Quote:
Originally Posted by The Mekon
Ok, I should be out observing tonight, but it is a bit cloudy and I'm settled with a bottle of red instead.
1. Polar alignment is not that important - so forget about that as long as you are pointing somewhere near, that will get the initial slew roughly in the area, which you have reported. My polar alignment is around 1/2 degree off the pole and still the 1st and 2nd stars are about 2 - 3 degrees off when it slews to them. This can be a result of your "home" position, which is dec 90 and RA at the pole - you seem to have that correct.
2. Make sure your time is within say 10 seconds of true EST, and remember Month/day/year
3. Always select rate 4 or 5 to slew the align stars to the centre of the field - finder first and then an eyepiece around 100x. The longer you take to slew the stars, the worse your alignment will be, and I am talking about the time spent with the buttons pressed, not the overall time. So what I am saying is that you will be doing well if they are in the field of the finder initially.
4. Set align select by magnitude - otherwise you will get stars you have never heard of (and I have been doing this for over 50 years)
5. If you do not get good pointing, then try a 3 star align - some scopes can have substantial cone error. In the field of a 100 power eyepiece is "good pointing" in my view.
good luck
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I always have to use the slew rate of upwards to 7*-9* only because it's SO far off the first and second star it'd take minutes to get the star center and only seconds if I chose 9* speed. I cant even get it into the finder on the initial select of the star.
I'll try selecting it to by magnitude see what happens there, and I'll try setting it to home by pressing home next time.
I can get the message "Successful alignment" then I ask it to slew to Jupiter and it points the scope no where near the planet. :\
I was gonna take mine out too, but like you said it's very cloudy, Good luck with your red!