Celestron alignment stars

[Demonperformer]

Don't know if this will be of any use to anyone, but ...

The problem I have found with Celestron's alignment stars is that many of the names have meant not-a-lot to me. Which is alright a lot of the time, but I get annoyed when Capella, which is a good 9 degrees above the horizon at the time, is missed off the list because it is too low, and have to guess which ones are within my field of view.

So I decided to produce a spreadsheet, listing all the alignment stars (as far as I can tell), their brightness, bayer designation and RA hour and Dec degrees (both to one decimal place) to help find them on a star map. Now I have instant access to those well-known stars Menkalinan, Algenib and Nunki:eek:.

I have attached it for anyone who may be interested.

BTW: this is the from the SE database, but I would guess the alignment star lists are pretty standard across different models

[brantuk]

If it's a "gps" scope then you don't need to know names or positions of stars for alignment. Just point it at any three bright objects and hit align and it can work the rest out for you. Then it goes straight to any selected object very accurately

[carastro]

Well I don't have a GPS Mount and do indeed have the problems described by Demonperformer and will find this very useful. As you say, there are some really bright well known stars up there that get left off the list only to have loads of stars I have never heard of.

I was thinking about compling something similar myself and this has saved me a lot of work.

Thanks

Carole

[Demonperformer]

B: In common with others who have posted threads on SGL, I have found the "three star align" process to be less than reliable - I have found using two named stars to be far more reliable and therefore use that. I take it your experience is different, so I would guess you do not fit into the "anyone who may be interested" category.

C: Good to know someone found it useful.

[yesyes]

Which Celestron system is this from? Are these the stars in the NexStar?

So far I usually just scroll through the list and see which name tickles my fancy at that moment, not having heard of any of them before. Usually the first few are found to be behind a tree or bush when slewed to that star. So on to the next unfamiliar name... ;-))

[carastro]

Yes, I started to look at the list in more detail and found many of them on the southern hemisphere, so if this is the Nexstar list it's no wonder I didn't recognise many of the names.

Haven't had a chance to compare yet.

Carole

[yesyes]

Would there be any way to project these stars in, say, Stellarium or CdS, so that I can see where they should be in the sky?

[adamsp123]

Is this any help?

C8stars

[yesyes]

This seems rather old. I have definitely more stars in the list than that.

[Demonperformer]

Yes, I started to look at the list in more detail and found many of them on the southern hemisphere,

Yes, as I was doing a list, I thought I would extend it to cover the southern hemisphere too, by changing my location from North to South. The two final columns (N & S) show which stars appear in which (or both).

[Pauly]

I've had exactly the same issues with Celestron 3 star align. A bit hit and miss. I shall endeavour to make good use of your list, thanks DP. By the way, I see from your sig that you have a pair of binos in need of attention. Check these bods, they are in Selsey

Optical Repairs - Fix Binocular repairs, Telescopes repairs, Ophthalmic

I've not used them yet, but I've spoken to the guy on the phone regarding a pair of mine that are damaged and he seems to know his stuff.

[Demonperformer]

Thanks for the link ... they have sat in a case doing nothing for a long time now. You may just have nudged me into getting something done about them.