Celestron Goto question

[LenGazer]

I've purchased the Celestron Nexstar 102 GT Computerized Telescope.. I cant find the exact model of the mount that came with it, its an Alt-Az is about all i know.. The keypad only says NexStar below the screen, and Celestron on the bottom.  

I use 2 star auto alignment which seems to be the best option for alignment and tracking, anyways I center the first object we'll say Sirius, then go to Rigel.. it slew's over.. I center it in the scope.. hit enter and align, and every things tracking and great...

However when I decide I want to change objects with the Goto catalog in the device, its always off once it slews too the next object..   Like the new star or planet will be in the lower/right ish of the target every time.. Even the moon.

Is there a way I can Manually slew the telescope During tracking?

 

[proflight2000]

Do you mean as the scope is still moving towards the object you selected or after it has so say taken you there? if it is the latter you can manually move the scope normally using the direction buttons, try a 3 star alignment and see if that does any better. Remember, you first center the object in the viewfinder, then press enter, then you center the object in the scope itself and press align, you do this for both selected stars under the original two star set up. On that, make sure your viewfinder and scope are both pointing at the same thing, use the pole star to align the viewfinder and the scope so they are as perfect as you can get.

[ronin]

I would suspect that 2 star alignment is insufficent to accurately determine all the corrections required.

The only movement that the scope has is the change from Sirius to Rigel, in effect one single movement and from that it has to get the tilt forward and back, tilt left to right, your location errors, any time error/local time not the time across the UK. Unless you are on the meridian then the time is inaccurate. All these need to be compensated for to some extent and I doubt that from a single movement of A to B that can all be done accurately.

Are you picking the stars?

Only ask as the manual say 2 stars 40-60 degree apart and if it is auto 2 star I would have expected the 2 selected stars to follow this and Sirius+Rigel seem a litle close, about 22 degrees I think. Sirius+Aldebaren may be better and possibly Procyon+Aldebaren even more.

The Skyalign option appears a bit odd, it says pick a star and centre, pick the second star as far away from the first as possible. So say 1 due East, one due West, then it later says not to pick the third such that it is between the first two. Where else would it be?

All I can think of is to get the data as accurate as possible, then see if that improves things.

[tekkydave]

I think it means not on a direct line between the two i.e. in a triangle formation.

[jambouk]

Yes, i'd say if you are picking the stars don't pick two stars from the same part of the sky; try something either very high up near the zenith or to the north east of the night sky if sirius is your first star (eg dubhe in ursa major). Can you do a three star alignment, is that an option? Does the celestron software have a function where it suggests the stars to use for alignment?

Jd

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[LenGazer]

Got it all figured out, after alignment you Can readjust alignment while tracking..  So say after alignment I want to view m43, when it would slew there.. it would be "unaligned" in a manner of speaking, because the nebula would be in the lower right portion of my eyepiece.. but after holding the directional buttons for a few seconds I can recenter the object!

Thanx for all the input guys!
 

[Pig]

Len,

If you want to make the alignment more accurate in the first place try this,

• Always make sure the mount is level before you start especially with any of the 2 star alignment options
• when you first centre an object use a low power eyepiece, like a 32mm, and then centre it using the directional buttons ( do not select align/ok  at this time)  just swap the eyepiece to a higher power like a 7mm and centre it again using the directional buttons, you can now select align/ok
• Repeat this for each star / object

you will find it is more accurate than simply using a low power eyepiece initially

I always found three of the 4 corner stars in Orion worked fine for 3 star alignment

[Kirscovitch]

I assume that the mount you have is the same that came with my 130SLT.

I started using the 3 star but stopped as the mount only really uses 2 of the stars. Quicker just using 2 star auto align.

At first I aligned with just the stock 25mm EP but found the alignments were more accurate if I found the star in the 25 and then swapped it for the 9mm. Eventually I bought a 12mm reticle EP and it is amazing for alignment. 

After alignment any object I wanted to view would be in the FOV of the 9mm. A little adjustment with the hand controller and it was fine. Tracking even seemed to be pretty good. I could put Jupiter in the center and after going inside to warm up for a bit I could go back out and It would still be where I put her lol.