Astronomy

[Keanumoreira]

HE, HE, have you tried simply pointing and clicking randomly to see what pops up, you never know what you might find.

 

Yes....it didn't work.

[Illiad86]

lol what's the problem? Did you set the date, time, location (daylight savings remember) on the hand controller? Is an alt az mount or an equatorial? If it's equatorial, make sure the mount is pointed north and on Polaris (or the "south star" if in southern hemisphere). Make sure the scope is reasonably leveled too. After that, you gotta know a star to do alignment. We have an equatorial, it's a little different on alt az

 

What kind do you have exactly?

[Keanumoreira]

lol what's the problem? Did you set the date, time, location (daylight savings remember) on the hand controller? Is an alt az mount or an equatorial? If it's equatorial, make sure the mount is pointed north and on Polaris (or the "south star" if in southern hemisphere). Make sure the scope is reasonably leveled too. After that, you gotta know a star to do alignment. We have an equatorial, it's a little different on alt az

 

What kind do you have exactly?

 

Those are the problems. One, we have no idea what model we have. Two,we have no idea how to set the autostar because we can't find the North one, which star is for the Western Hemisphere?

[Illiad86]

lol, what does it say on the tube? Is it an Orion? Celestron? Meade? There are other brands but those are the big three.Somewhere on the tube it should say what the focal length is and other things. Can you take a picture of it? My boyfriend and I can tell ya what you gotta do if we can see what it is lol.

 

When your looking up in the sky one night...look North and find the Little Dipper. The last star of the handle is Polaris, the North Star.

 

Here, this program is awesome. You set your location and time, and it shows you how the sky moves in your area. Shows the planets and galaxies and common stars :smile: It helped us tremendously...I know the constellations already but you need to know the star names with the computerized ones because you have to align the scope to the sky...otherwise it doesn't track correctly and you'll lose what you are seeing.

 

http://www.stellarium.org/

[Keanumoreira]

lol, what does it say on the tube? Is it an Orion? Celestron? Meade? There are other brands but those are the big three.Somewhere on the tube it should say what the focal length is and other things. Can you take a picture of it? My boyfriend and I can tell ya what you gotta do if we can see what it is lol.

 

When your looking up in the sky one night...look North and find the Little Dipper. The last star of the handle is Polaris, the North Star.

 

Here, this program is awesome. You set your location and time, and it shows you how the sky moves in your area. Shows the planets and galaxies and common stars :smile: It helped us tremendously...I know the constellations already but you need to know the star names with the computerized ones because you have to align the scope to the sky...otherwise it doesn't track correctly and you'll lose what you are seeing.

 

http://www.stellarium.org/

 

Oh no we already know that, its a MEADE, put there are several types of MEADE telescopes, thats the problem. Ours is a Ds2000 something, we think it could be a Ds2114, but we can't tell for sure. We've looked on the manual, and the box which by now we've lost, so its not going very well.

 

Update: Ok, here are the MEADE types.

ETX-80

ETX-70

ETX-60

DS-2102MAK

DS-2090MAK

DSX-125

DSX-90

DS-2130

Ds-2114(Which we think is ours.)

Ds-2102

DS-2080

DS-2076

DS-2070

Ds-2060

[Illiad86]

http://www.meade.com/starterscopes/ds_series.html

 

Which one of these is it?

 

The manual can tell you how to align it. You gotta know your stars for the computerized ones.

 

Meade's also got these instructional videos, if you're like me, seeing how it's done is easier than reading how it's done :smile:

 

http://www.meade.com/educational/ds%20videos/qt_chap1.html

 

Do you live in a city? I live in a city of 50,000 and it's just horrible to see lots of things...you gotta go out in the country where there's not a lot of light. This can help ya out to see if it's even worth setting it up and looking at anything. Planets seem to be alright in cities, but the galaxies and such are hard to see.

 

http://cleardarksky.com/csk/

 

 

Tonight is supposed to be good :biggrin: Should have some pictures up late tonight :smile:

[Keanumoreira]

http://www.meade.com/starterscopes/ds_series.html

 

Which one of these is it?

 

The manual can tell you how to align it. You gotta know your stars for the computerized ones.

 

Meade's also got these instructional videos, if you're like me, seeing how it's done is easier than reading how it's done :smile:

 

http://www.meade.com/educational/ds%20videos/qt_chap1.html

 

Do you live in a city? I live in a city of 50,000 and it's just horrible to see lots of things...you gotta go out in the country where there's not a lot of light. This can help ya out to see if it's even worth setting it up and looking at anything. Planets seem to be alright in cities, but the galaxies and such are hard to see.

 

http://cleardarksky.com/csk/

 

 

Tonight is supposed to be good :biggrin: Should have some pictures up late tonight :smile:

 

We know ours is a relector, those fat telescopes, and its part of the Ds2000 series, so that narrows it down to only two telescopes, the Ds-2114, or the Ds-2130. But which one is ours?

[Illiad86]

Measure the diameter of the mirror in front, that's the one you have.You either have a 4.5" or a 5.1" mirror. But, it doesn't matter, that series all use the same mount and all align the same. Check out the videos, they can help a ton. Plus, there's plenty on Youtube and such :smile: After ya do it a couple times, you'll be a pro :wink:

[Netwit2008]

My word Girl! Those are BEAUTIFUL!! I'm not as fancy as you. I'd LOVE to take night sky shots. I've tried a couple of times, but all I get is blackness and a small white circle, lol My lens is not strong enough to take that good, at that range.

 

Kudos for simply gorgeous shots! :thumbsup:

[Illiad86]

awww thankies :D Do you have a SLR camera? Try taking longer exposures :smile: You can get a lot of stars with a 35mm lens if you do exposure times just right. I'm not sure what though...our camera is hooked up to our scope lol so it's like having a 2800mm lens :tongue: