LGDSO

I am hoping to find a new home for this rather large telescope case.  It housed a forked C-11, note the shape of the foam cut-out inside.  The foam can be removed or modified to fit your needs. Perhaps someone will find a use for this well made case.   It has wheels, all the handles and clasps work fine.  There is a dent on the one side which doesn't affect the closing. It's big. 36" x 18" x 24"

Call Sean (941) 373-5611  to make arrangements for you to pick it up.

Welcome and congrats! Newb here myself!

Hi Dave:
It's a bad time to test now, the summer clouds have taken over.

Most of us use Crowley on darker sky (no moon) weekends, September through May. Your best bet now is to find any opening in the clouds you can and use it where you live (or anywhere near where you live) on the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn. They are either out now or will be shortly. You don't need a dark sky for these objects.

Hi Dave, welcome to the club!  Congratulations on your new equipment,  we now know who to blame for the next week of clouds...just kidding. This is the most incredible hobby with the most helpful members that have become some of my best friends.  Your only regret will be that you didn't get involved before now. Oh, by the way, the name Dave is already taken by me so you can choose from Biff, Darren or Billy Bob. LOL

Looking forward to meet you Dave,
Dave

Hello Dave,

I have an SE scope. Before you go outside you can setup some of the key parameters and actually watch it slew about on it's own.
In order to be setup for goto operation you must enter your latitude and longitude of where you are viewing from and the current time in 24 hour format. The latitude and longitude will be maintained in memory even after you turn off the power. The time must be entered each time you power on. Currently in the east the stars Vega and Arcturus are excellent choices for a two star alignment. However you must know about where they are in the sky. There a several cellphone free apps for depicting the sky and naming the objects you point the cellphone at .... the most famous is Google Skymap for andriod devices and iOS has similar apps for the iphone. Point the app at a star and it will show its name.

Around 1030pm Jupiter is now really popping in the East. You can do a less accurate Solar System align on that but viewing it will be awesome. Look for it's moons also.

The latiutude for Sarasota is 27.3364° N ..... it's Longitude is 82.5307° W. As an optional method you may scroll down to the Time entry and hit the BACK button and you can walk thru menus to enter you location as a CITY .....

Everything you need to know is available from the Nexstar site https://www.nexstarsite.com/

I always recommend a 2-star alignment but you have to know the stars you see above you. There are other options to align that require little knowledge .... here is that procedure I copied from the Nexstar site. I do feel however that knowing the major stars in the sky above you at any given time is just a part of astronomy not to overlook ...

Introduced with NexStar hand control version 4 (first included with the CPC) and available in all newer versions, SkyAlign is an entirely new approach to aligning an alt-az mounted telescope.  SkyAlign requires no knowledge of the night sky and as such is designed for beginning backyard astronomers.  In a nutshell, you set up the telescope, provide your location and the date and time and center 3 bright objects (you don't even need to know their names) in the eyepiece.  The scope is now aligned and ready to Go(To).

I have the same zoom eyepiece and it is just great for general viewing.

Email me at gbgrimm@gmail.com if stuck .....