Successful Alignment

[LukeSkywatcher]

Tonight i got a chance to try out a proper alignment with the 8SE. Because it was mostly cloudy with the moon peeking out between clouds i decided to do a solar system alignment using the moon.

After many failed attempts, i noticed the error or my ways. I was using the european format of the date and not the american version. Once i fixed that..............off the scope went tracking the moon.

A huge cloud then covered the moon so i decided to go watch tv for a bit and left the scope to do its thing. When i went back 20-30 mins later i looked through the EP and there was the moon still perfectly centered in my FOV.

I cant describe how happy i was.

[Peter Drew]

We all (well all the owners/users) said how good these scopes are. So much more for you to look forward to yet!.

[LukeSkywatcher]

Peter i have no doubt in my mind that this is a cracking scope. Its very different to anything i have usede before but honestly it is BETTER.

I have just scratched the tip of the iceberg with this scope.

I cant say there is a huge learning curve with it. It pretty much does what it says on the tin.

Ive spent the last 30 yrs finding objects manually (mostly with 10x50 bins). Which has given me a pretty good understanding of the night sky.

Its just so nice to relax and use the Go-To/Tracking and let the scope do most of the work.

[Psychobilly]

When your using a star or planet for alignment and you haven't got a reticule EP or don't want to change to a shorter FL EP ... I used to defocus as I found it easier to estimate to "center" the donut mode image rather than a pinpoint star...

Peter...

[LukeSkywatcher]

When your using a star or planet for alignment and you haven't got a reticule EP or don't want to change to a shorte FL EP ... I used to defocus as I found it easier to estimate to "center" the donut mode image raehr than a pinpoint star...

Peter...

Good tip Peter. I'll be trying that one.