wrote in message
ups.com...
I got for xmas a Meade ETX-70AT telescope...

Well, no luck with the aligment process. Follow every step found in dif
web sites, and nothing... =( I dont want to give up and leave the
telescope in the garage (or ebay!!)

I do have a few problems... I dont know anything about the stars (where
they are in space, names, etc).

I do level my telescope right, and is poniting to north and also try
with my true north. Enter also the right date and a very acurate time
into my autostar. But when I am doing the easy align (or well the
Autostar does it), well, it moves to a certain location but I dont see
that "bright star" that I am supose to see (even if i move around). I
am in the city so I am thinking that may be that could be a reason I
dont see that bright star (all look the same to me)

Since I dont know that much, well I'm not even sure if is point to the
right location (or close to it).

My questions are :

Where do I start?
I'd suggest buying the current months copy of any astronomy magazine, or a
device called a 'planisphere'. The former will have in the centre pages, a
picture showing the night sky, with the main stars named. The latter, has
a 'all year' version of the same data, available by setting the date and
time round the outside. These show only the brightest stars, ad really
should allow you to identify stars. Look for 'patterns'. For instance, the
three stars forming the belt of Orion, are in northern skies very visible.
You can then see Rigel 'below' these to the south west, and Betelgeuse
about the same distance above these to the north east. If the scope says
it wants to point at Aldeberan, you may be able to identify the 'blob' of
stars forming the Pleiades, and find Aldeberan between these and
Betelgeuse. You are really only looking for about a couple of dozen of the
really brightest stars, and a few 'famous' extras (like the Pleiades). If
you still cannot identify any of the stars, then you should perhaps see if
there is a planetarium near you (these give a really good idea of how the
skies look, and may allow you to identify some of the main ones), or a
astronomy club, where somebody may be able to help.

I am trying to use xephem or the software that came with the telscope
so see if I can identify the stars, but, I still find "complex" how to
read the "sky view" map.
I was able to see the moon and all I can say is WOW.
On most packages you can 'turn down' the star brightness. You only want
the brightest few dozen displayed, to give a real representation of what
you are likely to see from a town site. Though these packages are very
good, they show so many stars, that they can confuse, and for the initial
searching, a simpler 'paper' form that can be taken outside (like the
planisphere), may well work better.
Are you sure you are putting in the time zone right?. The star should be
fairly obvious. The likely reasons for it to be pointing in the wrong
direction, are getting the time zone wrong (the commonest - usually
getting the correction the 'wrong way' for this), getting the magnetic
variation wrong (again reversing it), getting the location wrong (go to
the 'heavens above' web site, and select your town nme from the data
base - it'll display the latitude and longitude close enough to work).

Good Luck.