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Hello from Sevenoaks, Kent

Rogue1892

By Rogue1892
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Rogue1892

Rogue1892

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Hello everybody, I'm John from Sevenoaks. I recently got a bonus cash injection so decided to buy a telescope as I've always been interested in astronomy but never had the cash to get one. After a few days browsing the interweb  I decided to get myself a SkyMax 127 GoTo, which arrived yesterday :grin: !!

I set it up today and had it looking out my bedroom window at some distant hills where there are some houses (one with a flag pole with the Union Flag flying) managed to line my scope with the flag pole and focused onto it great, then aligned the finder scope with what  the scope was looking at, hope I've done that right ??

I'm going to scout my local area for a nice dark place away from street lights and what-not with a 360 view of the night sky, I already have a place in mind where I sometimes walk my dog, but before rushing up there with the scope on the first clear night I was thinking of going up there and get the feel of the night sky with my naked eye first, good idea ??

I have a couple of questions, 

1) When I have to enter the coordinates into the SynScan how do I enter them, so say my coordinates are: 

Latitude: 51 16 5.7138 Longitude: 0 13 34.953

I would enter in:  001 13E, 51 16N, is that correct ??

2) Any tips ???

Kind Regards 

John

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JamesM

JamesM

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Hi and welcome to the forum. You might find these comments made by a member back in February 2012 helpful with your setup and in particular section 2 which deals with co-ordinates. Hope that helps but come back to us if you have any more difficulty.

Clear skies and hope you enjoy your stay here.

James

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m37

m37

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Close enough, although you could round them up or down, the Synscan only has degrees and minutes, not seconds so it's not that accurate and not worth worrying about too much. 

e.g. 51 16 5.7138 = 51 17 and Longitude: 0 13 34.953 = 00 13. Negative decimal for Longitude would be W rather than East.

They would go in to the handset as 00 13E and 51 17N

The EQMOD control software is more accurate and I would recommend that when you've got more familiar with the handset. Gives you more control all round.

cheers

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ronl

ronl

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Hi John welcome to the lounge,

if you have or can get hold of the February issue of Sky at Night magazine it has

a skills section on how to set up your kit, in one of the photos it shows the location

on the hand set, different location than you but it shows 003 14W 55 54, so you

could be right. It also says to enter the date MM/DD/YYYY. 

Good Luck and Clear Sky's (I don't use go-to)

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swag72

swag72

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Hi John and welcome to SGL - sounds like you are well on the right track! Have you downloaded the planetarium programme Stellarium? This is excellent for giving you an idea of what is around and when. Should help you with some planning.

Look forward to seeing you around :smiley:

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Jon Sales

Jon Sales

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Hi John, welcome to SGL from an ex Tunbridge Wells boy :)

I have the same scope and you've done everything right so far.

Coordinates should be entered as you say. You will love the scope, I love using mine and its been halfway round the world with me so far.

Buy a copy of Turn Left At Orion to help learn the night sky and as everyone says, download Stellarium.

Most importantly of all tho, enjoy the wonders of the universe.

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Rogue1892

Rogue1892

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Hi John, welcome to SGL from an ex Tunbridge Wells boy :)

I have the same scope and you've done everything right so far.

Coordinates should be entered as you say. You will love the scope, I love using mine and its been halfway round the world with me so far.

Buy a copy of Turn Left At Orion to help learn the night sky and as everyone says, download Stellarium.

Most importantly of all tho, enjoy the wonders of the universe.

Hi Jon, thanks for the welcome.

A few  of questions for you seeing as you have the same scope. Do I have to enter triple 000 in the SynScan or is it 001 ? And is it W or E ?

They might be stupid questions but I want to get it spot on :)

Also do you have any tips for when setting the telescope up ?

John

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