laf87

Done and test and it, indeed, all seems fine. I should learn to trust technology more! Thanks for all your advice; much appreciated.

Thanks very much, guys. That's all really helpful. I hope the high haze will hold off so I can do an alignment test this evening, even if it isn't great for viewing.

Hi all Thanks for that - it is good to know I am on the right course for the alignment procedure, which seems easy enough. But when I click on Connect and Align, the crosshairs are pointing to a different place than the scope. So when I move the scope to, say, Capela for the first alignment, the scope is pointing there but the crosshairs are 15 degrees off. So when I click Enter and then Align, has the software aligned with the point 15 degrees off? And then so on for the other three stars? Or does the system self-correct once the three points are aligned? It just appears that because the cross-hairs and scope are pointing at different places to the scope, that the end alignment will also be 15 degrees out too? But I will try it again tonight (hopefully) and see if it does self-correct. Thanks very much Lori-Ann

Sorry, I realised the short version of the query above is: when one is going to start aligning using an ipad and SkyAlign, should the scope be pointing at the horizon and also pointing due north in order for its position to match that of the cross-hairs on the screen? The instructions don't say to do this but otherwise how do the crosshairs know where the actual scope itself is pointing? Thanks Lori-Ann

Hi I have just started using the Celestron NexStar Evolution 8 and for using the wifi link to Connect and Align via SkyAlign, the handbook says that to align it just move the scope to the first star using the controls on the screen, click align, then the second star, etc. I had wondered reading this in advance how it knew where the scope was pointing to start with, to know where it was going. And when I came to align it the first time, I used the keys on the screen to move it to Capella (nice and bright) but when it was pointing at Capella on screen, the scope itself was about 15 degrees too low. So it seems the scope doesn't know where it is pointing to start with! I checked my latitude, longitude and elevation and these all seemed right. Eventually I seemed to fudge it by balancing my iPad on the scope, using the compass to say where I was pointing, centring it (I think), clicking on the star, etc - I don't quite remember everything I pushed to make it work and recognise where it was and what it was pointing at. Once it knew where it was the rest of the align went fine and the GoTo feature was great, as is the viewing through the scope. So the query is, how does the scope know where it is pointing at when it starts the alignment process? Or should I go to a star manually and then go into the SkyAlign process? Thanks very much Lori-Ann