Celestron 8SE handset

[Alastair the prof]

In 2007 I bought a Celestron 8SE telescope.

I have never been able to align it so, during this COVID-19 lock down I decided to give it another go.  I still cannot do it.

Observations so far:

1. I have browsed the web and many people have trodden this path before me but their advice does not seem to work on my hand set. 

2. I cannot enter my position in GPS co-ordinates.  The advice I have seen so far is to use the UNDO key when in the location menu and eventually it will ask you to enter the LAT/LONG but this option never materialises.

3. When I enter London, England (I live about 40 miles East of London) and check the LAT and LONG automatically entered by the hand set, they are clearly wrong.

4. Various suggestions have been made to reset the handset to factory settings.  These do not work for me.  The handset just sits there saying "Initialising...."

Any help would be much appreciated.

Alastair

(interested but losing faith)

[happy-kat]

Welcome, I'm sure you get help with your telescope.

[Cosmic Geoff]

I recollect that with the Nexstar handsets it can be tricky to get to the place where you enter the location, after it has already been set. I remember that there is a point in the setup sequence where hitting UNDO one or more times (or is it BACK) gets you to the right place. You can enter the lat/long - which often defeats newbies - or the nearest city. If you can select LONDON the settings will not be quite right for you, but close enough to get the thing working.  Or try getting to the lat/long setting via the MENU button.  Your handbook should have a menu chart at the back. (downloadable if it is missing).

Try going to: Menu/Scope Setup/Setup Time-site

Note that you may have the "Nexstar" handset rather than the "Nexstar+" and the button labels and menus may vary. Bear this in mind when reading any online instructions.

Once you have it sorted, the Nexstar system is easy to use with an alt-az mount and quite accurate, so don't give up.

Edited June 2, 2020 by Cosmic Geoff
Checked handbook for Nexstar

[Mick H]

On 01/06/2020 at 08:37, Alastair the prof said:

4. Various suggestions have been made to reset the handset to factory settings.  These do not work for me.

To do a factory reset hold 0 key while you power the scope up.