ju1234

Thank you, Happy Kat and John. I found the way to enter both RA/DEC or Alt/AZ info in the scope. I have looked at the skylive.com site and few others. They give the real time location data. However I ran into the following problems: I am in Dallas, Tx, latitude 32. The location data is only in RA/DEC. It does give altitude number but not AZ number. I also have poor understanding of RA/DEC system. The numbers for this morning 7.40AM were: RA 11,28,21 and Dec -18,20,16. I have never set my scope using coordinates before but when I enter these numbers, the scope slews to below horizon although the Altitude number for this time is 35 degrees. Last night it was same thing with RA 11,25,54 and Dec -17,12,08, however at that time the comet was supposed to be below horizon. Is there a source to see the location numbers in Alt/AZ (my scope mount is ALT/AZ and Nexstar is set to alt/az system) or some easy conversion system (the one I found is lengthy calculations beyond my understanding at this time). Appreciate some guidance.

I was wanting to see the Comet 21/Borisov tonight. For location of this comet, only reference I found on line is using coordinates. I have never used coordinates to point my GOTO scope yet. So, please help. I have a Tasco 4.5" with Starguide Hand controller which is same as Nexstar GT. Going through the manual, it tells me how to slew to various objects using the built in lists in the controller. I did not find how I can enter the coordinates to find an object. Please guide. Also, if you know a known star/ planet or other known object which is close to the comet 21, I can just enter that object in the scope. Thanks.

Hello, I just received new Powerseeker 127EQ. The tube rings that it came with have perhaps 1/8" screws at the bottom which is supposed to go into the hole in the top of EQ mount (mine is perhaps EQ type 2). The flat portion of the ring sits on top of the mount and not inside the recessed area. That leaves the tube to be moving easily. Is this normal? The instruction manual says "mounting bracket with tube rings", however I do not see any thing in the package that can be considered "mounting bracket". Also the hole is not tight around the screw, there is some play. It is just a butterfly/thumb nut on the bottom that holds this. Which means the tube will be able to move in long axis as well as side axis. Even slight movement can throw the target completely off the field of view. Any suggestions. Thank you.

I just received a new Celestron Powerseeker 127EQ which includes an equatorial mount (not sure if it is CG2 or 3). Before putting it all together, I was checking all the parts. The EQ mount has two circles marked with degrees on it. The RA setting circle (the chrome color part with numbers on it only) moves by itself without moving the gear or the RA (The declination setting circle does not). I am thinking that the numbered circle is not supposed to move by itself, because if it does then there is no fixed zero as reference. Am I right? Is this defective? Another question: The installing of the motor drive is supposed to be different for CG2 vs 3. However the mount is not labelled as 2 or 3. How do I identify it? Thanks.

I am not sure if this question should be in "equipment" or "observing". The administrators, if you think it is in wrong forum, please move it. I am a novice. I have a cheap 700X76 manual telescope with 20mm, 4mm eye pieces, altazimuth controls. It does not have a sky tracker. I recently also got a cheap 0.3MP digital eye piece (web cam USB 2.0 from China. This has a "10X" written on the front of the device. I use Sharpcap to view with this. I can center the moon easily and it shows beautiful images of moon in huge magnification, so much that only about 1/4 of the moon is visible in the field at 640X480. And the moon is moving very fast, disappears from the view totally in just a few seconds. I tired to view Jupiter with this. My problem has been to centering it in the camera. Here is how I go about it: I set up the telescope with the finder scope, 20mm lens and center Jupiter in the view. Switch to 4mm and center with that. Then I switch to the webcam. And there is nothing. I look around by adjusting the telescope with the micro controls. No luck so far being able to see it through the webcam. May be it is the brightness and it is there but I dont see it. But through the scope (with 200mm eyepiece and not the webcam) I can see numerous stars that I do not see at all with the naked eye. Is there a way to change the magnification/ FOV in Sharpcap? Or is there another way I can find the target in the webcam first before I enlarge it or other suggestions. Thanks.