Inputting my location to 'scope

[DiamondSmiles]

Only had my Celestron 8 SE for a few weeks now. From the start of using it i have always chosen London as my nearest location from the few UK cities i am offered. I live in Portsmouth some 74 miles away from London.

Would there be any noticeable difference if i inputted the co-ordinates of my exact location rather than that of London?

Thanks

Ian

[Capricorn]

You are a fair way from London so it would help to define Portsmouth as a custom location and then use that.

Quick look says:

Long 1.1 West could be -1.1 (1 deg 6min)

Lat 50.8 North (50deg 50min)

Simple values of 51N and 1W for ease.

[starman1969]

It would help, although I have the Celestron 6se and it took me ages to suss out how to input my exact location. I find the hand controller to be very un-user friendly. It doesn't even keep time or date, No doubt they have probably sorted this out on the later versions.

[BSIA Ralph]

Unless you're imaging with it on 1-2 minute exposures (unguided), you'll probably get away with an approximate location. For visual observing I'd say anywhere within 100 miles won't cause you too many troubles.

[cantharis]

I just sold my 4SE - didn´t like the unfriendly software and the unforgivable omission by Celestron of not fitting a clock.

[ismangil]

I have a Skywatcher GOTO, I agree that the handset is not fun to use. One way to make it more usable is a smartphone: GPS location and clock for reference, and by adding bluetooth interface to the scope, you can then use planetarium software on your smartphone to control the scope.

On mobile (excuse the strange predictive words...)

[cantharis]

Google Earth will give you your lat and long to 6 decimal places.

[Capricorn]

Meades are great for the location they remember the last one used until you change it.

Great if you are say always in the garden.

Big problem is the psychological uncertainty that it brings.

You do not gets asked where you are, and if you used the scope say 2 months previously then you get the uncertainty of:-

Has it forgotten it's location???

As I recall if you use the location menu then you lose the one in the memory and have to set it all up again.

You have this nagging feeling that the location has got lost before you even switch it on.

Would be very nice if one of the items to confirm was the location, at least you would know where it thought it was.

[ismangil]

In fact SynScan also remembers your last input, so you just have confirm it every time. It's the time and date that has to be re entered (as obviously your last entry has already passed...)

On mobile (excuse the strange predictive words...)