[mjeremy (Mike)]

Hi,

Since I own an 8 SE Maybe I can help?

Like all the previous Posts the best start is to use the SE during the Day. Pick something a decent distance away (and nowhere near the sun - If you accidentally look at the Sun your Astronomy days are over).

One you have the object centred and focussed in the scope you can adjust the starpointer (with the small adjuster knobs) so that the red dot is sitting on the object your looking at.

Slew the scope to another object and check that the red dot is indeed sitting on top of what your seeing through the scope

Try looking at the Moon whilst it's still light - use the starpointer to get the scope pointing at the moon - then focus.

Aligning this scope (particularly at Night) can be a bit fiddly.
1. Make sure the tripod is level - adjust the legs if it isn't. If you don't have the scope on the Tripod then use the small spirit level (little round white dot) that came with the scope. If the scopes mounted on the Tripod already then try a spirit level across the base of the scope mount. It doesn't need to be exact - but the closer to level you are the better the alignment.

When you power up the scope it will ask for an alignment - default is an autoalign. This works OK - particularly if you don't know the names of the stars you are looking at!

The Hand Controller remembers the time from the last alignment (which is a real pain) so you will need to press undo when it prompts you with the previous site details. Most of this information will not have changed. Lat and Long should be the same - unless you were somewhere else last time you aligned. TimeZone = 10, Daylight Saving = No then set the date and time. The date is in American format ie MM/DD/YY

The best way to proceed is then to visually pick 3 bright stars/planets that roughly form a triangle in the sky (best not to pick 3 that are in a straight line)

Scope prompts to centre object 1. Slew the scope so that the red dot in the starfinder sits over the first object you chose. Check you can see the star/planet in the Eyepiece. Roughly centre it then press enter. the slew rate will then be decreased and you can properly centre it in the eyepeice. Once centred hit align

Repeat for the other 2 objects

After the align successful message you can hit the undo button to see the list of objects the scope believes you used to do the alignment. If you know they are wrong then start the alignment again. Most times they are spot on - the exception being if 2 bright objects are colse together it may get the wrong one (say Saturn and Regulus at the moment)

You can initially check the alignment by doing a goto to one of the objects you picked for the alignment - It should centre in the scope perfectly - If it doesn't then chances are you entered something in the site information incorrectly or the tripod is way out of level.

Do a goto to an object you know - say Saturn if it's say 9pm and check that it's centering in the scope OK.

If you are going to stick to observing a single object for a while then there is a sync function - which will ask you to centre a particular object near to where you are observing and then the scope will adjust for any errors.

I recently had a bit of drift going on with Jupiter - not a huge issue when observing visually but a sync (which asked me to centre Jupiter) sorted that out.

Once your happy the scope is aligned OK then try taking the tour (tour button on keypad - you scroll through the entried with the up and down keys and then hit enter to goto). Some objects you won't see - particularly if your in light polluted skies.

A bit of a ramble I know - but hopefully this helps a bit

Let us know how your getting on?

Mike