Question on goto setup

[Bigeye]

Hi Guys,

My Celestron 127 Mags just arrived and I have a noob question.

I Live 25 miles North of the centre of London and London is one of the preset locations on the goto. If I use London as my location will the fact I'm 25 miles away effect the accuracy or is the difference not enough to effect the scope finding targets?

Cheers

[E621Keith]

I'd suggest entering your latitude and longitude directly. If you phone has GPS, you can read it off there. Otherwise I think there is a way to get Google map to output your coordinates.

[Bigeye]

iphones are such wonderful things, I forgot it did that.

Cheers for the help.

[Rebus]

Use THIS SITE to find your exact lat-long - Ensure you input it in the correct format though.

[Dunkster]

As you've got an iPhone anyway, why not get Emerald Time too? It's free... and accurate time is crucial as location. Just remember to set the time zone to Universal Time (currently).

I read somewhere that anywhere within about 50 miles should be OK, but I had used Google maps to get it the first time, and the handset remembers it.

[brantuk]

I use this site:

Lat - Long Finder: This page helps you find Latitude and Longitude

[Bigeye]

I can't believe how accurate this goto is in locating targets. As a complete novice I have no clue where or what anything is. Right away I can track to Jupiter (ok pretty easy without help) Venus, Andromedia, etc etc and know its what I'm looking at. Also the handset has an info button that displays details about the targets.

I still want to learn the sky myself but what a great way to excite the novice in his early days rather than spending days not being able to find what you want or looking at the wrong thing.

I will need EP's etc but what a great first night!!!!

Anyone thinking of a starter scope maybe without help from firends or a society needs to consider this option.

Thai takeawy break then I'm back out there.

Thanks guys for some great advice and help.