MG1962
Unregistered
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2006
- Messages
- 17,252
My darling wife suprised me with a new telescope. A Nexstar SE8 goto. After some false starts with weather, finally got to put the beast through its paces. The optics are truely outstanding, and everything went together with a minimum of fuss.
We went with the goto function because I moved to the northern hemisphere a few years ago and at nearly 50, way to old to learn a whole new sky. Coming from a history of big dobs, the point and click guiding of the scope is total luxury. I even managed to drive my scope with a laptop.
For experienced observers the alignment process would not present much in the way of challenges. Newer uses, needing to learn the concept of how the sky works may need a couple run throughs before getting the most out of the scopes computer.
Polaris was first light, followed by M51 and M31, although under a dreadful sky and 2/3rd full Moon I was still able to tell what I was looking. I can only imagine what they will be like under a dark sky.
We went with the goto function because I moved to the northern hemisphere a few years ago and at nearly 50, way to old to learn a whole new sky. Coming from a history of big dobs, the point and click guiding of the scope is total luxury. I even managed to drive my scope with a laptop.
For experienced observers the alignment process would not present much in the way of challenges. Newer uses, needing to learn the concept of how the sky works may need a couple run throughs before getting the most out of the scopes computer.
Polaris was first light, followed by M51 and M31, although under a dreadful sky and 2/3rd full Moon I was still able to tell what I was looking. I can only imagine what they will be like under a dark sky.
However, from my experience helping others with their telescopes, I have found that the Nexstar goto systems do work rather well.