered on the telescope's field of view.

Cardinal Directions: Shows cardinal direction (N/E/S/W) markers around the edges of the field of view indicator. These help you follow the cardinal celestial directions in a small telescopic field of view. As the Earth rotates from west to east, objects appear to travel through the eyepiece from east to west.

Camera Field Width x Height

This is a rectangle that represents the frame of a film or a CCD camera. If you wish to display the camera field on the sky chart where the telescope is pointing, enter the width and height of its field of view in degrees. Setting the on/off switch to "On" will display this rectangular frame as part of the telescope cursor.

Field of View Display Options

Show Even if Not Connected to Telescope: Lets you display the field-of-view indicators even if SkySafari is not actually communicating with your telescope controller. In this case, the field of view indicators will always be displayed at the center of the sky chart. You may use this feature, for example, to "preview" how a star cluster may appear in a particular eyepiece or finderscope.

Field Rotation Angle: Lets you set the scope field-of-view rotation angle. When zero, "up" in the scope's field of view is north in the sky (for equatorial mounts) or "up" in the sky (for alt-azimuth mounts).

Scope Display Coordinates

This setting determines the coordinate system used to show the telescope's position in the Scope Control view.