Not happy... :(

[Disco]

Could not for the life of me align my new 8se scope with either sky align or two star alignment... Had to stop after an hour as couldn't feel my feet or fingers.

Also when trying to align my finder red dot scope I used a street light to focus on. Big mistake, as I think I may of burnt out the back of my right eye....

Yes I am a complete amateur....

[Tim]

Welcome to the club

Sometimes it can be useful to align scopes and finders in the daytime, choosing objects a few hundred meters distant.

[Tinker1947]

Well its not a lot diffrent to the Meade i had as my first scope and i think nearly all of us have a alignment problem first time out, so here's what a remember from back then, get the mount on some flat ground so in level, set the scope to point North and make sure its level, a spirit level on the top might help, power it up and set your lat/long numbers in the handset date time ect, it should now be ready to align, i used a bright star lower down but still pointing north, so when it slewed it would drop and move very little, once it was close to the chosen star put a high power EP in and centre, now's a good time to set your RDF as the scopes pointing at a star you have picked,then pick your second star 90" to the right or left depending on your best field of view, let it slew and use the RDF to move the scope and then center with the High Power EP, that should be it, i used to have to have several goes on most night as the scope would take it into its head that might chosen star was 180" degrees the wrong way, just switch it all off and start again, so after a week or so it just seems to work every time, do remember to turn on tracking as they seem to default to off, so once you get it sorted you will know your way about abit and not bother with the aligning, i switch mine on set the tracking and do it all manually much more fun and quicker.

[Helen]

Sorry to hear of your problems... A common thing to get wrong is the format of the date - it needs to be in american format month, day, year - and check time zone too.

Once you get used to it you'll find it a great scope and mount!

Helen

[Citizen]

Disco

I've got a brand new 6SE, which I've had for a week and only had out twice due to the weather. Gave up on SKYAlign the first night and also tonight. Went with Auto Two Star Align and it said successful and to be fair it pretty much was. Used Aldebaran and Castor (had to find the first one myself and it slewed to the other and I adjusted as directed)

Even after that whenever I slewed to an object it still needed some adjusting (not sure if this is normal or are we to expect bang on accuracy in the middle of the eyepiece?). I think my finderscope and eyepiece aren't properly aligned as yet, but that's my fault. Been to eager too see things instead of setting up properly!

Had some half decent views tonight using the 25mm eyepiece that came with the scope.

yes, it was very cold!

[Grunthos]

I use 2 star alignment.

My red dot finder is very well calibrated (during the daytime) and doesn't usually come off the telscope tube. I never bother levelling the tripod (just a rough "good enough" is always sufficient).

If your finder is not properly aligned try capturing the moon and lining up with that (big enough target, easy to find). Or maybe try the sillouette of the apex of a rooftop...

Use the 25mm lens.

Read the manual but, much better than that, read up on Michael Swanson information (esp his useful Nexstar Users book). e.g. he has links to Nexstar alignment guides

Don't get discouraged.

The 8Se is a great scope (but not as good as the 6SE:evil6:).

[rowan46]

good advice but you do understand that grunthos is just jealous. the 8se is a much better scope than the 6se. It's just not as good as the 5se which I happen to own:D

[kirkster501]

In my experience with my 1100 and from goto scopes in the past, Aldebaran and Castor are not far enough apart in the sky for the internal computer to calibrate itself accurately enough You should use pairings like Polaris and Sirius in winter - and perhaps wider still - that are separated by a larger angular distance.

Try to be patient when doing the setup. There is the urge to get on and start observing and bodge this step but its false economy. A few extra minutes invested in the setup is time well spent

Also, be advised that goto will not usually get the object bang on at high power. Its not 100% perfect - but to set some expectation at 175x I can slew to the other side of the sky and get Jupiter in the EP, albeit slightly off centre. If I had an illuminated reticle EP to get the alignment stars perfectly centred it may be crack on.

HTH, Steve

[Disco]

Thanks guys you have cheered me up a bit, good to hear some of your experiences.

I think I was going mad after aligning Sirius or Betelgeuse 10 times and then trying to 2nd align to Rigel, the scope tries to slew somewhere straight up!!!!!

Thanks for the detailed advice tinker / kirkster and all, I'll give it a go.

@grunthos I was so close to getting the 6se (great looking scope), but I decided to wait and save up a bit more. The thought being that hopefully it will be the only scope I will ever need. Mind you reading some of the posts on this forum sounds like once the astronomy bug bites one scope may not be enough... However I think my Missus will beg to differ.

I have heard of legend told that on special nights when the 6se meets the 5se they magically transform into a 11superSE AND ALL MUST BOW TO THERE GREATNESS!!! (Seriously though, Glad to see other Celestron owners on the forums).

Ps My right eye still aches....

[kirkster501]

Your welcome

Also I am a very big fan of Skyalign and am totally new to it. I am a convert. Even though its meant for folks with zero knowledge of the sky I actually like to use it. Again, you need to choose widely separated objects - the wider the better. For instance, last night I used Polaris, Rigel and Venus. The objects should not be in a line - so Polaris, Cappella and Sirius for instance would be a bad choice. Another tip is what does "centred" mean ? Well, it can be difficult to judge what is precisely centered in the EP with a tiny star. So defocus the star into a doughnut that is a third the field of view. Its easier to get that in the centre.

Really, really take your time and suss this out because if you don't it'll spoil the enjoyment of your lovely scope. Read the goto threads on cloudynights.com as well.

Steve

[jonathan]

I had a few frustrating nights with the alignment of my 8SE too, my problem was compounded by a loose power socket /plug on the mount and power cord which meant that it would lose it's alignment if the power cord was pulled even slightly in a certain way, very frustrating! I solved it by fitting a slightly better plug to the power cord and fixing the cord to the side of the mount to prevent the cable pulling when the mount rotated, but shortly after that I bought an NEQ6.

The 8SE is a really nice OTA, sadly let down by the mount. Don't get me wrong, the mount does work and once you have figured out the best way to align can be a nice mount to use, but you may find yourself upgrading to an HEQ5 or NEQ6, then the real fun / back ache begins!

The 8SE mount is nice and light for what it carries, but that is also it's downfall as it's not that steady. The heavier the mount and tripod, the steadier (less vibration) there will be (and for shorter duration).

I have upgraded my 8SE OTA with a 9x50 finder, Crayford focuser, 2" diagonal, heater tapes, and plan on adding a balance to the front because the back end is now so heavy. All of this takes it way over the weight limit of the original 8SE mount, the motors strain and it cannot point straight up as the diagonal hits the mount.

It's not necessary to add on the things I have in order to enjoy using the scope, but as you've already gathered it's a very more-ish hobby

The 8SE may be the only SCT OTA you ever need though, unless you want to start spending silly money.

Don't forget to put that power tank on charge as soon as you get your kit back inside, they need to be kept charged as much as possible. Use a car battery charger, it'll be quicker.

[assasincz]

Don't be frustrated. It's probably all for good, you know. Recently, I was collimating my scope using a laser collimator, and I accidentally shined the laser beam off the primary mirror and into my eye - hurts like hell, although no permanent damage ... I hope Rather iconically, I then discovered a dead pixel on my desktop's LCD. Well, one can learn a great deal from mistakes

[Demonperformer]

Disco, I have had both a 6SE and (now) an 8SE, and have never got on with Skyalign at all. Mind you, I could never get on with the RDF either, so sold that and bought a Wixey. I tend to start by carefully levelling the tripod and then doing a one object (either star or solar system object) align. Then immediately find something that is about 60 degrees plus azimuth away and slew to that. Once centred, I add that as a second alignment point and that is alignment sorted for the session. If I am concentrating on one object, I tend to go for one alignment point east of the chosen object and one alignment point west, but I don't know if that makes a lot of difference. I have found the further apart in AZ the alignment objects are the better, difference in ALT does not seem to matter.

HTH