help aligning celestron 6se

[hellothere123]

Ive followed all the tips...level, picked altair adn polaris and mizar...and tried all the alignment types...even tried to change some settings...either I get alignment failed or with one star it alignes...but is way off...I must have something incorrect...but in checking everything I dont see what I can be doing wrong...any help is appreciated!

[DirkSteele]

The link below is an official Celestron Video for set up and alignment of the Nexstar 8se, though applicable for the 6se as well. At the very least it will show if you are missing out or conducting an alignment step incorrectly.

Clear skies

[Charon]

Have you got the right time zone? Daylight saving should be on. If you are not using an equatorial wedge then you should be in Alt Az mode. Try to use stars/planets that are in the database but try and have them as far apart as possible so the computer can get a more accurate map of the sky. Another one is to make sure that the settings are for the Northern Hemisphere.

[Capricorn]

Polaris is too close to due North to be used in general as an alignment star. Although this may have altered at different software releases as I think that it may now be a possible start position for the scope - read the manual or the Celestron site concerning this.

I don't think one star alignment makes sense, the first star is the datum from which the rest are referenced, without the rest the scope is guessing at the errors that it needs to correct for or else is making assumptions.

Concerned about the bits that says "even tried to change some settings."

I would have thought that you had to change some settings, location, time zone and DST being the obvious.

What power source are you using, they really do not like battery's and do not consider rechargeables at all.

In honesty the best I can suggest is to sit down, go through the manual, collect all the data that you need tp get together. Then start again and have another go.

Try Arcturus and Deneb for 2 alignment stars, not sure about the third, Capella and Altair come to mind.

Check if the 6SE has an alignment that starts from having the mount and base level with the scope centered on Polaris. in effect Polaris is the start position. I think that Skywatchers have this and this would make a sensible start position to my way of thinking. I say start as I do not think Polaris should be an alignment star - subtle difference.

Oh yes, and don't take me wrong, you are sure that the stars you used were actually the ones you thought they were? The 6SE has a narrow field of view and it is easy to get them wrong. I ask this from experience of having done it. You are using the longest focal length eyepiece as well - bigger field of view.

[brantuk]

I use the summer triangle or winter triangle to align (depending on the season) - it only lets me down if I make a silly slip. More often than not I just align on a planet and then correct the goto objects over the course of a session - after half a dozen objects it pretty well settles down accurate. I have noticed though that for SW goto it's best to use alignment stars spread in no more than a 1/3rd of the sky. The Celestron gear lines up well with any reasonable triangle of stars in half the sky.

[E621Keith]

Did you enter the date in the correct format. The se uses the American mm/dd/yyyy format. You should also check your location was entred using the degree, arcminute, arcsecond system and not the decimal system given by most phone GPS.

[Veegs23]

I have the NexStar SLT which is similar and I get great success using the moon under solar system alignment. I've also had success using Albireo as a single star alignment. The time zone was a bit confusing at first. The user guide shows California as -8 but I used 8 instead and had the scope thinking it was in the Phillippines. I think the hand control went to -4 before changing to traditional eastern, central, mountain and pacific zones. In, short there was no -8 and upon finding the pacific time zone, I was golden. That was until the azimuth motor burnt out two weeks after getting it and now I'm waiting to see how Celestron handles the issue...