Nerf_Caching

Good job on being able to capture the flame and horsehead nebula!

Mine sometimes makes a noise like shaking a can of marbles. Not sure if I broke something in the motor or gears. Also tried calibrate goto. Been using(and slewing) my mount a lot lately.

Just to add to the motor noise: The altitude motor didn't sound like this before. It used to be a smooth whirr, but now, it seems to have become a bit noisier and with some vibration. Doesn't sound quite pleasant to me XD

I am using a power tank to power the scope.

Hello, sorry to bother you with another Nexstar se mount question, but, a bit of background. I have been using my 5se with a nexyz phone adapter, which meant a bit of strain as it makes the scope rear heavy. I could hear it in the alt motors as it makes kind of a straining noise when moving at full slew. I tested the pointing accuracy after that with auto 2 star and a star chart app hopefully to somewhat gauge the slewing accuracy to "objects" in the night sky(in the app; in AR mode piggybacked to scope.). I've started to notice that the alt motors don't produce a consistent whirr when moving at full slew. It sounds as if it is straining against something(even though i have nothing attached to the back of the scope). Moreover, my scope is inaccurate when slewing to objects, even with auto 2 star align. Not sure if this is the most accurate way to gauge the accuracy of my mount, but according to my star chart app, the scope doesn't seem to plant the object dead center. The scope seems to know where the object is, but sometimes it is way off. Is the motor noise related to the mount being inaccurate? or is it something that i shouldn't be worrying about. Thanks.

Hi all! I use my Nexstar 5se quite a lot, owing to the fact that it can also be used in tabletop mode, which leads me to this question. How long do SE mounts last under constant use? Are the motors up to the job to withstand constant slewing and use? Any advice is appreciated, thanks.

When you look down the telescope without any eyepiece inserted, you should be able to see the reflection of the primary mirror in the secondary mirror, and, in turn, the reflection of the secondary mirror in the reflection of the primary mirror. I have an image of this, where instead of inserting an eyepiece, I had a collimating cap(device with a hole that you insert into the focuser.). It’s normal to see the blob of the secondary in your view, but a higher magnification will solve the issue.

The fact is, the skies in HK are so hazy and light polluted even when it’s clear, that even auto two star align would be near impossible on some nights. I would normally align with Diphda and Capella, but Diphda was nowhere to be seen, so had to use Mars instead. Haven’t gotten my head around that cordwrap feature yet

Yeah, I actually noticed that sometimes the scope would rather slew the long way when it would’ve taken less time to slew the other way. Weird feature.

Edit: Just to clarify, the scope slewed upwards to the zenith, where the pleiades would be, then turned in azimuth seemingly without end before I turned the scope off and restarted it.

Slew speed was 9 at the time, and I let it slew for about 10 to 20 seconds before deciding that it wasn't working like it should. I have a feeling it's because there are an infinite combination of coordinates at zenith so the azimuth axis keeps turning non stop?

So this happened. I did solar system align on Mars(which I know isn’t that accurate). I slewed to Capella, which ended up off by about a degree. Then slewed back to Mars. Close enough to center this time. However, when I tried to slew to the Pleiades, which was directly overhead, scope went straight up but wouldn’t stop turning in azimuth after that. I had to turn the scope off and do another solar sys align on Mars. Anybody know what’s wrong with my scope or why this happened? Thanks.

I was in an electronics store in Japan when I saw this Vixen scope among others on display. Guess they’ve got their own designs. Looks like a mak-cass scope but without the meniscus lens? Thought the spider vanes looked a bit like a hair dryer inlet at first

Indeed. I used solar system align to get the motors to track.

This is why the Nexstar 5se is nice in terms of compactness and portability. I had a spur of the moment decision to observe the moon out of my apartment window sill. The scope showed great detail on the moon’s surface even at high magnification. Here are some images taken with my phone.