Need help with my 1st telescope!

[Mehtevas]

Hello there, Stargazers! 

I recently bought my first telescope, the Celestron SLT 130 GoTo. Last night the skies were clear and I was waiting for the Moon and Venus to be visible. 
They showed up and I tried the telescope for the first time.
The GoTo feature didn't work, but I guess it just need a software update? 
So instead of using the GoTo(Sky-align), I placed the scope manually and got the view of the Moon and its details through both the 25mm and 9mm lenses that came with the telescope. When it came to Venus, I couldn't see anything. 
I did get it in my scope 3-4 times using both the 25mm and 9mm (I have no Barlow lense), but Venus appeared like a faint star. It wasn't more than a bright star viewed through the SLT 130.... And I'm 100% sure that my scope saw directly on Venus, but I couldn't see the round-ballshaped planet, only bright light. Then I tried to steady my focuser, with no happy result. When it was focused the best it could, I still saw this glimpse of light. If I tried to focus too much, I suddenly saw the mirrors in my telescope..? (Keep in mind I'm a beginner and completely new to all this). 

 

So I hope you guys can enlighten me on this: 
Why is it that I can view the moon, its surface, all the details, but I couldn't view anything of Venus - but a bright light. Does it have anything to do with collimation? 

Wish you all a great day. 
Sincerely, Mehtevas, Norway. 

[Anne S]

You normally need to align the telescope first. That's different from a goto. Unless you've got a Starsense on your scope that will do it for you, you need to choose an alignment method from the handset and follow the instructions as they come up.

The telescope needs to map the sky as it won't know which way it's pointing.

I used to own a Nexstar 8SE which works much the same way.

As to Venus, you normally see a phase, like a small moon, depending on how the sun illuminates the surface. You will know when you're pointing at it. To check if the scope is collimated, you need to defocus on a star and see if the rings that show around it are the same all way around. There should be some pictures online showing it.

Anne

[Mehtevas]

I couldn't get the Sky-Align to work, that's why I had to find both manually. The only thing the handset said was something about "initializing", and "press back or turn off your...." I'll try to update its software so I can use it later. 

Ok, the only 2 bright objects that were in the horizon was the Moon and Venus, and when I got my telescope to focus on Venus it just showed up as a very bright star. I'll try your method of collimation later though. 
Thanks for your fast reply, appreciate it!

[ronin]

You will need to supply data to the handset first, your Longitude and Latitude in Norway and the Timezone in term of UTC. I suspect you will be UTC+1. Do this as a custom location. Make sure you supply the required values for the right parameter, many supply Latitude first because we talk of Lat and Long, the scope likely wants it the other way round.

When the scope powers up it will ask the Date and Time, Date is in the US format. Then it will ask if DST is applicable, I suspect it is in Norway so Yes or On is going to the the answer to that. For the time it wants whatever your watch/clock says. Do not try to outthink the software by compensating yourself of DST or your timezone, people try and it usually goes wrong.

Level the mount and foir the sake of it level the scope and aim it North - True North not magnetic/compass North.

Should be ready now for the goto alignment, try the 2 star align. Not 100% sure of Celectrons it may make some movement to the requested star or of may required you to make all the movement. Whatever it does you will have to center the star and press Enter. For the second star the scope should make the movement, at the end of its slew you again center the star and press Enter. By rights that should be it (famous last words).

Celestrons do have some almost unknow stars for aligning on. I think they just made a list up of anything that was Mag 6 or brighter, so a lot.

There is an option whereby you select the 2 alignment stars and if you know even a few reasonably spaced stars that is likely a better way. Do not pick Polaris.

If I recall with the Sky Align you aim at and centre 3 significant stars and the software then determines the map of the sky it is to use. But it still needs to data as mentioned.

[Ricochet]

When focusing, the object is focused when it is at its smallest. If the object starts getting larger then you have gone past the point of best focus and are turning the focuser the wrong way. 

If you have not aligned your finder scope with the telescope it is also possible that while the finder was pointing at venus the actual telescope may have been pointing at a nearby star. 

[Mr niall]

Are you sure sure it was Venus, I just checked last night (used Oslo) for you, was it here (below?)

 

[Anne S]

3 hours ago, ronin said:

 

Should be ready now for the goto alignment, try the 2 star align. Not 100% sure of Celectrons it may make some movement to the requested star or of may required you to make all the movement.

For 2 star alignment you manually move it to the star selects in the handset, centre and sync then it gives you a list if suitable 2nd stars which you choose and it skews to. I always found it preferable to auto align as you had to manually move th scope to 3 bright stars one after the other which gets tedious!

5 hours ago, Mehtevas said:

I couldn't get the Sky-Align to work, that's why I had to find both manually. The only thing the handset said was something about "initializing", and "press back or turn off your...." I'll try to update its software so I can use it later. 

Ok, the only 2 bright objects that were in the horizon was the Moon and Venus, and when I got my telescope to focus on Venus it just showed up as a very bright star. I'll try your method of collimation later though. 
Thanks for your fast reply, appreciate it!

Do you  mean your handset didn't boot up properly? If so, I would contact the shop you bought it from. If it was secondhand, I would certainly check the software version. Also there used to be a Nexstar Yahoo group that I used to belong to. Lots of useful info there together with lists of good star combinations for alignment, when you get that far. Mind, I sold my Nexstar several years ago so I'm getting a bit hazy on how it worked.

As said above, if it does start up properly you need to go in and choose a suitable city and time zone. Be warned, there are mostly big cities in the handset, there isn't a single one in Wales! I had to put in latitude and longtitude all the time.

You do need to aim your finderscope in the daytime on something static. You'll need it to tell you if the scope is pointing at the star you're trying to align to,

Anne

[rockystar]

I'm with Mr Niall about Venus - I think you've found a star managed to focus nicelly. Venus will be an obvious phased disk