First Light: Meade 105

[CowboyJane]

Hi

Having unpacked the birthday present and duly assembled it, Wednesday night was spent getting to grips with the Meade ETX 105.

Firstly, the negative bits: I have not yet managed to get the GOTO working properly. Surprise, surprise....

I've put in the coordinates for my part of Bournemouth: 50 44 N, and 01 53 W. I said no to daylight settings. I put the scope in the correct home position for the alignment (there's 2 home positions with this.) Could it be the time zone...not sure what else I can do - except practise. Anyone out there got any tips on ETX alignment?

The batteries don't last as long as the guy in the shop said. I was told 54 hours use. Yeah... I put in 8 new batteries and after abt. 5 hours use, it says the batteries are at 60%.

After wrestling with the GOTO, I gave up and just searched manually. Saw a very small, distant grey Jupiter, with 2 faint darker bands, with the supplied 26mm eyepiece. (I've since gone out and bought a 13mm eye piece, and the guy in the shop swapped the series 4000 2x Barlow for one which fitted the 105 better.)

I've had great views of the moon. Waited up for a glorious looking Orion to swing into the south east at 3am ish (- hey, I'm a beginner, I only know my way around the big constellations!), and had a good look at Orions belt and below. Found the Orion Nebula for the first time - wasn't sure at first, but the star I thought was a white dot did separate out into four dots (Trapezium) and then had 3 other stars going down to abt. 4 oclock (Theta-2 Orionis).

It was worth staying up for. I just wish I could get the GOTO sorted. & I need some more eyepieces too. I think the highest I can go is 9mm - is that right? Is there a 7mm eyepiece? The 105 is an f/14. It's a nice scope - although I can feel the pull of a 6 or 8" in the not too distant future, once I've found my way around a bit more. But I guess that's par for the course...

Sue

[Doc]

Hello Sue.

Thankyou for sharing your first light with us.

Isn't Orion one spectacular constellation. There's so much to see in it. Very impressive to split the trapezium into 4 stars and you are correct in your assumption that you saw Orions belt. Did you see the nebulas surrounding this, to the eye it looks like a white cloud, if so thats M42.

As for Jupiter did you see it's moons?

As for the go-to I'll leave that to the go-to experts.

Well done.

[Psychobilly]

Hi Sue.

Why did you say no to daylight saving?

We're still in BST (GMT +1) so the effect is the scope is one hour out which is 15 degrees... in RA

Also did you go through the calibrate and train drives routines.These are very importatnt with the ETX if your going to get anywhere near decent goto's.

Also decent co-alignment of the finder and main scopes is important as is proper centering of the alignment stars. If you adjust the focus to form a "donught" mode then its easier to estimate when you have the star centered.

But I think the biggest problem last night was the daylight saving error..

Billy...

[zero]

Hi Sue,

Firstly, if you have an ETX105PE (with the coloured tube) then you need to rotate the tube all the way round anticlockwise as this is the correct home position.

You are best off not using coordinates for your location, but the nearest city -even if it's a long way away. The alignment process refines your location in relation to the corrections you make when centering the 2 alignment stars. It's the most reliable way it works. Check the time is exactly as your watch shows it, and that daylight savings is Yes.

It is worth training the drives in daylight, but it not essential. ETX's usually point straight out of the box if the alignments done correctly. assuming yours is a PE. it's worth calibrating the North sensor. This is done partway through an alignment. Just follow the intructions on the handset.

The 105 was the best ETX made in my opinion (and I see alot of ETX's). I hope you enjoy it. It looks to be clear tonight...

Oh, and ditch the AA's. A good recheargable battery pack is a must.

Steve

[Psychobilly]

Is that a decent external 12V rechargable pack rather than internal rechargable AA 's...?

[CowboyJane]

So we're on daylight savings now? And then I say no when the hour goes back? Looks like I got that the wrong way...? :laughing3:

Yes, I know about the home position being rotated anti-clockwise - for automatic alignment. And then with an added 180 degrees clockwise to line up with the on-switch panel, for the 1 star/2 star alignment.

Gonna try with the right daylight setting - and hope its that simple.

Sue

[Psychobilly]

BST changes back to GMT on the last Sunday in October

http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.co.uk/

Billy...

[zero]

Is that a decent external 12V rechargable pack rather than internal rechargable AA 's...?

Yep. Internal AA's normally run at 1.2v each, scope's don't like 'em.

[continuum]

Hi Sue

Missed your original post so you alraedy have some of the answers, but it's well worth looking at the Weasner website ( www.weasner.com/etx). It's full of information - some good -some not so good, but over all very useful.

There is alos the www.meade4M .com forum website.

Hope this helps