Help!!! I cannot see through my telescope

[Murray Grobler]

Hi Guys and Gals
I bought my first telescope last week. It is a Celestron Nexstar 6se and it has a motorised drive system with automatic alignment. Great! Problem is that I'm too dumb to use it. Let me qualify that: it appears that I am getting it lined up correctly because the LCD tells me "...match confirmed..." or something. So, I ask it to let me look at Mars (for example) and sure enough, it slews and spews to where it thinks Mars should be. So, I look through the eyepiece and...kazam...no Mars. In fact, I appear to be looking at the only section of space with absolutely nothing in it!
So, I call the lady at Australian Geographic and she sends me a whole suitcase full of lenses and eyepieces. I am happy for that becuase now I'm good to go; right?
No way Jose. Now I'm even more lost. I don't know which way to turn the focus knob and, where I previously saw some nice light, I can see NOTHING, nada, zip.
So: my wife smiles and nods her head knowingly at her clever husband and proclaims her undying faith that I will resolve the problem. Yet, deep down inside I know that I'm a fifty cent astronomer with a two thousand dollar plus headache. I have considered moving to New Zealand to hide my shame from my co-workers but all flights are fully booked and, besides, my wife does not want to go.
Can someone please help me to rescue some of my pride?

[Terry B]

First things first.
Use it during the day and aim at something distant. Play with the focus until you can get an image. I bet the problem is that the image is so far out of focus that you see nothing.

[Zuts]

Hi,

I agree with Terry.

In daylight, and dont point anywhere near the sun or you will never see stars again, or anything else.........

(1) Make sure you have a diagonal plugged in.
(2) Focus on something reasonably close.
(3) Focus on something a bit further away, note which way you turn the knob and then note the position. At night you will have to move it a wee bit further.
(4) Try the above, initially with your longest focal length eyepiece, probably a 26mm one.

As far as finding mars is concerned. If you have not entered the time, latitude, longtitude, i.e setup the scope correctly then you wont have a hope in finding mars. After setting up the scope, when doing the alignment usually the first star will be a little off, you need to center it correctly and then the next star will be closer. After cenetering that your GOTO's will be spot on.

To find the first star you may need to use the finder on the scope, so you should align this reasonably well during the day on a distant object.

After your scope is setup, and after you have done the star align you may be OK, if not tell it to go to the moon and see how far off it is. If it is a long way off you didnt enter the setup parameters correctly. If it is close, do the star align again and try and get each star centered.

When doing the star align, start of with the 26mm eyepiece, and center it with your smallest focal length ep.

Hope this helps
Paul

[Murray Grobler]

Thanks for that, Paul
I took my GPS co-ordinates and plugged those in (roughly 26,44S and 150,38E). The time on the handset looks a bit strange to me though: after the initial setup it appears to lose time - dramatically. I mean its clock would progress about 2 minutes over a 20 minute interval in real time. Is this a problem?
Point taken about the focus though; I'll definitely do that and thanks for the excellent advice

[Zuts]

Hi,

I dont have a nexstar 6 SE, so cant say, hopefully someone else can confirm if its a problem or not. In case it is reset the clock just before you align, a few minutes wont be a problem. If your gotos get further out during the night, it's a problem. If they dont, it's not. Remember to set the daylight savings to no and the timezone etc, if these options exist.

Paul

[iceman (Mike)]

Hi Murray

It's also much easier to try pointing at something big and bright like the moon! The moon isn't up at night until next week, so unless you try before dawn, you'll have to do it at daytime like the very good advice posted above.

Does it have a finderscope? (a small telescope sitting on top of the main one).

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by Murray Grobler

Thanks for that, Paul
I took my GPS co-ordinates and plugged those in (roughly 26,44S and 150,38E). The time on the handset looks a bit strange to me though: after the initial setup it appears to lose time - dramatically. I mean its clock would progress about 2 minutes over a 20 minute interval in real time. Is this a problem?
Point taken about the focus though; I'll definitely do that and thanks for the excellent advice

You may have to manually set the time to the correct value for a few tries before it starts to behave. Do as the others say a few times until you get the hang of things, and then see how it goes at night. If it's still doing wacky things after 4 or 5 goes at it, then I'd say there's one of two things wrong. Either the encoders on this particular scope are faulty and/or the software is buggy. Either way, you'll have warranty on the scope, so take/send it back for repair.

[Murray Grobler]

Thanks
Yes, it does have - what they call - a starfinder. That bit I managed to get working. I'll try it on the moon or something big.

[MrB (Simon)]

Originally Posted by Murray Grobler

Thanks for that, Paul
....
after the initial setup it appears to lose time - dramatically. I mean its clock would progress about 2 minutes over a 20 minute interval in real time. Is this a problem?

Interesting, though that won't stop you seeing something through the scope(try during the day as suggested) it sounds kinda wierd!
Once you've confirmed you can see something through the scope, tell it to go to a star and see how well it tracks it. If the star drifts send it in for repair.

I repaired an expensive CD player years ago that had a similar problem, the clock(elapsed track time etc) ran super slow, it completely ignored the remote and there was a massive delay after pressing buttons... press the Open button and the tray would open 5mins later.
I immediately thought that there might be a dry solder joint on the systems crystal so opened her up, resoldered both leads on the crystal and she sprang to life.
This sort of thing can happen to NEW equipment. Bad solder joint, seems fine when factory tested(QC), then after shipping and being bumped around in transport... problems.
Again tho, only suspect this after you can see something and have tried tracking.

[Matty P (Matt)]

Hi Murray,

I have the 8SE and I have to admit that the first time I used the scope I couldn't get it aligned or work.

I am not sure what you mean when you say "Automatic alignment"? You have to manually align the scope yourself. I always use the SkyAlign feature and the GOTOs are always very accurate.

Another issue that can effect the performance of the scope is the power source. What type of power source are you using? Double A batteries or a Power tank?

[Allan_L (Allan)]

Hi Murray,
To add my 2 cents worth.
I am relatively new too, and I dont have the Nexstar but I do have a goto.
When setting the date and time, you usually have to specify the time zone.
Even though you have told it already the Longitutde and Latitude.
But on one of mine, I found setting to what I sthought was Eastern Standard Time actually was some Amreican time zone.
So I had to use GMT after converting Sydney time to GMT. (ie subtracting 10 hours).

I just thought that this may be something to do with your problem.

Anyway, cheers and good luck

Allan

[Murray Grobler]

Are you suggesting that I take it back? I can hardly spell soldier

[Murray Grobler]

Thanks. Yes, I set the time zone correctly. I hope its not a dry joint...

[iceman (Mike)]

So have you had any more luck? Using it during the day? Pointing at the moon? (which is now visible in the evening sky just after sunset)

[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

[mjeremy (Mike)]

Once you get the 'easy' alignment happening OK and you know the names of the bright objects you can see in the sky then the other available align methods (which are a bit more precise) will ask you to nominate the objects from a list (based on whats above the horizon at the location/date/time you put in before aligning) You pick the first object and centre it (using the same method as in the main post I made) and the scope will then slew itself to where it thinks the second object you pick is in the sky (If your tripod is reasonably level then it's usually pretty close). you centre and align that object and then depending on the align method you chose - 2 star or 3 star -The scope will align or request you to pick the 3rd star/planet

Once you get the 2 or 3 star alignments sorted out you will find the scope will be spot on when doing gotos

Mike

[iceman (Mike)]

HI Mike and to IceInSpace!

Great advice!

[Murray Grobler]

Thanks a lot. I'll try this as soon as I can. Great advice! Thanks

[MrB (Simon)]

Originally Posted by Murray Grobler

Are you suggesting that I take it back? I can hardly spell soldier

Not yet, the issue with the clock comes after you have confirmed that you are able to see something through it and then have correctly set-up and tested the mounts ability to track an object, then you can be sure whether there is a problem with it.

Do you have the user-manual for it?
If not, it is available Online.

[psyche101]

I have had much trouble with my Nexstar4GT goto. I have not ever had it work. The advice I have recieved says that it should be pointing North, does that mean North is the position to point the scope in before begining the alignment? It has to be true North as opposed to magnetic north as well doesn't it? What is the easiest way to determine this?

Added - this looks helpful. http://www.wikihow.com/Find-True-Nor...hout-a-Compass