moon filter

[wizardaire]

Hi there, once again my scope would not align tonight ,it said it was a good align after like 40 minutes but then when i asked it to goto jupiter it was WAY off and would not let me move the scope with control so had to restart so tried 2 star align but it named stars that 1 i don't know and 2 even when i asked it to go 2 a star there was no star there when it stopped?? i am lost

in the end switch off then back on and just bypassed the align and used manual to go to the moon WOW so bright even with the moon filter on(1 that comes with revelation set) any good moon filters i can use the kids eyes were blinded tonight

we finally found jupiter and it's moons which was really difficult as the finder scope doesn't work (new 1 in the post) but it was great to see.

the kids spent 2 hours just roaming the sky but i need to work out how to align when the scope won't do it as they spend most their time trying to keep it in view

[cantab]

Maybe a variable polarising filter (that lets you control how much light it lets through)? Don't know any good makes myself mind.

[DOBBY]

try downloading Download - Stellarium Wiki

it's free & will help you find named stars & a whole load more...skywatcher do a polarising/varialbe moon filter

[matsey]

Hi wizardaire

Not sure if you have the option on your Meade Goto, but on my Celestron Goto there's a 2-star alignment option where I get to choose which two stars to use in the alignment process. All I then need to know are two bright stars a good distance apart (I've been using Altair in Aquila or Enif in Pegasus + Alkaid in Ursa Major - but as Dobby said, download Stellarium and you'll very soon be able to pick out a few bright stars). That process works every single time for me - on the auto 3-star, it maybe works 50% of the time. Might also be worth double checking that your home location is correct in the longitute/latitude setup, and also that you're entering the current date in the right format (think it's the same for Meade, but the Celestron it wants the date in mm/dd/yyyy - it's a very common "mistake" for us Brits to enter it as dd/mm/yyyy ).

As for the moon filter, I'd definitely recommend a polarising filter as well - when the moon is as bright as it was last night, it's so useful to be able to adjust the brightness way down, but still have the option to adjust it back a bit when the moon isn't quite so bright. I've got the Antares one and it is very good indeed.

Don't despair too much, the goto's do take a bit of practice, but once you've got the knack you'll be set up and ready to go in five minutes no problem at all.

Matsey

[wizardaire]

thanks for that phoned harrison telescopes today and he was a great help always willing to answer some of my stupid questions will try again tonite if the weather allows and now no how to aleast sync when i need to.

decided to buy this for now

SkyWatcher Variable Polarising Filter 1.25"

and hope that helps.

but the kids had great fun looking for stars that the eye coundn't see if nuthing else last nite

[Charon]

Just make sure the aligment stars you are trying to use are in the telescopes database. I also bought a Orion right angle 9x50 finder scope and this has helped me no end.