NavList:

Alex, you wrote:

"after long practice I can achieve 0.2 to 0.3 accuracy most of the time,
with my 7x scope, both for lunar and star-to star distances."

 

Interesting. I remember you were puzzled by the star-star distances a couple of months ago. Are you saying that they have finally fallen in line to your satisfaction?

 

And:

"my common mistake in the beginning was to observe
very bright Moon. It obscures the star. One has to use
a filter, sometimes two, on the Moon, so that the star is
well visible when it touches.
Same applies to a pair of stars where one is substantially brighter.
In general, better results with star-to-star distances can be
achieved with stars that are not very bright. Same applies to index
check with stars: use a weak star."

 

Aha. That makes good sense. Myself, I'm always fiddling with the filters until the images are as "dot-like" as possible. A bright star inevitably has a dazzling halo of little rays around (these are formed in the eye if I understand correctly (?)) which makes it difficult to decide just where it is in the visual field.