Quote:
Originally Posted by Screwdriverone
Hey Cameron,
Welcome to IIS! 
It might be a good idea to list the issues you are having with the Celestron 8SE as I am quite sure there are many users on here who can help with the setup issues you have.
I had to laugh about scouting around for a dark site, considering where you live, Kalgoorlie....  , although I know the mines out that way are 24hr affairs so that must be a bugger....
I was out at that way visiting a gold mine for work last week and I dont think I saw one streetlight the whole time I was there, even the skies in Perth seemed inky black compared to the sludge I have to look through in Sydney.
The golden rule here (yes, that WAS a pun) is to ask as many questions as you want, the only silly question is the one that isnt asked.
Good luck with it all, I am sure we can help sort out the issues and get your excitement levels back up.
Cheers
Chris |
Thanks for the warm welcome folks. Where do I begin...
I got the scope several weeks ago and immediately took it outside to view the SuperMoon (Wow!) I performed a normal SkyAlign (3 stars/planets etc) and I was in action. However... It would never perform an accurate GOTO. It would be off by at least an inch looking through the finderscope. It would also track way too quickly which meant by the time I picked up a new eyepiece and tried to change it out the item I was looking at would have tracked completely out of the FOV.
Fast forward several weeks and several times loading/unloading into the car and ferrying out of town (yes it's dark here but the glow really washes out the night sky, a trip 10 minutes out of town is like going into a dark room) and I am now unable to perform a Skyalign, or any alignment at all, except Solar System Align. This means I am unable to use the GOTO (which from what I can tell is all this scope is good for) to look at anything other than Saturn and Mars (the only 2 visible planets). However going from Saturn to Mars still does not accurately place it within the FOV.
I should mention I am using the "standard" method of using a 13mm eyepiece and defocusing the tube so stars appear as massive donuts taking up most or all of the FOV to align.
I'm just about over the scope and am coming close to regretting ever spending the amount of money (so so much) that I did on getting it at all.