Celestron Skyalign (130 SLT) urgent help!

[04Stefan07 (Stefan)]

Hey everyone! It has been around 2 months since I have touched my scope. This is because I am in my final year of university and into my 6th week and havent had any time for stargazing. Now that I am on my mid semester break I got some time to have a look at the stars, boy I missed it!

I am currently on my MacBook outside with my scope as well. Ever since I bought the 130 SLT I have had trouble using it, not the scope itself but it's damn SkyAlgin!

I have asked for advice on this forum as well as another and got heaps of help but I am still having trouble so I thought I would list my problems below and hopefully I can once and for all solve all the issues.

For starters, the 130SLT is a great scope! In-built computer, hand control, etc etc!

Since I have been having trouble using it's features I have just left the scope in SkyAlign mode and moved it around manually with the HC to point and what I want to see in the night sky.

I really want to use the scopes features and use the scope properly.

I have entered the following information correctly.
- Long and lat
- Time and date
- Time Zone and daylight savings

Problems and Questions
1) Half of my SkyAligns are either "matched confirmed" or "match failed". I have gotten around 2 confirmed that have been accurate but the rest have not.
2) I did a perfect SkyAlign just before and when I entered the Moon in the HC it pointed elsewhere no where near the moon, why?
3) Are there any settings in the scope that I can change that may fix my problems?
4) Is there a way to move the scope manually to any point in the sky like you can do during alignment or can it only be moved through selecting an object on the HC?
5) (Following from question 4) How can you track an object in the sky, say the moon as it moves through-out the night?
6) Does hibernate keep the location of my scope and keep track of the time if turn it off tonight then turn it back on and use it say a week later?

I hope I can get some help as I would love to use the full functionality of this scope.

I appreciate any help I can get.

Thank you!

[Allan_L (Allan)]

Sorry Stefan,
I have used Nexstars for a long time, but I can't answer your questions.
The only time I have had similar problems are either incorrect lat/long; incorrect time; incorrect time zone; manually accounting for daylight saving the wrong way; or having the tube on the mount the wrong way around.

From what you say, none of these are obvious.

Where abouts are you located? Perhaps someone could run though the procedure with you?

One small tip, I do every time:
After you get "Match Confirmed" Press Undo. It then tells you the three stars (pressing page down for each) that it thinks you aligned on.
Comparing what it thinks you aligned on, to what you thought you did, may go a long way to solve your mystery.

If it is only out a small amount, it could be your tube is not balanced properly (especially if using heavy diagonal/eyepieces). I also found that precisely levelling the mount made a big difference (even though it is not supposed to). Finally, using an illuminated reticle for aligning also significantly improved my scopes alignment accuracy.

These issues can be identified by doing your three star align, confirming what stars it aligned on, and then doing a GoTo one or several of those stars. If it is not returning precisely, check the balance etc.

But note, aligning using a light ep then switching to a heavy ep can itself cause alignment drift.

Hope this helps a little.
PS: Good luck with Uni

[casstony]

on my nexstar 6Se I found that the 2 star align option was more reliable than the skyalign. I gave up on the skyalign since the 2 star option was easy to use anyway.

[04Stefan07 (Stefan)]

Thanks guys, I will have another go, im so hoping I can get somewhere.

[omi (Omi)]

Hi Stefan

the problems you have described are exactly the same as I have been having with my 1 month old 130 SLT. Did you manage to solve these issues? Any pointers will be highly appreciated.
cheers
omi

[brian nordstrom (As avatar)]

Steffan , Have you tried this old 'chestnut' ,,
When setting the date you have to use the american way of telling it the date for example today is 1st September ,
You set 9/1/2013 , month then day , not day then month like us , this has buggered up lots of people in the past .
Brian.

[04Stefan07 (Stefan)]

Originally Posted by brian nordstrom

Steffan , Have you tried this old 'chestnut' ,,
When setting the date you have to use the american way of telling it the date for example today is 1st September ,
You set 9/1/2013 , month then day , not day then month like us , this has buggered up lots of people in the past .
Brian.

Yeah I have been doing the American way (which to me and probably many others makes no sense having the month before the date ).

[04Stefan07 (Stefan)]

Originally Posted by omi

Hi Stefan

the problems you have described are exactly the same as I have been having with my 1 month old 130 SLT. Did you manage to solve these issues? Any pointers will be highly appreciated.
cheers
omi

Not really mate. I have been using a Solar System align which is much easier but I do not think it is as accurate as a 3 star align.