The Moon

[Amanda234]

Hey everyone!

So I have been doing pretty well aligning my new Celestron 6SE and finding star clusters and stars that are visible from where I am! I even saw a shooting star through the lens which I’m sure is common but was the most amazing thing to me!

Last night I encountered an issue and I’m thinking it’s the lens size I have ? The moon was very visible by eyesight, the craters and all. I was able to use the moon as one of my celestial objects to align the scope... and then when I would slew to the moon after the telescope was properly aligned I was unable to see anything but a gray fog. I was able to see other stars pretty okay but I had to work the next morning and didn’t mess around too much with it. I added the moon filter and that didn’t help. I’m not sure if it was the weather, or my lens, or a silly error of mine. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, as always

[sdbodin]

Sounds like you just missed the moon's disc, the eyepiece is seeing some stray light from the brilliant object. A slight touch on the slow motion one way or the other would center it. Happens to me all the time too. BTW, I don't use the moon for an alignment position, it is too big, moves too fast, and the algorithms stored in out amateur scope's memory are not accurate enough to calculate the exact position.

Good luck, have fun,
Steve

[JayTee]

Also, could it possibly have been dew forming on your corrector plate upfront? One moment you don't have any the next moment you do.

Cheers,
JT

[Graeme1858]

My guess is that Steve's suggestion is right. You saw stars with clarity, were you able to slew to other targets other than the Moon accurately?

I've seen a fair number of shooting stars but I have never seen one in the eye piece! (saw an airplane once (that made me jump!)) Sounds like a right treat!

Regards

Graeme

[Ruud]

I was able to use the moon as one of my celestial objects to align the scope... and then when I would slew to the moon after the telescope was properly aligned I was unable to see anything but a gray fog

Which of the alignment methods did you use? Solar system, One Star, Two star, Three star? With Solar system you can use the Moon, with the others you can't. And when you use Solar system align you can use only one object. It's kind of confusing.

Solar system alignment using the Moon works, but it's not the most precise method. It's tricky to centre the Moon accurately. On the other hand the method is fast and you can't mistake the Moon for anything else.

In my NexStar manual I've bookmarked the methods to get better pointing precision. I also have two tables with the stars you can use for the various alignment methods (one PDF and the other Excel; the latter you can sort and filter). You may find this useful.

It's all here:
    

NexstarManualBookmarked.pdf

(3.29 MiB) Downloaded 64 times

    

NexStar Alignment Stars.pdf

(74.79 KiB) Downloaded 70 times

    

AlignmentStarsNexstar.xlsx

(48.2 KiB) Downloaded 66 times

[mikemarotta]

... I even saw a shooting star through the lens which I’m sure is common but was the most amazing thing to me!

People do report it. You spend enough time looking and you get lucky. It is not at all common. It is, all in all, uncommon. Congratulations.

[Lady Fraktor]

I would agree that you where likely just off the edge of the Moon and were seeing stray light.
Turn the movement rate to 3 or 4 and move the telescope towards the brightness.

[KingNothing13]

I agree with everyone - don't use the Moon to align your scope (I do not have your scope, nor have I ever used it) but you shouldn't use the moon or planets to align - too "close" for lack of a better term.

As the others have said, you were probably just off the moon and seeing the glow.

[helicon]

There is a strong glow surrounding the moon that is evident at the eyepiece as you get closer to the object the brightness increases.

[pakarinen]

Sidenote: Meteors (shooting stars) will zip through your field of view very quickly unless maybe it's a fireball. Satellites will cross the field at a slower pace. I've observed only a handful of meteors through my scopes, but *lots* of satellites.

[gregl]

When I align my 8SE, I do a two-star alignment with Polaris and whatever is about 90 degrees to the east and about 45 degrees off the horizon. Seems to work OK for me. Also, paying attention to the slewing direction is important because the spur gears in the SE mount have backlash, which will affect accuracy. There is a backlash correction routine you can run that helps with that. The manual that Ruud posted covers that. You can also get lots of good info about the SE on this site: https://nexstarsite.com