Newbie with a bunch of questions

Well, I had my first modern telescope experience tonight. I have been
wanting to get a real telescope for quite some time, but with the recent
Mars stuff I was able to justify the expense to my wife in terms of
education for the kids. :-)

My telescope is a Celestron C8S-GT (XLT). As I put it together, I was
very impressed with the quality of the components. I know I don't have
a lot of experience to go on, but everything seems very solid and well
made. The tripod is *very* stable and solid.

On my first night I ran into a lot of snags, but I was able to get the
kids a view of the moon. They were *very* impressed, and I have to
admit it was a breathtaking sight. Anyhow, here are the problems I ran
into, so I would welcome any suggestions or feedback. Also, some of
these might help and more newbies jumping on the Mars bandwagon. :-)

1) First of all, I never noticed that there was a cable to connect the
declination part of the mount to the main part of the mount. It took me
a while to figure out that just spinning on the polar axis was not going
to reach all of the sky. :-)

2) Focus really threw me for a loop. According to the manual, the focus
knob has about a 40-turn range. However, I found that everything I
wanted to look at tonight, including stars and planets, was within about
one turn. I spent a lot of time missing that one sweet spot before I
was able to get even the moon in focus.

3) I never did get the Goto to work. I ran into two main problems:

A) Alignement. I was never sure which of these was the most critical:

- leveling
- polar alignement
- lat / long
- time

I used Austin's lat/long, even though I am about 30 miles N of Austin.
Is that critical? How close should the time be? SHould I use a super-
accurate time measure? How about it I am a bit off of N? Also, I can
never keep track of whether we are in daylight savings or not. Daylight
savings is in the winter, right?

B) Finding the guide star. The telescope would slew to some star for
alignment. With the naked eye, I could guess which star I was supposed
to align on. But then, when I looked through either the finder or the
telescope, I would see lots more stars, and I would be unable to discern
the one I wanted.

5) Aligning the finder scope. Is there a trick to this? I understand
the basic process, but my finder has three adjustment screws, and I
never could figure out the combination of moving those to make it go the
way I wanted to for adjustment. I may not have had it mounted correctly

6) Storage. I'm not sure what is the best way to store things. Here
is what I am doing now:
- Remove the counter weight
- Remove the scope and put it in the original box. Do I need to
remove the finder too?
- Remove the mount and put it in the original box (has a nice
padded area)
- Just stick the tripod in the garage
I assume it is best if the scope and mount are in a climate-controlled
area, correct?

Whew! That turned out to be more that I planned to write. Thanks for
your patience if you have read this far. Any and all feedback is
greatly appreciated.

Patrick

Patrick,

From whom did you purchase this telescope? I did not know that Celestron
was shipping these scopes yet.

Bill G.
Austin, TX


"Patrick Free" wrote in message
...
Well, I had my first modern telescope experience tonight. I have been
wanting to get a real telescope for quite some time, but with the recent
Mars stuff I was able to justify the expense to my wife in terms of
education for the kids. :-)

My telescope is a Celestron C8S-GT (XLT). As I put it together, I was
very impressed with the quality of the components. I know I don't have
a lot of experience to go on, but everything seems very solid and well
made. The tripod is *very* stable and solid.

On my first night I ran into a lot of snags, but I was able to get the
kids a view of the moon. They were *very* impressed, and I have to
admit it was a breathtaking sight. Anyhow, here are the problems I ran
into, so I would welcome any suggestions or feedback. Also, some of
these might help and more newbies jumping on the Mars bandwagon. :-)

1) First of all, I never noticed that there was a cable to connect the
declination part of the mount to the main part of the mount. It took me
a while to figure out that just spinning on the polar axis was not going
to reach all of the sky. :-)

2) Focus really threw me for a loop. According to the manual, the focus
knob has about a 40-turn range. However, I found that everything I
wanted to look at tonight, including stars and planets, was within about
one turn. I spent a lot of time missing that one sweet spot before I
was able to get even the moon in focus.

3) I never did get the Goto to work. I ran into two main problems:

A) Alignement. I was never sure which of these was the most critical:

- leveling
- polar alignement
- lat / long
- time

I used Austin's lat/long, even though I am about 30 miles N of Austin.
Is that critical? How close should the time be? SHould I use a super-
accurate time measure? How about it I am a bit off of N? Also, I can
never keep track of whether we are in daylight savings or not. Daylight
savings is in the winter, right?

B) Finding the guide star. The telescope would slew to some star for
alignment. With the naked eye, I could guess which star I was supposed
to align on. But then, when I looked through either the finder or the
telescope, I would see lots more stars, and I would be unable to discern
the one I wanted.

5) Aligning the finder scope. Is there a trick to this? I understand
the basic process, but my finder has three adjustment screws, and I
never could figure out the combination of moving those to make it go the
way I wanted to for adjustment. I may not have had it mounted correctly

6) Storage. I'm not sure what is the best way to store things. Here
is what I am doing now:
- Remove the counter weight
- Remove the scope and put it in the original box. Do I need to
remove the finder too?
- Remove the mount and put it in the original box (has a nice
padded area)
- Just stick the tripod in the garage
I assume it is best if the scope and mount are in a climate-controlled
area, correct?

Whew! That turned out to be more that I planned to write. Thanks for
your patience if you have read this far. Any and all feedback is
greatly appreciated.

Patrick

In article t,
says...
Patrick,

From whom did you purchase this telescope? I did not know that Celestron
was shipping these scopes yet.

Bill G.
Austin, TX


Astronomics:

http://makeashorterlink.com/?Z20422585

By the way, I am in Round Rock if you want to come up and take a look at
it. My email is alex at kilpatrick dot net.

Alex (also Patrick)

Patrick Free wrote in message ...
B) Finding the guide star. The telescope would slew to some star for
alignment. With the naked eye, I could guess which star I was supposed
to align on. But then, when I looked through either the finder or the
telescope, I would see lots more stars, and I would be unable to discern
the one I wanted.


HI:

This is the critical thing. You must align on the correct stars. One
way to make this easier on yourself (assuming you at least know the
bright alignment stars) is to add a zero power finder like a Telrad to
your scope...

Peace,
Rod Mollise

Patrick Free wrote:

2) Focus really threw me for a loop. According to the manual, the focus
knob has about a 40-turn range. However, I found that everything I
wanted to look at tonight, including stars and planets, was within about
one turn.

That's normal. But it will change a bit when you change eyepieces, add
a Barlow, etc.


3) I never did get the Goto to work. I ran into two main problems:

A) Alignement. I was never sure which of these was the most critical:

- leveling
- polar alignement
- lat / long
- time


All are important

I used Austin's lat/long, even though I am about 30 miles N of Austin.

Should be OK

Is that critical? How close should the time be?

Within a few minutes.


How about it I am a bit off of N?

I'd say try for less than five degrees, better if you can get it. Use a
fairly good sized comapass and compensate for magnetic declination.

Also, I can
never keep track of whether we are in daylight savings or not. Daylight
savings is in the winter, right?

No, it is NOW. If you were really off by an hour in time, no way the
GOTO set up would work. DST is from April to Oct.



B) Finding the guide star. The telescope would slew to some star for
alignment. With the naked eye, I could guess which star I was supposed
to align on. But then, when I looked through either the finder or the
telescope, I would see lots more stars, and I would be unable to discern
the one I wanted.

If you were off by an hour, you were no where near the right star. And
... must align the finder first.


5) Aligning the finder scope. Is there a trick to this? I understand
the basic process, but my finder has three adjustment screws, and I
never could figure out the combination of moving those to make it go the
way I wanted to for adjustment. I may not have had it mounted correctly


Best is to do it in the daytime using an object a mile or more away.
Next best is some easily found and recognized object (e.g., the moon and
using one end of the terminator (shadow boundary). Re how to do the
screws, depends on the scope. The manual should tell you.


6) Storage. I'm not sure what is the best way to store things. Here
is what I am doing now:
- Remove the counter weight
- Remove the scope and put it in the original box. Do I need to
remove the finder too?

Not if it will fit in the box with it in place.

- Remove the mount and put it in the original box (has a nice
padded area)
- Just stick the tripod in the garage
I assume it is best if the scope and mount are in a climate-controlled
area, correct?

Yes.

If you are going to use the scope away from home, it would be wise to
invest in a case for the OTA (tube). JMI is a good place to look on line.

Phil

In article , says...

5) Aligning the finder scope. Is there a trick to this? I understand
the basic process, but my finder has three adjustment screws, and I
never could figure out the combination of moving those to make it go the
way I wanted to for adjustment. I may not have had it mounted correctly


Best is to do it in the daytime using an object a mile or more away.
Next best is some easily found and recognized object (e.g., the moon and
using one end of the terminator (shadow boundary). Re how to do the
screws, depends on the scope. The manual should tell you.


Thabks for all the responses, Phil. I appreciate your help.

The manual just says "adjust the screws to align the finder." Not much
help there. It has three screws spaced 120 degrees apart. I had a hard
time correlating which screws to move with which way I was trying to
move the crosshairs. It was kind of a juggling act.

Is the finder something that needs to be adjusted everytime? Or is it
something that can be adjusted once? (I'm beginning to think that
everything on a telescope has to be adjusted every time)

Alex

Patrick Free wrote:

...
6) Storage. I'm not sure what is the best way to store things. Here
is what I am doing now:
- Remove the counter weight
- Remove the scope and put it in the original box. Do I need to
remove the finder too?
- ...
...

Hi Patrick,

Just a short note that can save you some troubles:

Never remove the counterweight before the scope - a heavier
scope may crash-land rotating around the declination axis.
First rotate the counterweight shaft in lowest position,
tighten the clutch (if any), remove the scope and just then
you can remove the counterweight.

Regards,

- Alex

Alex,
think of your finderscope as a riflescope on a 30-30 rifle...if you
want to be able to hit the deer's left ear, then your finderscope has
to be right on target....this is what gives you positive control
of your rifle, AND your scope. (assuming a non- goto). If you use
the moon to sight on, pick a spot like Sea of Crises...even after
using the moon for initial alignment at low power eyepiece, I then
switch to a bright star, center it in main optics, align finder.

I'm not done yet...place in a moderate to high power eyepiece on
same star, and again, center in main optics, and again, align finderscope.
Now you are ready for positive control....don't bump it (the finderscope).
I take the time to do this on each and every setup....for positive
control....2 telrads and a 9 x 60 visual finderscope on my DOB!!
I want that positive control of the scope as to where I am pointing
it!!! Just like you want on your rifle.
FWIW,
Tom W.





Alex Kilpatrick wrote:
In article , says...

5) Aligning the finder scope. Is there a trick to this? I understand
the basic process, but my finder has three adjustment screws, and I
never could figure out the combination of moving those to make it go the
way I wanted to for adjustment. I may not have had it mounted correctly


Best is to do it in the daytime using an object a mile or more away.
Next best is some easily found and recognized object (e.g., the moon and
using one end of the terminator (shadow boundary). Re how to do the
screws, depends on the scope. The manual should tell you.



Thabks for all the responses, Phil. I appreciate your help.

The manual just says "adjust the screws to align the finder." Not much
help there. It has three screws spaced 120 degrees apart. I had a hard
time correlating which screws to move with which way I was trying to
move the crosshairs. It was kind of a juggling act.

Is the finder something that needs to be adjusted everytime? Or is it
something that can be adjusted once? (I'm beginning to think that
everything on a telescope has to be adjusted every time)

Alex

Patrick Free wrote:
Well, I had my first modern telescope experience tonight. I have been
wanting to get a real telescope for quite some time, but with the recent
Mars stuff I was able to justify the expense to my wife in terms of
education for the kids. :-)

My telescope is a Celestron C8S-GT (XLT). As I put it together, I was
very impressed with the quality of the components. I know I don't have
a lot of experience to go on, but everything seems very solid and well
made. The tripod is *very* stable and solid.

On my first night I ran into a lot of snags, but I was able to get the
kids a view of the moon. They were *very* impressed, and I have to
admit it was a breathtaking sight. Anyhow, here are the problems I ran
into, so I would welcome any suggestions or feedback. Also, some of
these might help and more newbies jumping on the Mars bandwagon. :-)

1) First of all, I never noticed that there was a cable to connect the
declination part of the mount to the main part of the mount. It took me
a while to figure out that just spinning on the polar axis was not going
to reach all of the sky. :-)

2) Focus really threw me for a loop. According to the manual, the focus
knob has about a 40-turn range. However, I found that everything I
wanted to look at tonight, including stars and planets, was within about
one turn. I spent a lot of time missing that one sweet spot before I
was able to get even the moon in focus.

3) I never did get the Goto to work. I ran into two main problems:

A) Alignement. I was never sure which of these was the most critical:

- leveling
- polar alignement
- lat / long
- time

I used Austin's lat/long, even though I am about 30 miles N of Austin.
Is that critical? How close should the time be? SHould I use a super-
accurate time measure? How about it I am a bit off of N? Also, I can
never keep track of whether we are in daylight savings or not. Daylight
savings is in the winter, right?

B) Finding the guide star. The telescope would slew to some star for
alignment. With the naked eye, I could guess which star I was supposed
to align on. But then, when I looked through either the finder or the
telescope, I would see lots more stars, and I would be unable to discern
the one I wanted.

5) Aligning the finder scope. Is there a trick to this? I understand
the basic process, but my finder has three adjustment screws, and I
never could figure out the combination of moving those to make it go the
way I wanted to for adjustment. I may not have had it mounted correctly

6) Storage. I'm not sure what is the best way to store things. Here
is what I am doing now:
- Remove the counter weight
- Remove the scope and put it in the original box. Do I need to
remove the finder too?
- Remove the mount and put it in the original box (has a nice
padded area)
- Just stick the tripod in the garage
I assume it is best if the scope and mount are in a climate-controlled
area, correct?

Whew! That turned out to be more that I planned to write. Thanks for
your patience if you have read this far. Any and all feedback is
greatly appreciated.

Patrick

Patrick,

I also rec'd one of the new Celestron Mounts and agree it appears pretty
solid.

The manual does not give the steps in the order I would give them.
here's my suggested order for setting up things.

Assemble the tripod, mount, CW, and scope tube before dusk. Make sure
the head points pretty much north and the one back leg points south.
Attach the visual components (visual back, diag, and finder)
Install your widest angle EP (i.e.26 or 32)
Loosen the RA and Dec clamps, and aim the scope at a phone pole or a
lone tree a ways away. Look through the scope and center the top of the
pole or tree in the ep.
Make the finder match it.
Level the tripod pretty accurately.
Set the latitude adjuster as close to your latitude as you can.
Wait till the first few identifiable stars appear. You should have a
handle on the brightest stars in the sky for your location/ time/
visibility, etc.
Turn the scope on.
Enter your real lattitude and longitude. There are severa sources on the
net that can provide this.
Select the method that allows you to pick the stars to align on (I
believe it's Auto 3 Star Alignment).
Pick one of the bright stars you can identify from the list. Use the
arrows to center teh star in the finder, and then in the EP.
Repeat with the other two identifiable bright stars.
This has worked well for me and the accuracy was great.

Good luck and clear skies (hey, it could happen!!)

Pat