Alignment help

[crazzyroo]

Hey Guys,

Had a 10" DOB for 3 years and over the weekend I upgraded to a Celestron CPC 800.
I am having real trouble using the star alignment feature. I find 3 bright objects in the sky, it all appears to work, then when I try and use Go-To it is always so far off the object does not even appear in the finder scope.

Any suggestions are much appreciated :thanx:,

Cheers

Nick

[Liz]

Have you had any luck Nick?
I also have a 10" Dob, and have bought a little goto as a grabandgo, and have had fun and games getting it all up and going.:help:
I think I have it Ok now, though still a coupole of bridges to cross.
Does it say alignment successful after you have aligned the 3 stars?
Previous advice to me - make sure you correct time./date/lat/long, and up to date firmware on the handset. Very important.

[mental4astro]

Hi Nick,

Here are a couple of little suggestions I have that may help.

The first has to do with the centreing of the alignment star. Find it as per normal in your scope, but don't try to centre it with a low power eyepiece- this will have too much error in it. Instead, use a medium power eyepiece, and then de-focus the star until the image nearly fills the entire field of view. Centreing is a much, much easier and accurate proposition.

Next, alignment star selection. The further apart the alignment stars are from one another, the greater the degree of accuracy. If your sky is horizon to horizon, two star alignment is typically sufficent if your alignment process is good. If your view of the sky is restricted, multiple stars with a good process of centreing is the way to go.

The other thing that may be arye is the mechanical components in your scope. Try the above first, then if it doesn't work, it may be worth your while contacting Celestron directly. They actually do respond to emails!

I did this with a mate's scope who was trying out his brand new Argo Navis system. He was having a crappy time of it. We changed his alignment process to the method described above and with only two stars as we had an unincumbered sky, then every single object was within the field of view of a low power eyepiece. Surprised me too, :lol: .

I hope this helps.

Mental.