Tag Archives: errors

Best alignment process for the Celestron NexStar 8SE

PolyWogg.ca
October 22 2017

I’ve blogged about my challenges and successes (Finally learning with the Celestron NexStar 8SE and Solving alignment problems with the Celestron NexStar 8SE), so I thought I would do a quick summary of the proper way to align my scope in case it helps others.

Here are my “four” options, although the first two are obviously tongue-in-cheek:

A. Give up

Either get a different scope or take up knitting…I actually thought about both.

B. Do it wrong for five years

Or until two people help you figure out why it’s not working (see above two posts).

C. Regular Auto Two-Star alignment – Short version

I’ll give the full write-up below with all the bells and whistles, but this will just be the short process steps.

  1. Setup tripod;
  2. ** If you are using a wedge, add wedge plate underneath;
  3. ** If you are using vibration suppression pads, set them under the legs;
  4. Add mount/arm;
  5. Attach Optical Tube Assembly (OTA), and then retighten the supporting plate on the tripod with the new weight on it;
  6. Plug in the power source;.
  7. Turn on scope, lower tube to a horizontal position, turn off scope;
  8. Level the scope;
  9. Turn on scope;
  10. Align spotter scope or TelRad or red-dot finder;
  11. Press enter to start alignment;
  12. Change to AUTO TWO-STAR;
  13. Hit BACK/UNDO to go back to CUSTOM SITE, enter GPS COORDINATES;
  14. Enter time, date, DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME or not, and timezone;
  15. Choose a star from the formal list, centre it roughly in the eyepiece, press ENTER, fine-tune your centring (Up and Right as last movements) by eyeball, reticule or doughnut methods, press Align;
  16. If you used the doughnut method, refocus to a tight star point view;
  17. Choose Star 2, let it slew to near that spot, centre star roughly in eyepiece, press ENTER, fine-tune alignment (Up and Right again) by eyeball, reticule, doughnut methods, press Align;
  18. Wait for “Alignment Success” message;
  19. Test your alignment on the two alignment stars you used;
  20. Turn off your TelRad or another device;
  21. Start looking for new objects!
… Read the rest

Song v. Deputy Minister National Defence

PolyWogg.ca
November 16 2016

I’m a government HR geek, and I like reading Public Service Labour Relations and Employment Board decisions just to see what’s going on in the world of grievances that make it that far (many drop out earlier with simple alternate arrangements or the government realizing it did something wrong and reversing itself). One that made it that far recently was Song v. Deputy Minister National Defence. And mostly what I like about it was the unique outcome.

As is often the case, the issue started with a competition where a candidate was screened out at the application stage. It is always the applicant’s responsibility to demonstrate they meet the criteria and if they don’t, they’re out. This can and often is a pretty hard and fast rule. Many rulings are out there on this factor — if they don’t say it in the application, you don’t have to accept follow-up info or anything else, and if you do, it should only be in very unusual situations (for example, the person has to prove they did budget forecasting, and they say they completed three years work of budget updates in their current job — without specifying that it includes both reporting and forecasting for the coming year…when they follow-up, they find out that the screener’s department use different terminology, and so “updates” there doesn’t include forecasting, but now that they know what it means, and they may even look at a sample, they say, “Oh, okay, you do meet it” and might screen them in…or say, “Sorry, no, you didn’t prove it in the original application, not our problem, you’re out”).… Read the rest