Beginner in Kalgoorlie

[Camknox (Cameron)]

Hi guys,

I've been a long time admirer of Astronomy and the stars in general, I just never had the time or means to purchase my own scope. I've recently picked up a Celestron 8SE and while I love the scope I'm having some teething problems with it. Though hopefully as time goes on I can sort them out, as they stand it's becoming disheartening just thinking about taking the scope outside.

I'm interested to find out if there are other folks out Kalgoorlie way, I've been out scouting around looking for a good spot to view that's away from the city/mine lights.

[Screwdriverone (Chris)]

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

[Nico13 (Ken)]

Hi Cameron,
Welcome to the IIS forum, i'm not sure about local help for you but there is so much info on the forum here to help you get going in a more reliable way so it becomes fun to take the scope out rather than a hit and miss affair.
I went through the same sort of thing but the help from here was so helpful. If you can't find what your looking for with a forum search then don't hesitate to ask some questions, you'll get the help you need.

It may not be as good as having someone there beside you to show you the way but it will make you more independent when you sort it out yourself with help from here.

Good luck with it and it's all well worth the effort to sort out.

[Blue Skies (Jacquie)]

There used to be someone from Kalgoorlie here but I haven't seen them for several years, so you're probably on your own. But you should be able to get help through the forum here so ask away anyway.

[Camknox (Cameron)]

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.

[barx1963 (Malcolm)]

Cam
Welcome to IIS and sorry to hear about your scope troubles.
I am far from an expert on Go To scopes and alignments but a couple of ideas spring to mind.

1) When it is tracking is it tracking in the correct direction but just to fast. If it is in the wrong direction it may be setup for Northern hemisphere?
2) If it is just tracking too fast, there may be a setting that changes the speed. I don't know if there is but hunt through the menus and see.
3) If you have made changes, there is often a way to reset the system to factory defaults and start again.

Just my thoughts, hopefully you can get advice from someone more familiar with these scopes.

Malcolm