Celestron goto question

[Andy38416]

This will undoubtably be a silly question. But I wondered if there is anyway to limit the goto settings on the Nexstar handset?

what I mean by this is I set up my goto alignment on my 8se last night, but when observing and selecting things on the handset to look at the scope kept trying to find things behind my house (which is where they correctly are at the time), I just wondered if there is anyway to set your view based on what you can see? Just to stop me selecting things I can’t see through houses etc.

 

im guessing just learn the night sky more, but I thought I would ask in case there is something I missed.

thanks

[Robindonne]

I guess thats not going to work.   It does skip the “below horizon” object, but not the “behind houses” objects.   The best way to solve this is probably use your smartphone with an app like skysafari(free).  That way you can already see if slewing to a particular object makes any sense

[Andy38416]

That’s what I thought. This was first night observing with my new 8se and wasn’t expecting it to align first time, but it did no problems. I have the WiFi portal to use the app but I find it easier to align with the hand controller. I was 99% sure there isn’t a way, I guess it’s about learning and using some decent apps like you say.

[Robindonne]

4 minutes ago, Andy38416 said:

That’s what I thought. This was first night observing with my new 8se and wasn’t expecting it to align first time, but it did no problems. I have the WiFi portal to use the app but I find it easier to align with the hand controller. I was 99% sure there isn’t a way, I guess it’s about learning and using some decent apps like you say.

Well i dont know how It works with a celestron set, but once you have the paid pro version of skysafari, (and it’s really at the cost of a cheap eyepiece) and connected with the mount, you’ll start to hate the standard handcontroller.   With the skysafari app you just move around the sky, zoom in or out, tap on the object on the screen and the mount will follow you to that object.   No more alfabetic scrolling through the database.  

[Cosmic Geoff]

Just look at the object's RA and Dec. You will soon learn what objects are likely to be viewable or non-viewable at any given time.

[Starwatcher2001]

19 hours ago, Robindonne said:

Well i dont know how It works with a celestron set...

Agree, and another vote for Skysafari Pro, which  works beautifully with my Celestron NexStar 925. It's well worth the £19 I paid for it last month. Initial alignment seems more intuitive, and exploring particular constellations is a lot more fun as you'll find yourself looking at objects that were not on your list, but that happened to be close.

Observing from my back garden, I've got the house to the south, and trees north, but there's lots to see in the portion of the sky I've got access to.

Edited to add: There's some "in app purchases" such as LiveSky and extended databases aimed more at professionals, you don't need to purchase these. The telescope control already comes with the PRO version.

Edited August 1, 2020 by Starwatcher2001

[michael8554]

Many PC based Planetariums will allow you to enter a Custom Horizon in the All Sky view, that will show where trees, houses, and other obstructions are.

Michael.