Success at last

[Teignstar]

I looked out last night, and behold........a clear sky moment.

Got out my 6SE with a 25mm EP and  started to look around.

Having failed on many occasions with the skyalign, I again made an attempt. After advice here I went for the auto 2 star align........guess what.........it worked.

Knowing where I could find Betelgeuse, I used that as the first star, then went on to Mizar.........and success.

The only issue I think I had on accuracy was maybe the time taken between alignment of the 2 stars. When I subsequently selected Jupiter as a 'goto' I was marginally off when looking through the RDF, and indeed Jupiter was just in view within the scope eyepiece. So I then had the manual correction necessary when selecting other targets.

Does the time lag between star selection have a significant effect on accuracy, as seen, or did I get as accurate as the system allows???

In all, it was a great hour just looking around and searching with the handset. For me, as a newbie, this was just perfect.

One ting I learnt was that some planning is essential for an evening session!!!

[Pete Presland]

Nice report, glad all went well

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[Astro Imp]

Great when it all comes together, well done.

Would definitely agree a little planning before you go out is well worth while.

Have you downloaded Stellarium? Its a really useful free planetarium program that lets you see what's about. If you don't have it get it here:- http://www.stellarium.org/

Good luck.

[Daniel-K]

having your smart phone out with you will help i have an app called sky eye its awesome.  if your trying to align and your not sure were the star is just use the smart phone to check were the star is simples

[Peter Drew]

The initial time accuracy with the SE series is important but within reason the time lag between choosing and centering stars is not. Apparently the Nexstar system takes this into account. 

[bomberbaz]

in addition to what Peter says one other issue is probably your eyepiece. Even a small difference when centering a star for alignment purposes can make a big difference when slewing to your chosen object after you have aligned. That is why it is better to use a large 25mm eyepiece to get it near as you did, and i then usually pop in a 6 mm slightly out of focus to get it bang on.

Another tip is you will find when your scope approaches a target, it will make the final adjustments from the same direction. My goto last moves are up and right as i look at it. This is important because of the slack in the gear train (not sure exactly how much it is but for arguments sake lets estimate a 1/2 of a degree, think thats about half a 25mm eyepiece view in your case).

Therefore it will improve your accuracy if you also approach alignment from the same directions as your scope does when slewing to targets to eliminate as much as possible the gear train slack.

hth

steve

[faulksy]

as baz says, a smaller fov ep, your most powerful, then defocus so you get a dougnut , this will make things more accurate

[Teignstar]

Guys

Thanks for your comments they are all most helpful.

I had read that the alignment approach is important and will try that next time.

Lets hope for some clear skies!!

[todd8137]

Hi sounds all went well and you had a good night

Pat