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John1980

By John1980
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astro man

astro man

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Hi john and Harry

The GOTO scopes are brilliant but they take quite a lot of getting used to and a lot of patience. But once you get them working properly they are a fantastic piece of kit....

Help Is always available on the forums.. You just need to ask !

Good luck

Astro man

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CJ77

CJ77

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Hi John and welcome to SGL.

I also have the Celestron 127 Mak, and early on, I had one or two issues with the GOTO. You probably have already done all of these, so please forgive me if you have, but things I always check:

Is the longitude setting correct? the closest default to Doncaster (where I live) is Leeds, if I remember correctly, but it may be better to use actual Lat/Long if you know them?

Is the time setting correct? Its quite easy to get either the date or time settings wrong due to the date being in the US format or being in GMT instead of Daylight Saving?

Is the power supply adequate? I found that batteries run out very quickly, so for back-yard observing I use a 12V power cable connected to the mains.

Is the scope level using the spirit level bubble on the mount?

Anyway, I hope that your problem is as easily solved as mine were. Its a cracking little scope, and as someone has mentioned above, I only ever use the 9mm (or 6mm that I've purchased) eyepiece on planetary work. For everything else, the 25mm is as powerful as you'll need really, and I'm considering a 40mm to catch some of the wider objects.

Happy hunting!

CJ

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John1980

John1980

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Hi John and welcome to SGL.

I also have the Celestron 127 Mak, and early on, I had one or two issues with the GOTO. You probably have already done all of these, so please forgive me if you have, but things I always check:

Is the longitude setting correct? the closest default to Doncaster (where I live) is Leeds, if I remember correctly, but it may be better to use actual Lat/Long if you know them?

Is the time setting correct? Its quite easy to get either the date or time settings wrong due to the date being in the US format or being in GMT instead of Daylight Saving?

Is the power supply adequate? I found that batteries run out very quickly, so for back-yard observing I use a 12V power cable connected to the mains.

Is the scope level using the spirit level bubble on the mount?

Anyway, I hope that your problem is as easily solved as mine were. Its a cracking little scope, and as someone has mentioned above, I only ever use the 9mm (or 6mm that I've purchased) eyepiece on planetary work. For everything else, the 25mm is as powerful as you'll need really, and I'm considering a 40mm to catch some of the wider objects.

Happy hunting!

CJ

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John1980

John1980

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Cheers CJ.

Thanks for your responce. I have done all of the above however will double check all as it is almost certainly my user error.

From remembering I think the most obvious is that I entered my latitude and or longitude incorrectly as I have since discovered that my Iphone displays all numbers as possitive so it makes me think I might not have entered my position as negative or west.

Glad to here you think its a good little scope cause it is a mine field of info when you are first starting out.

Cheers for the advice on the eyepieces too.

John

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CJ77

CJ77

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Not a problem John. 

I have seen Jupiter and 4 moons with it, Saturn's rings and several moons, lunar craters, galaxies, open star clusters and much more, so there is plenty to see once you get it going. I think that someone has mentioned Turn Left At Orion above, but if they haven't it's a cracking book for identifying targets and how to find them in three different sizes of scope (available from on-line bookstores and probably through astronomy retailers). Stellarium is also good to have on a lap-top, or the mobile version, while not being as comprehensive is still useful for those "What am I looking at?" moments when you're actually out there.

The scope was recommended to me by Rother Valley Optics (I actually went in with the aim of buying a bigger Dobsonian reflector, but I made the mistake of going in with the girlfriend, who took one look at the size of the Dob and said that we weren't having THAT in the house......) I haven't regretted the choice either....

CJ

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CJ77

CJ77

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Rother valley optics here too. Found them to be really helpful. Are you from South Yorkshire? I have installed stellarium and will give a little look tonight.

Clear skies

I live in Doncaster - we don't have the darkest of skies here, but I've managed to see Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and Uranus easily from the back garden (planets aren't too affected by light pollution), and I'm on 3 galaxies and counting. Later in the year, the Orion Nebula is stunning even with moonlight washing part of it out. The double Cluster in Perseus is probably my favourite object at the moment, and if you can manage to split Albeiro (easy enough with the 127), you'll clearly see a blue star and a yellow star, which blew me away (I never realised that you could actually discern the colours of stars with your eyes......)

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