setting up

[sheffieldblade]

hello again and thanks for the replies i have had so far,

i am trying to set up my celestron 130 slt !!!!! please bare with me as i have a few questions i am sure will be answered,

1, does the scope need to be facing north?

2 i have done a 2 star align after setting my location time ect, ect, first aligning polaris the i used denbhe (is that spelt right) to align my second centered both as requested then enter then just to see if its ok i tell it to go to polaris and it does , but instead of just moving a few inches up and right it goes all the way a full 360, but gets polaris is there something i have done wrong. cheers, martyn:confused:

[Nem94]

I could tell you........ but as you're a blade.......

LOL.

Seriously though mate, I should think someone will be along in a mo.

[formyscope]

what you need to do is to polar align the mount so it is aligned to north (its an equatorial mount yes?) Best if you have a polar scope in the mount to do this without the main telescope attached as its lighter etc.

If no polar scope then I guess you can do it with the telescope attached but make sure the telescope is pointing straight. SOrry if that not too clear. DO a search on the forums here for 'polar aligning' Another member Astro_baby I think has an excellent guide.

[sheffieldblade]

I could tell you........ but as you're a blade.......

LOL.

Seriously though mate, I should think someone will be along in a mo.

na na just cos i am a blade lol

[sheffieldblade]

what you need to do is to polar align the mount so it is aligned to north (its an equatorial mount yes?) Best if you have a polar scope in the mount to do this without the main telescope attached as its lighter etc.

If no polar scope then I guess you can do it with the telescope attached but make sure the telescope is pointing straight. SOrry if that not too clear. DO a search on the forums here for 'polar aligning' Another member Astro_baby I think has an excellent guide.

its a moterised mount not sure if its a equatorial mount but thanks for the reply...........

[formyscope]

Ah just read what the mount is from here:

NexStar 130 SLT Computerized Telescope (item #31145) / Celestron.com - Telescope | Computerized Telescopes | Microscopes | Binoculars | SkyScout

its an Altazimuth mount (which in basic terms means it moves up and down, left and right) an eq mount is different. I've not used that kind of mount before so not sure if the alignment it uses needs to to align the mount to north.

One obvious thing though is that for some parts of the sky it will need to do a full turn as it can't swing the bottom part of the scope completely as the mount gets in the way. It may be the software 'thinks' its doing it correctly.

After it completes the move is is then pointing at the right part of the sky?