ryanAg
journeyman
Reged: 03/15/09
Posts: 6
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Ok, so I finally got the scope and have had 3 good nights to try it out. Night #1: Just wanted to try out the optics and see if the GOTO worked.........it didn't! You tell it to go to Sirius and it would be way off. So, I go to the mighty ETX site for help.
1- I upload the new firmware onto the scope.
2- I notice the time isn't kept very well in the LNT module so I replace the battery.
3- I do a full RESET.
4- I update Time/Date/Location and put in Daylight Savings.
5- Did the TRAIN DRIVES command.
6- Calibrated the sensors on Polaris.
7- I'm setup for Alt/Az alignment. I try Auto align/2 star/ Easy align to see which would work best.
Night #2: Went out and the GOTO was better but still not great. Say the scope was originally off by the length of the Big Dipper's handle, Night #2's GOTO was off by half the handle's distance. Trying the different types of alignment methods was unnecessary. Each method was consistently off.
Night #3: I do some more training/calibrating and things get a little better but still most of the time the GOTO is off by 2-3 widths of a full moon.
On top of this, one of the tripod leg clamps has cracked so I've had to improvise a fix to make it extend sturdily. Also, when I tried to lock the horizontal lock yesterday it BROKE!! Cheap plastic. So now I have to use a wrench to tighten/loosen the lock. I've also made sure the tube is level when the fork arm's gauge reads 0 degrees. What I don't get is how I can do a 2 star alignment with Arcturus and Rigel, get Alignment Successful, then tell it to GOTO Rigel and it will pull away from the spot in the sky I just told it Rigel was located or I tell it to go back to Arcturus and it will go back but not near the FOV.
So far I'm severely disappointed with the GOTO performance as you can tell. However, I am very pleased with the optics. Saturn is beautiful through this scope! In 3 weeks I'll be traveling to a dark sight for a camping/observing weekend and I'd really like to get the GOTO fixed before then so maybe I would have better luck with Deep Sky objects. Any input from any of you guys would be great! Thanks
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Arthur Dent
Galactic Hitch-Hiker
Reged: 10/23/08
Posts: 1150
Loc: South Yorkshire, UK
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Ryan
I presume that you are putting in the correct time and date?
The 1 hour difference made by Daylight Savings/British Summer Time equates to 15 degrees on the sky (1/24 of 360 degrees).
As far as levelling the tube, etc, I have a non-PE scope but make sure that the tripod is LEVEL, and then, when aligning the scope that the OTA is also LEVEL (I use a spirit level for these). I don't then have a problem with either alignment or GoTo's
Others reckon that levelling by eye is good enough. I have always used a spirit level and never suffered from alignment errors.
I use EASY ALIGN and have no problems.
Just my two 'pennorth 
Art
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If I like it, the wife says that we can't afford it!
=======================================================
Meade ETX105 (a nice "Grab & Go" scope) & Celestron NexStar 6SE with Bob's Knobs.
Various EP's from 6mm to 26mm, a 2x Barlow, 2" diagonal and 7Ah PowerTank.
MRF and Antares 8x50 RACI finder scope - both for the 6SE's OTA, whilst the ETX gets a plain RDF.
Canon EOS 400D DSLR (un-modded) and SPC900 webcam. Finally climbing the AP Learning Curve!
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rmollise
Post Laureate
Reged: 07/06/07
Posts: 4491
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Quote:
Ok, so I finally got the scope and have had 3 good nights to try it out. Night #1: Just wanted to try out the optics and see if the GOTO worked.........it didn't! You tell it to go to Sirius and it would be way off. So, I go to the mighty ETX site for help.
Sorry about the tripod breaking. Call Meade and arrange for a replacement, and in the future be very careful not to overtighten.
As for go-to? Generally it's a matter of experience. My own PE does not always place objects dead center in a 26-mm eyepiece, but they are almost always somewhere in the field of that eyepiece, and I mean any object from horizon to horizon. Some tips?
--Drive training: use a _distant_ terrestrial object, and be careful to do both altitude and azimuth training. The way it is set up in the menu, it's easy to do one and not the other. For best results, use a crosshair reticle eyepiece.
--Use a good, strong external 12vdc battery to power the scope.
--Be careful about alignment star centering. A crosshair reticle eyepiece is a big help.
--Make sure you are centering the CORRECT alignment star. "I think that's it" is not good enough. 
--When you set in location in the HC, use "city name" rather than zipcode. Don't know why that makes a difference, but it does.
--Make sure the scope is properly set in home position THAT IS DIFFERENT DEPENDING ON THE TYPE OF ALIGNMENT YOU ARE DOING. I suggest you stick to LNT Easy Align, which means you point the control panel west, loosen the aziumuth/RA lock, rotate the tube counterclockwise until it hits the hard stop, and lock it back down.
--Naturally, make sure time, time-zone, and daylight savings time status are set correctly.
The ETX has a learning curve, but once you get with the program, you will find it is an amazing little machine...I love mine:
http://cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=1807
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Uncle Rod
Rod's New Book:
Choosing and Using a New CAT
Available now!
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ryanAg
journeyman
Reged: 03/15/09
Posts: 6
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Art, Date/Time/Savings time are correct. I have the exact time for my location from the atomic clock in Boulder, CO. Both the tripod base and OTA are both level (with my bubble level) before I begin alignment attempts.
Rod, bought the scope/tripod used from Klaus on this forum so I can't have Meade exchange it. It's ok though. My fix works great.
Drive training - Did it for both axis on a distant terrestial object before taking the scope out at night.
Power Source - I'm using the Celestron Power tank so that's no problem.
Alignment Star centering - I don't have a cross hair EP but I can get it pretty dead on. Even if I was off it shouldn't give me as bad GOTOs as I'm seeing. Also, the three nights I've observed have been in light polluted skies so it's easy to tell which star the scope wants me to use for alignment. It'll point to a patch in the sky that only has one star to the naked eye, it's close but not where it should be. Also, that shouldn't matter when I do the 2 star alignment. I'm telling it exact;y which stars I want to use.
Location - Have been using zip code but I'll have to give City name a try. In 3 weeks when I go to the dark skies I won't be near a large city so I don't think I'll be able to use anything but the Zip code.
Home position - I have properly used the home positions necessary for each type of alignment.
After the reset when I input the correct time, I checked the scope later that night to ensure it had kept the correct time, and it did. The battery replacement in the LNT was successful in correcting that problem.
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ones
super member
Reged: 05/27/08
Posts: 134
Loc: IL
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I'm very disappointed with my goto results also. Seems like I keep losing data. I have to reenter the astro - terres. option alot. Once in a while everything is fine but after 2-3 hours of viewing, the goto seems to get lost.
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Kev
ETX 125PE
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rmollise
Post Laureate
Reged: 07/06/07
Posts: 4491
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Quote:
I'm very disappointed with my goto results also. Seems like I keep losing data. I have to reenter the astro - terres. option alot. Once in a while everything is fine but after 2-3 hours of viewing, the goto seems to get lost.
Go-to getting off is a symptom of poor drive training. RESET, CALIBRATE MOTORS, TRAIN DRIVES in that order.
Let me add that these things should be done after a firmware upload _as well_, and all settings re-entered.
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Uncle Rod
Rod's New Book:
Choosing and Using a New CAT
Available now!
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ones
super member
Reged: 05/27/08
Posts: 134
Loc: IL
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Quote:
Quote:
I'm very disappointed with my goto results also. Seems like I keep losing data. I have to reenter the astro - terres. option alot. Once in a while everything is fine but after 2-3 hours of viewing, the goto seems to get lost.
Go-to getting off is a symptom of poor drive training. RESET, CALIBRATE MOTORS, TRAIN DRIVES in that order.
Let me add that these things should be done after a firmware upload _as well_, and all settings re-entered.
Tried all that.
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Kev
ETX 125PE
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Joe Lalumia
Post Laureate
Reged: 01/24/07
Posts: 3536
Loc: Rockwall, Texas, USA
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DIRT or grease on the encoder-------- if you are brave-- take a look.
http://www.weasner.com/etx/techtips.html
http://www.weasner.com/etx/techtips/2007/pe-assembly.html
http://www.weasner.com/etx/techtips/etx_tuneup1.html
http://www.weasner.com/etx/techtips/etxtu.htm
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LX90 8" LNT, SV Nighthawk & TelePOD, SV 80/9D & M4 mount, ETX 90, Orion XT10i, 20x80 binoculars, SV-BV3s-- www.texasastro.org
"Great minds discuss ideas;Average minds discuss events;Small minds discuss people." Unknown
Edited by Joe Lalumia (04/06/09 05:58 PM)
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SgrB2
member
Reged: 09/10/07
Posts: 21
Loc: Ellicott City, MD
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Bubble leveels are inferior to two line levels placed orthogonal to each other on the tripod base; use another line level on the OTA for leveling the Home position. All of these levels can be attached simply with double-stick tape, and GOTOs will definitely be more precise.
Cheers,
SgrB2
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Prima Luna
super member
Reged: 01/17/09
Posts: 110
Loc: Huntington Beach, California
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Not sure if you guys who are having dificulty have tried this yet but...
...what I was doing wrong was setting "Daylight Savings Time" to "Yes" back in January when there was not savings going on. I thought setting it to "Yes" meant that the CPU would automatically adjust its clock to DST (like for VCR/DVR.) So I was off by 15 degrees - this is much more that the OP difference of about 1.5D (3 moons X 0.5D =1.5D)
After the 2nd night out, I got it all figured out and now it's a piece of cake to figure out 
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Meade ETX-125AT w/UHTC & Tripod
Celestron Regal LX 10X42
7mm TMB Planetary
9mm TMB Planetary
26mm Meade Series 4000 Super Plössl
35mm Orion Ultrascopic
2X Barlow Orion Shorty
Aluminum Hard Carry Case 07609
TeleVue TAC-1003 Air Chair
Celestron NightVision Flashlight 93588
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rmollise
Post Laureate
Reged: 07/06/07
Posts: 4491
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Quote:
Tried all that.
If you're sure you tried all that, and tried it _properly_, look to your procedure. Frankly, most go-to accuracy/alignment problems are pilot error. That's not a criticism; Autostar is not overly user friendly in the beginning. If you haven't done so already, have a look at http://www.weasner.com/etx for plenty of hints and tips.
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Uncle Rod
Rod's New Book:
Choosing and Using a New CAT
Available now!
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ryanAg
journeyman
Reged: 03/15/09
Posts: 6
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Well right now in Houston, TX we are in Daylight savings time so I've got that set correctly too. The one alignment method I haven't tried yet is polar alignment. Has anyone had better luck w/ polar over Alt/Az?
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rmollise
Post Laureate
Reged: 07/06/07
Posts: 4491
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Quote:
Well right now in Houston, TX we are in Daylight savings time so I've got that set correctly too. The one alignment method I haven't tried yet is polar alignment. Has anyone had better luck w/ polar over Alt/Az?
If you can't get good go-to in alt-az, don't expect polar to be any better. You need to figure out why the scope doesn't work with an LNT Easy Align.
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Uncle Rod
Rod's New Book:
Choosing and Using a New CAT
Available now!
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Hal
member
Reged: 12/03/08
Posts: 28
Loc: Central Florida, U.S.A.
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Boy am I glad I canceled my order for the PE after waiting 2 months. Bought a used 5SE on CN a few weeks ago and am very pleased. It still took me a few days to learn to 'undo' the suggested time, etc., and re-input time/date when powering up...still miffed that Meade or Celestron can't/won't make a HC that remembers the time!
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I DO know everything...I just can't REMEMBER everything all at once.
--CFAS (Central Fla. Ast. Society) member
--5CE owner, emails and chat welcome.
--AAVSO member
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rmollise
Post Laureate
Reged: 07/06/07
Posts: 4491
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Quote:
Boy am I glad I canceled my order for the PE after waiting 2 months. Bought a used 5SE on CN a few weeks ago and am very pleased. It still took me a few days to learn to 'undo' the suggested time, etc., and re-input time/date when powering up...still miffed that Meade or Celestron can't/won't make a HC that remembers the time!
Uhhh...they did. Meade did, anyhow...that's (part of) what put's the "PE" in ETXPE, pilgrim.
Initially I was sorry that I'd not waited for Celestron to re-release the C5 as the 5SE, but by the time they did, my ETX125PE, Charity Hope Valentine, and I had become fast friends.
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Uncle Rod
Rod's New Book:
Choosing and Using a New CAT
Available now!
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sang33ta
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 07/08/08
Posts: 767
Loc: UK
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Sometimes you get a duff one I guess. My LX-90 was the same no matter what I tried it wouldn't locate anything.
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Hioptic 152mm f12.5 Maksutov, CG5-AGT, Meade Super Plossl Set, Casio QV-2900UX
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Joe Lalumia
Post Laureate
Reged: 01/24/07
Posts: 3536
Loc: Rockwall, Texas, USA
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sang-- yes--- both my ETX90 and my LX90 FIND EVERYTHING! --- in the sky!
right too it --- even with a sorta kinda maybe type alignment.
or as we say-- Plenty Good GOTOs!
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LX90 8" LNT, SV Nighthawk & TelePOD, SV 80/9D & M4 mount, ETX 90, Orion XT10i, 20x80 binoculars, SV-BV3s-- www.texasastro.org
"Great minds discuss ideas;Average minds discuss events;Small minds discuss people." Unknown
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sang33ta
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 07/08/08
Posts: 767
Loc: UK
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"still miffed that Meade or Celestron can't/won't make a HC that remembers the time! "
but if they did that no-one would buy the expensive gps module 
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Hioptic 152mm f12.5 Maksutov, CG5-AGT, Meade Super Plossl Set, Casio QV-2900UX
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Joe Lalumia
Post Laureate
Reged: 01/24/07
Posts: 3536
Loc: Rockwall, Texas, USA
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My LX90 remembers the time-- and the PE ETX should also remember the time.
The LNT module has an internal clock.... with a watch style battery.
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LX90 8" LNT, SV Nighthawk & TelePOD, SV 80/9D & M4 mount, ETX 90, Orion XT10i, 20x80 binoculars, SV-BV3s-- www.texasastro.org
"Great minds discuss ideas;Average minds discuss events;Small minds discuss people." Unknown
Edited by Joe Lalumia (04/11/09 07:26 PM)
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rmollise
Post Laureate
Reged: 07/06/07
Posts: 4491
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Quote:
but if they did that no-one would buy the expensive gps module
They did. Meade doesn't make a GPS module for the ETX. Other than that, RIGHT ON!
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Uncle Rod
Rod's New Book:
Choosing and Using a New CAT
Available now!
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