Celestron Nexstar 127 SLT question

[M4lcs67]

Hello all.

Yet another dumb question from yours trully, but there you go. I could spend hours trying to find the answer to my question then I thought.... Someone on SGL will know.

Since I bought the above scope I have not been able to get to grips with it as much as I would have liked. Mostly due to the weather and also the short nights. (I am wishing my life away in anticipation of the darker nights). The Nexstar 127 SLT is a GoTo, but I think that is doesn't self track? That is the case? The Skywatcher version is a self-tracker? When I have been looking at Saturn with my highest powered eyepiece and Barlow, obviously it goes across my field of view very quickly then I have to start re-positioning the scope with the hand controller. Does anyone have any tips on viewing planets with a high powered eyepiece on a Nexstar 127 SLT. Thanks

[Helen]

The SLT will track once you've set it up and aligned it properly. Firstly, level your mount using a bubble level. Then to set it up you need to choose your location, enter the date (remembering its in US format so its month, date, year) and time, time zone, and remember daylight saving is 'yes' at the moment. Once you've done that you'll need to centre some alignment stars. Its probably best to start with 2-star alignment and follow the instructions on the handset. You'll get most accuracy if you centre the stars very carefully during alignment (ideally use an eyepiece with a crosshair in it).

Hope that helps a bit - it sounds more complicated than it is! and once you've done it a couple of times its really quick!

Helen

[ronin]

Yes they do track. Sounds as if the alignment is not correct. It does need to be aligned, just in case you are using it without aligning it.

Take your time for the alignment and do it as best you can. Practise during the day or indoors, to get used to everything.

They need a fair bit of data and don't assume anything. As Helen says they need the Long and Lat and the timezone, UK is zero. Yes you can work out the timezone from the Long but the scopes still need to be told both.

Get a good power supply, start with the longest focal length eyepiece you have,

[M4lcs67]

Thanks for your help guys. Most helpful.

[Tyr]

FYI I found this tool which sits on top of google maps to help with location long and lat,

Google Maps Latitude, Longitude Popup

but now I just use an app on my android phone called something like "GPS essentials" if I need to know it more exactly for my current location.

I definitely get better tracking out of mine after I setup my location more accurately and leveled the tripod using a spirit level rather than the built in bubble level.

One tip I have read but not yet tried is that when centring your alignment stars you can switch to a higher magnification EP to do it more accurately, after centring with your low power EP to start with.

Tyr

ps just noticed with your 9mm EP and the barlow it is over 300 times magnification, which is more than I've tried with.

[hemihaggis]

yep i had 127 mak and it just takes a few nights practice , center on a low mag ep then use a higher mag ep .. sometimes it is easier to center on an out of focus star , .also once you have alignenment set up and you slew to the object you want to see , there is a re center object function , make for better acuracy

[GeorgeB]

Another shortcut to success and happiness if you are just wanting to view the moon or a planet is to use the "planetary alignment" option. Once you've got the scope setup and time/date entered in correctly, select "planetary align" and then manually slew it to the moon or planet in question. Confirm the alignment when the target is centred in the eyepiece and the scope will happily track for you without the extra faff of doing a 2 or 3 star alignment.

[M4lcs67]

A belated thanks for all your info. I knew I could rely on the folks on SGL:-)