Re: Poor man's GO TO?

adm wrote:
> "Holly, in France" <me@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
> news:3u0tnbFv40uaU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> robert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
>>>
>>> Trouble is i just bought an ETX with goto and that requires knowing
>>> star names...Somthing i dont know :(
>>
>> Once my Nextar is level, roughly pointing North and long/lat
>> date/time etc are set, the goto system gets close enough to the
>> named star for me to be able to centre it - does yours not do
>> something like that? The stars it uses are always bright and easy
>> enough to find with a chart anyway. Once I've done all that though
>> it still doesn't goto very accurately, and no-one seems to have been
>> able to work out quite why. Tracks perfectly though, once I have
>> found what I am looking for....
>
> On my LX200GPS, you need to be careful it doesn't reset its location
> and timezone to default (which it seems to sometimes) and also make
> sure that the daylight savings option is set correctly.

I think the last time we had a serious go at this (with the astronomer
from the USA who was looking for the toilet seat!), we concluded that it
was probably the time element that was causing the problem. What was
most interesting was that she, who has a great deal of astronomy
experience, and I, who have virtually none, both came up with exactly
the same result independently. It has happened to me after various quick
attempts, and to her after one very long careful session. It seems to be
out by 'a bit', I can't remember how much exactly, but not enough for it
to be out by an hour, IYSWIM. Which might suggests we have a long/lat
error, but we don't think we do.....

As long as
> this is taken care of (assuming fairly well levelled and pointing
> North in the first place) it always gets the alignment starts in the
> finder and then GOTO is really rather good. It always seems to use
> the only really bright star in that area of the sky as well, so
> there's not much difficulty centering the right one.

Yes, quite.

> I use the High Preicision Pointing option as well, which slews to a
> nearby star to the object you are looking for first, allows you to
> centre that exactly, then slews to the object.

Ah, that sounds like a good idea. I don't *think* the Nextar has
anything like that. If it has I haven't found it yet :-)

Thanks again

--
Holly, in France
Holiday Home in Dordogne
http://la-plaine.chez.tiscali.fr/

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Poor mans GO TO?
    ... > star names...Somthing i dont know:( ... Once my Nextar is level, roughly pointing North and long/lat date/time ... the goto system gets close enough to the named star for me ...
    (uk.sci.astronomy)
  • Re: First time telescope buyer
    ... >planet they are seeing and this knowlage came via sky maps and watching the ... >Dob's at something I want to view or within a star hop of it as nither my ... >Babylon 8 nor my Stargazer have anykind of goto on them I am the goto! ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: NexStar 8i help please
    ... don't think that it will properly set the scope up for accurate goto. ... If you do a two star alignment, then goto should work well for deep sky ... I am using their "quick align" I think it is called. ...
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  • Re: How do you aim a telescope
    ... relating a star map to the sky and a telescope. ... Star Atlas, which can still be purchased online. ... The Setting Circles on Your Telescope. ... Then, IMHO, goto is the best solution. ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Re: First time telescope buyer
    ... Well I have a goto telescope, but I always align on the wrong two stars so I ... > better tool than a dob. ... > everything using star charts, books, star hopping. ... a GOTO scope can do what a dob does and more. ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)