letters on nexstar hand control?

[rjkh]

The manual says to slew to the Orion Nebula you can pick it from a list or just enter "M 042" on the hand control, but I can't see any letters on the HC, just numbers. What am I missing?

[johninderby]

Button 1 on the HC has a small M above the number 1 for entering Messier objects.

[rjkh]

Thank you, John, but I have a different (newer?) "Nexstar+ Hand Control with USB", and there's no "M".

[oobydooby]

I imagine you should select "DEEP SKY"  which will probably tell you to use the scroll buttons to select which type of deep sky object you want and you would probably find Messier among them.  Just guessing, but worth a try.

 

Just checked manual online and says

13 minutes ago, rjkh said:

Thank you, John, but I have a different (newer?) "Nexstar+ Hand Control with USB", and there's no "M".

 

[oobydooby]

Oops wanted to quote text but made a booby.

The manual says

"4. CATALOG KEYS: Allow direct access to each of the main catalogs in the database of thousands of objects. Your telescope contains the following catalogs in its database: •Solar System – All 7 planets in our Solar System plus the Moon, Sun and Pluto •Stars – Custom lists of all the brightest stars, double stars, variable stars, constellations and asterisms •Deep Sky – Custom lists of all the best Galaxies, Nebulae and Clusters, as well as the complete Messier and select NGC objects

There you go.

[rjkh]

Yes, thank you again, Ooby, but I know how to read the manual, and I know how to select from the lists, that wasn't the issue..

My question was how do you just input the name of the object as the manual says you can, instead of taking the time to try and find the object by going and scrolling through lengthy lists?

[Cosmic Geoff]

Find the Messier list and enter 057 or whatever number you want.  You don't scroll down a list.

[rjkh]

Thank you Cosmic Geoff for the answer to my question.

Go to the category and just enter the numbers, no letters necessary.

Just what I needed to know. Thank you.