I hope this is the right place for this question. I have a new-to-me Celestron 6SE (the price was too good to pass on ). I can align it ok and it happily goes where it's told to when an object is selected from its memory.
Question is, once aligned can it simply be pointed to an object that I want to look at and then set to track, without having to enter details into the system?
Things have changed a bit since I last had a telescope many, many moons ago!
I don't know of any of the Celestron mounts that retain alignment if you release the clutches. As far as I am aware all of them have the encoders on the motors only so if you release a clutch after the electronics are aligned then the system does not keep track of where it is pointed.
It is the main reason I remounted my scope on a mount with dual encoders, I wanted to be able to manually point without loosing alignment.
Last edited by The_bluester; 25-05-2019 at 05:03 PM.
Ok, without knowing how these things are made that makes sense, given that there's no mention in the "manual" on doing that. Looks like I may have embarked on another hobby that is going to suck up money!
Looks like Celestron's CPWI software will go some way to resolving my problem as it will let me swing it to a point I select. Not perfect, as it means I'll need to have a laptop connected all the time, but workable.
Just trying to have a casual view of something is proving somewhat complicated. Just as well I like gadgets.
Ok, without knowing how these things are made that makes sense, given that there's no mention in the "manual" on doing that. Looks like I may have embarked on another hobby that is going to suck up money!
I re entered Astronomy three years ago after a ten year gap, yes things have changed, oh and welcome to the forum.
I spent FIVE months looking at what to buy this time and one piece of kit was telestron in the photo.
NO the do not retain the information, as they don't have dual encoder technology.
As for money I have spent £12,000 and counting, though I don't smoke, drink, gamble or go on holiday
THE most used kit I have is an AltAz mount that I mount both the CELESTRON ans refractor on also in image, makes Astronomy dead easy now, point and view
The SE mount does not have a clutch on the Az axis, the drive engages after the first alignment point (I think) and remains engaged thereafter.
The Alt axis has a slip clutch, the only function of which is to slip to avoid damaging the Alt motor and gearbox assembly if the movement in Altitude is obstructed (for example the back of the diagonal hitting the base). As noted above, alignment will be lost if you move the scope manually in altitude.
So, no you cannot manually move the telescope to an object. However you can enter RA and Dec co-ordinates into the handset and use a GOTO, in which case the telescope will happily track on the co-ordinates selected.
I do not know whether you can use the Up/Down Left/Right buttons to move the telescope and maintain accurate tracking on the object you have steered to, it may be that the telescope still "thinks" it is pointed at the last object that a GOTO was selected for. I have never tried that with my Nexstar 8SE - if you do please let me know the result.
You could also use the direction buttons to manually slew to an object, then use the IDENTIFY function to identify the object, press GOTO (the telescope should not move much if you have correctly ID'd the object) and the tracking should now be fine.
Last edited by rrussell1962; 26-05-2019 at 06:56 AM.
Thanks for the replies, chaps. I'm searching the 'net and reading all sorts of stuff as it's obvious I have a lot to learn (my initial interest in astronomy was 45 years ago but it lapsed fairly quickly due to work requirements). Fortunately I'm a bit of a technology junky so I consider this a challenge!
One of my other interests is shooting and I hate to think how much I've spent on that. Looks like this one could do likewise.
Dunc, so if you slew the scope with the direction buttons it does track on the new position and not the previous GOTO? For example if I was looking at M42 after using a GOTO M42 and then decided to use the direction buttons to look at, say, M46 (without executing a GOTO on M46) it would then track on the position of M46 and not continue to track as if M42 was centred? If so, that is very useful to know.
Yeah the tracking is enabled regardless following a successful alignment. You can manually slew wherever you want and it continues to track, as it knows where (it thinks) it is tracks in Alt/Az appropriately.
One thing to watch out for though...if you've, say, GOTO M42 and then manually slew to M46, and then accidentally hit the Enter button, it will then go back to M42, as that will still be selected on-screen. You can avoid this though by hitting the back button so it just says "Nexstar SE" on the display.
While they're an old-ish style mount without encoders and all the modern jazz, they're pretty versatile and the built-in database is quite extensive (at least, in the 6/8SE...not sure about the 4/5SE). The SE also features the "Precise GOTO" so if you're after something faint, you can go to a star near the target, it will ask you to Sync, and then the goto will be more precise. In theory.
I find the goto performance to be very much related to (a) have the mount nicely levelled and (b) spend a couple of minutes to get the alignment stars bang in the centre of the eyepiece at a reasonable magnification - I'd suggest using a reticle eyepiece to reduce element of doubt.
While I have a bigger (and thus, heavier!) mount for my scopes, the SE mount is just so easy to setup and get going with the C8 that I still use it a lot.
Many thanks Dunc, I think that answers the original question and is very useful to know. My Obsession is my main telescope but I do use my Nexstar 8SE a lot. If the electronics hold up it will be my "advancing years" telescope!
Yeah look it's like anything...there is always "more, better", and the Evolution mount looks really nice
But I've been using my 8SE for over 10 years and it works great. Never lets me down. It's light - even with the 8" OTA onboard, I can carry it out in one piece, plonk it down and power it up. I've been working on a CPC too, but that's MUCH bigger and heavier.
Regarding the OP's question about additional controls...there is also the Celestron Sky Portal Wifi adapter (+ app), which does a similar thing to an external planetarium app, requires no PC, but it does require a smartphone/tablet to run the app on.
Hooking up the mount for computer control is pretty straightforward - depending on which hand controller you have. Mine is old, so has the 4-pin serial port on the bottom of it. So I use a serial cable and connect that to a serial to USB converter for PC control. The most recent Nexstar+ hand controllers have a USB port on the bottom of the hand controller for direct connection.
Dunk, thanks for that info. I've only used it once and spent all my time using the goto on objects in the database ('cos it was such a novelty). I don't think I tried just "manually" swinging it. Unfortunately Winter has started where I live so it's cloud and/or rain and/or fog at the moment!
Regarding the wifi connection, yes, the wifi adapter is my next purchase. I've found a "hack" that allows the thing to run on a PC and use Stellarium, but Celestron have now released the CPWI software that uses Windows so it will be simpler to use that and their database. I'm about to install it on an old laptop and although I obviously can't align anything I should be able to play a little bit via the usb connection.
The CPWI programme from Celestron was easy to set up - other than taking me 1 1/2 days to figure out why the device driver wouldn't load (Win 7)! Finally worked out that the updater in Windows was corrupted, once sorted the usb connection worked fine. I ordered a Skyportal from Bintel on Monday morning and it arrived this afternoon!!! Quickest I've ever had anything arrive from anywhere via AusPost!
Should've been plug-n-play but wouldn't work!!!!! Finally realised it had to be set as a public network or it won't work.