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Al Perez

By Al Perez
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Al Perez

Al Perez

Posted
Posted

Hi guys. Just my first out reach to you fellows now that I'm a proud owner of my first scope ..at the age of 50. :) Had my first two obs last two nights as the skies were so clear and it was fab.

Having a few issues with the align though on my Nexstar 8se, it reads a success after doing the 3 star Sky Align but slews to totally the wrong places when I hit Tour. I'm a bit puzzled. Can I ask for some assist from any fellow users of this kit?

I guess I should start with the basic set up to make sure im doing it right, so I'm choosing London as my nearest city in the database is this accurate enough or should i be more precise with my lat and long from Google?

Then im choosing Daylight saving as opposed to Standard time

Now im a little unsure, do i choose Universal time or a Zone as they increment positive ( Zone 1,2,3 etc) and negative (Zone -1,-2,-3 etc) but because we re in summer time which is +1 hour so is the Zone 1?

Then I enter just the date in the US format of month, then day and year.

So it's the accuracy of a city selection or actual long/lat and the time and zone settings which id welcome some clarification on please

I've seen some great views of Saturn and Jupiter but am noticing on google that fellows with the same kit are posting some amazing pics with far more detail than I'm seeing. Saturn is basically a white dot with white rings and I can only just make out two reddish bands on a match head sized Jupiter but some pics I've seen apparently with the same kit ( on a search of Nexstar 8se at Amazon for example) even show its red dot storm and pea size

My EPs are the standard 25mm but I've also got 17,15,10,6 and a Barlow (which im still unsure how to use)

I found the 10mm Plossl seemed the best but just not as 'zoomed in' as others are seeing.

One post with a Celsstron 130 (around 5inch) shows amazing pics of Saturn so I'm a bit confused why I'm not seeing it better with the 8se

Thanks in advance of any help guys which would be very much appreciated so I can at least Tour with my lad who's chomping at the bit! :)

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Tommohawk

Tommohawk

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Hi neighbour, and welcome to SGL. Cant help you with the specifics for your scope I'm afraid, but I'm sure someone else will be able to.

RE photos - its in the processing. With faint DSOs you stack loads of faint data and average it, and with planets you stack loads of slightly wobbly images and keep the best and most consistent ones only. For me it's one of the attraction of imaging - but needs a lot of work to get it right.

Good luck

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damnut

damnut

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Hi Al,

Warm welcome to SGL. Thats a great scope you have there. If you have correctly aligned the scope it can only be a one or more of  :-

1. Scope level.

2. Correct time input.

3. Correct location

Tonbridge is roughly 51.20031 N and 0.27741 E , for time use +1 as we are now on BST not UTC

As for viewing your 10mm  eyepiece is giving you around 200X so your foucus needs to be spot on try a longer focal length ep then shorter and try and spend some time at the scope so you get dark adapted. Do not be confused with the Hublle like imges that some of the folk on here can produce with what you see at the eyepiece. To give an idea of your expectations see ;-- http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fov.htm  ..(remember to switch to visual)

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laudropb

laudropb

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Hello and a warm welcome to the SGL . I too can not be of much help with your set up, but you will not get the same views as seen in astro photos. Cameras are much more sensitive than the human eye and as stated above, most images are from the processing of hours of data.

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Cornelius Varley

Cornelius Varley

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Hi Al,

Warm welcome to SGL. Thats a great scope you have there. If you have correctly aligned the scope it can only be a one or more of  :-

1. Scope level.

2. Correct time input.

3. Correct location

Tonbridge is roughly 51.20031 N and 0.27741 E , for time use +1 as we are now on BST not UTC

As for viewing your 10mm  eyepiece is giving you around 200X so your foucus needs to be spot on try a longer focal length ep then shorter and try and spend some time at the scope so you get dark adapted. Do not be confused with the Hublle like imges that some of the folk on here can produce with what you see at the eyepiece. To give an idea of your expectations see ;-- http://www.12dstring.me.uk/fov.htm  ..(remember to switch to visual)

The correct coordinates for Tunbridge are  000 16 E,  51 11 N (Synscan uses the normal mapping coordinates not the GPS / Google maps decimal version).  Select time zone as -0.000 (this is the correct timezone for the the UK irrespective of whether it is GMT or BST) and then select YES to daylight savings.

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xtreemchaos

xtreemchaos

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hi mate and welcome from south wales,sorry i carnt help you with your goto problem,im a star map man myself"i like the hunt" but the guys on here will give you the know how.all the best,and i wish all clear skys.charl.

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glowjet

glowjet

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Hi Al and welcome to SGL, as far as your equipment problems are concerned you would be better re-posting in the section such as Getting Started equipment help and advise, this will have a far bigger following than here in the Welcome section.

Physically what you see at the scope, is a world away from the many published images you can find of our popular heavenly bodies. Basically your eye can`t resolve the fine detail that a long exposure image can produce. Practise at the eyepiece is something that is learnt, as your observing continues you will find in time that your eyes will resolve a lot more detail than when you first started, but it will never match the many published images. Enjoy your Astronomy and the forum :)

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JonC

JonC

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Hi, from just down the road in Chiddingstone. Sorry that I cant help with your scope query (noob myself), but I did trawl the internet for local clubs, think easiest one to get to is Croydon, I am going to have a look next week (Thursday I think).

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Stridor

Stridor

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Hi and welcome; I`m in Kent too.  Yes, what one see`s through the average telescope and the `images` that one can produce with astro-photography are unfortunately two totally different species! 

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Al Perez

Al Perez

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Hi guys, thank you to all for your warm welcome and great replies.

As a noob I can see now from all your advice that whats posted on the web has undergone long exposure and or tweaking, I guessed it must have but just wanted to be sure. I may even try a few pics myself as my T ring arrived for my Canon.

I'm also hoping to get more adept with the use of correct mag and my various EPs so thank you for your re assurance.. I'm sure I ll enjoy the learning curve!

I ll try the co ordinate inputs and the +1 summertime and hopefully I can get the Tour skewing right, if anyone does have my kit I'd appreciate their own set up procedure.

Skies are great again tonite and I'm really hooked so cant wait to get out there ..clear skies all!!!

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