New Celestron 8SE

[dyeman1961]

I just got a new Celestron 8SE and the assembly and sky align went well.  However, being a curious person, I wanted to look at random stars or objects on my own and seemed to find that this is not possible once the telescope is aligned??  I'm probably missing something, but there is nothing in the manual about directing the telescope to objects without using sky align and I certainly would want to be able to do so.  I will be disappointed if this is not possible after alignment.

Thanks in advance for comments and advice.

 

[michael8554]

There are several ways to go to an object of choice:

Select the object from the object menus in the handset, then GoTo.

Manually slew the scope with the buttons on the handset until the object is in the finderscope, and then in the eyepiece, if the object is a bright star or planet.

The alignment uses one or more bright stars to orient the mount to the current night sky, once done you are free to move the scope as above.

Michaej 

[dyeman1961]

I don't seem to be able to manually slew to an object of my choosing once the telescope is aligned.  I have no trouble using the object menu to move to objects in the catalog, but if I try to move to something on my own once the alignment has been made, it won't move.

Scott

[ronin]

This is going to souns stupid but are you sure it is not actually moving, just very very slowly? Suppose you did not listen to the motors and hear a slight change in the noise they produced?

The handsets have a habit of using an initial default rate and this is often Sidereal which at 15 degrees an hour means you do not see it moving unless you happen to be looking through the eyepiece when the original object disappears out of view.

There should be a button marked Speed, I think you press that then select a number, try 6 or 8, then try moving the scope around by the buttons as you are asking. Be aware that they may go back to this default when you power off the scope so if this is the problem then you may need to set the Speed at each use. Mine defaults to some odd almost random speed values.

If the scope is moving by the Goto selection then it sounds tha the clutchs are tightened up, many leave the clutches off and wonder why nothing moves - I managed it 2 weeks back and have owned the scope for about 15 years.

I am not sure how good the 8SE will be for manually locating objects, you have that long focal length = high mag = narrow FoV. So it may not be easy. Also although the scope should determine it's new position from the movement made by yourself I would expect that the goto accuracy is reduced in case you want to manually move around then decide to return to the goto. I would expect that you would have to center a star then synch that star and scope so that the scope has a known position in it.

[Knighty2112]

As per what Ronin said it sounds like your goto speed is too low for you to pick up that the scope is actually moving. For large movement to go from object to object over large angular distances the slew speed of your goto needs to be set to 8 or 9. Find the key on you keypad called "Motor speed" or "Slew Speed", (bottom right key) press it, then select either 8 or 9 on your keypad, then move your direction keys. You should find that goto mount moves much more rapidly. You can test this out in the daytime first also without having to do an alignment; power up your scope. Press "Motor speed" or "Slew speed". Press 9, then press your direction keys on the handset. Also, if your handset is a Nexstar+ controller, after pressing "Motor speed, the current speed of the mount will be shown. Just remember after doing your initial alignment the motor speed or slew speed will most likely be lower than 8 or 9, so if you want to move it manually via the handset make sure the motor speed is set to 8 or 9 again before manually moving it.

 

[Knighty2112]

Meant to add also that if you know the right ascension and declination of the object you want to view too you can input these in to the handcontroller to go to the object as well.

This link lists some manuals for the Celestron goto mounts, so if you need one that gives details of this then select whichever mount you have and download it.

http://www.nexstarsite.com/Manuals.htm

[newbie alert]

Once it's aligned and the object found the motor speed is on 2..press the bottom right key on the handset then a number key, 9 being the highest.. I'm sure there's a identity object which will tell you what it is that you're looking at if it's in the database 

[Peter Drew]

You can also press a direction key and whilst holding it down press the opposite key and the telescope will slew at full speed regardless of the initial speed setting. 

[Knighty2112]

36 minutes ago, Peter Drew said:

You can also press a direction key and whilst holding it down press the opposite key and the telescope will slew at full speed regardless of the initial speed setting. 

 Nice tip. Never knew that!