CGEM Accuracy?

[Marv-in]

So just how good can you get the alignment? I am new and want to gauge my progress.

My best attempt was a two star align with sirius and betelgeuse... very bad light polution and i dont totally know my stars yet...

I tell it to find Jupiter, it is just off outside the EP, so I add Jupiter as a calibration point, move away and back... not centered but in the EP

Are the two southern stars too close to get more accurate? Does it get better than that?

[Pig]

What size eyepiece are you using Marv ?

[ronin]

Planets are generally a poor object to goto or use in alignment.

The handsets are pretty basic and I would be surprised if all information required for a planet is in there.

Planets move at a slightly different rate, I suspect the path is not a perfect arc as the stars describe, and at time they move backwards. In simple terms I would say their path and locations are approximated to but not as accurate as the stars, galaxies and other DSO's.

A laptop/PC should have the processing and memory to handle them but those handsets are sort of ancient now.

[Marv-in]

For Jupiter I was using 17mm that night. 

Makes sense about the path of the planets, I will have to try out something like m42 since I know where that is real well and see how that goes.

But I guess in general, how close to perfect center would it get? Would it be better with stars further apart and possibly more calibration stars instead of planets? 

[javajunkie2121]

For Jupiter I was using 17mm that night. 

Makes sense about the path of the planets, I will have to try out something like m42 since I know where that is real well and see how that goes.

But I guess in general, how close to perfect center would it get? Would it be better with stars further apart and possibly more calibration stars instead of planets? 

Hi:  some advice from others that has helped me:

- align with low power eyepiece, then switch to higher power and fine tune, for each star.

- have star slightly out of focus when centering in eyepiece

- Also eyepieces with centering reticule are available that help get stars centered.

- did you do 2 star align (you name both stars) or auto 2 star align (you name first, it generates a menu for the 2nd star and slews near it)...wondering if mount would have picked stars a bit farther apart with auto 2 star alignment..I would have?

[Marv-in]

Hi:  some advice from others that has helped me:

- align with low power eyepiece, then switch to higher power and fine tune, for each star.

- have star slightly out of focus when centering in eyepiece

- Also eyepieces with centering reticule are available that help get stars centered.

- did you do 2 star align (you name both stars) or auto 2 star align (you name first, it generates a menu for the 2nd star and slews near it)...wondering if mount would have picked stars a bit farther apart with auto 2 star alignment..I would have?

I really like the out of focus tip!

My problem is I have to pick the stars I can see and know, there is a college about 1/2mi from my house to the north, so i really only get a southern view till about early morning. But yeah, the 2 star align stars it was auto choosing for me were alot further apart and were not visible or blocked by buildings.

So I guess what I did is decent since it gets me close, cant wait to see how it works when I can get to a darker more open spot.