boeingfan
member
Reged: 08/28/08
Posts: 29
Loc: El Dorado Hills. CA
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I just can't believe it is so difficult to align a Scope. I'm new to star gazing but I have leveled my tripod and aligned 3 stars. I'm looking right at Jupitar in the SE sky and when I select to go there is points 180 degrees off. I have been able to align the scope only once but it seemed to get out of alignment after about 20 minutes. With a GPS position, it should be able to find anything in the sky...I think. Anybody have any thoughts?
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Ted
CPC 800
TELRAD
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New Mexico Craig
sage
Reged: 09/05/07
Posts: 223
Loc: The Land of Enchantment
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My first thought is that the GPS positioning does very little to help find anything in the sky. It just gives the scope a good terrestrial starting point. An accurate star alignment is essential for orienting the scope to the sky.
Quote:
I'm looking right at Jupitar in the SE sky and when I select to go there is points 180 degrees off.
Sorry... I don't know what you are trying to say there. 
craig
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Celestron CPC 1100 (aka "the groove tube")
The Motto of the Solar System :"Id quot circumiret, circumveniat."
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snogum
professor emeritus
Reged: 04/30/07
Posts: 508
Loc: Western Australia
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I would check that the time zone you have selected matches your time zone, also check that the GPS fix agrees with your location. Input as much information as you can rather than rely on the scope (at the beginning) Once it has this info you should not need to manually update.
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Duncan (snogum)
CPC 800 XLT GPS
Orion FlexiShield Dewshield
Telrad
Stock Finder (and Proud of it)
Feather Touch Focuser SCT Micro
Starizona Piggyback Battery Pack
Celestron Focal Reducer/Corrector F/6.3
Orion Multiple Filter Wheel
Orion BlueStar Wireless Adapter
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Homebrew 8" Dobs
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Perth
Western Australia
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Bob Griffiths
Post Laureate
Reged: 10/10/05
Posts: 4195
Loc: Frederick Maryland
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Boeingfan:
I have to agree the GPS does nothing but enter your location on any given night and enter the time...In fact if Celestron would make the GPS unit a delete option I would have saved some money and deleted it when I purchased my CPC a few months ago.. ..They were a little more useful when Celestron used North and Level as an alignment method but with Skyalign I could do without it...
I see you live in the Republic of Kalifornia so your default time zone should be ok as I believe you are in the Pacific time zone which is the default ...are you imputing DST or regular time and does your scope know which,...?
You must have something set completely wrong...eyeball level is plenty good enough to get good GoTo's..... check Google maps and verify that the GPS is entering your correct location..rare that they are wrong but things happen... Also confirm the Time.(12 or 24 hr mode) .and Date . (American format month date and year).
Don;t feel bad BUT my 11 year old granddaughter took 2 evenings to master aligning her 8se last fall...seriously it is that easy...but garbage in always results in garbage out been there done that many times myself...
Hang in there ...the guys and gals here will get you up and running I'm sure...
Bob G
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CPC1100
Nexstar 8i + GPS & Rays Brackets
Denk S1 power switch
Orion 100 mm Refractor
Meade LXD 55 ...AR-5 127 mm Refractor
Exploradome Observatory S.I.E. (Smiling Irish Eyes)
39*21'03" N
77*28'12" W
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WNCAGC
sage
Reged: 06/25/08
Posts: 259
Loc: NC Mountains (God's country)
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I agree with the above. The GPS only inputs your location and gives you a pinpoint on the earth for the scope and then your scope can better map out the terrestrial sky.
Sort of like the movie "Deck The Halls" and Danny Devito's fascination to be seen from space. It is a pinpoint and only that.
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CPC 1100 XLT "The Big Monster"
Power Tank 17
NexImager
2" Smart Astronomy 10:1 dual speed Crayford focuser
2" Smart Astronomy Dielectric diagonal
2" Smart Astronomy 2x Barlow
2" Baader SCOPOS 35 mm prototype EP
Baader Hyperion zoom EP 8-24mm
Celestron dew shield
Bob's Knobs
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btieman
super member
Reged: 07/24/08
Posts: 114
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Like Bob, my 11 year easily learned how to align--very handy as I can let him do the grunt work now 
There are only about 80 starts in the skyalign database. If you get out early, the first few dozen stars you see should work OK. When the moon is out early--jupiter works as well--we have developed a different alignment procedure.
Here's the step by step...
1) Level the tripod--newer ones have a bubble level but any small level should be OK.
2) Manually point the scope at the moon or Jupiter. This can often be done early in the evening when it's still pretty light out.
3) Select the align to solar system object option.
4) Let the GPS link.
5) Align the moon--it's convenient that the full lunar disk just barely fits in the stock 40mm!
This has been good enough to do gotos to most objects. Obviously object close the the moon work better. As time goes on and you find other objects you can repeat step 6
6) Select align and replace an alignment object with the one currently in your eyepiece. The first time you will have the moon and an empty slot--use the empty slot. The second time, replace the moon because it's an extended object. From then on replace objects as needed so that there is always an object in the area of the sky you're looking at and one farish away.
By the time the moon is replaced, you should have a very good alignment--at least as good as you can reasonably expect.
We've used this approach to align to the moon and have been able to find planets and bright stars as much as 2 hours before sunset! We've aligned the scope while cooking on the patio, stopped to eat dinner and catch a movie, then gone outside to an already aligned and tracking scope--very nice!
Brian
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CPC 1100
Meade DSI Pro
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boeingfan
member
Reged: 08/28/08
Posts: 29
Loc: El Dorado Hills. CA
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Sorry Craig; my background is in aviation and what I meant was that after an alignment,I can see that Jupiter is in the South East Sky and when I select from the hand remote: solar system, Jupiter, it slews to the North West Sky. Two oposite points on a compass
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Ted
CPC 800
TELRAD
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boeingfan
member
Reged: 08/28/08
Posts: 29
Loc: El Dorado Hills. CA
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Lat and long are correct as are the time and date
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Ted
CPC 800
TELRAD
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Bob Griffiths
Post Laureate
Reged: 10/10/05
Posts: 4195
Loc: Frederick Maryland
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Quote:
Lat and long are correct as are the time and date
Ok now just what time zone do you have the scope set at?
The GPS will first give you UT...but within a second or two will flash you your CORRECT Local time... and then asks you to accept this...IS it correct... on the East coast I am 5 hours behind UT on the West coast you should be 8 hours behind..
To be honest I never ever use DST I run my scope on universal time year round ..BUT I have my time zone set correctly for Eastern Standard time...which is 5 hours behind UT.. so the GPS will initially flash me 0300 if I go out at 10 PM...then in a second or two will flash me 2200 I just accept this...and move on...
BUT 180 degrees is way way off target...so you definately have something set wrong...
Bob G
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CPC1100
Nexstar 8i + GPS & Rays Brackets
Denk S1 power switch
Orion 100 mm Refractor
Meade LXD 55 ...AR-5 127 mm Refractor
Exploradome Observatory S.I.E. (Smiling Irish Eyes)
39*21'03" N
77*28'12" W
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New Mexico Craig
sage
Reged: 09/05/07
Posts: 223
Loc: The Land of Enchantment
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boeingfan - my background is in aviation, too. So I don't think that is an issue for anyone.
And since your GPS lat/lon and time are correct, GPS should not be an issue, either. It seems to be working just fine.
What interests me (now that I know what you are saying) is that your scope points to the opposite side of the sky from your target (Jupiter in this case).
More befuddling is that it's not a nice clean 180 degrees from the SE sky to the NW sky - if you can see both points, then it's less than 180 degrees.
Now that IS a stumper! I hope that someone smarter than myself - of which there are many - can come up with an idea here. I sure am looking forward to it!
craig
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Celestron CPC 1100 (aka "the groove tube")
The Motto of the Solar System :"Id quot circumiret, circumveniat."
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WNCAGC
sage
Reged: 06/25/08
Posts: 259
Loc: NC Mountains (God's country)
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Ever try to reset the scope to factory setting and begin again?
I am just throwing some things out there that may correct it if there is something inputed wrong. Like Bob stated.........when I first turn on the scope then hit the "align" button it gives a wrong time then about 3 seconds later once the GPS has had time to acquire it's location it then shows correct current time. Then I accept that time.
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CPC 1100 XLT "The Big Monster"
Power Tank 17
NexImager
2" Smart Astronomy 10:1 dual speed Crayford focuser
2" Smart Astronomy Dielectric diagonal
2" Smart Astronomy 2x Barlow
2" Baader SCOPOS 35 mm prototype EP
Baader Hyperion zoom EP 8-24mm
Celestron dew shield
Bob's Knobs
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rookie
sage
Reged: 01/14/06
Posts: 330
Loc: St. Petersburg, FL
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Could it be your CPC Latitude is set as neg (-) instead of pos (+)?
Another thought is have you just turned your scope on outside and left it on an hour or two? It needs to downloads satellite information and set itself up.
Alignment is not hard, it's easy. Something else is wrong.
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Shirley
Celestron CPC 800XLT~Feather Touch
G0 BT80~45degree; Fujinon 16x70 FMT-SX
Celestron Ultima 9x63 & Regal LX 10x42
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Sirquack
super member
Reged: 05/03/08
Posts: 141
Loc: Iowa
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Silly question, but do you have your clutches tightened up?
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CPC 1100 XLT
8" DIY DOB
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boeingfan
member
Reged: 08/28/08
Posts: 29
Loc: El Dorado Hills. CA
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DST is selected and Pacific (USA) time is selected
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Ted
CPC 800
TELRAD
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boeingfan
member
Reged: 08/28/08
Posts: 29
Loc: El Dorado Hills. CA
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Hmm...Now I am really confused. But thanks all for your recommendations and I'll give em a shot. Im a member of this forum now, so I will keep you all posted
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Ted
CPC 800
TELRAD
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Bob Griffiths
Post Laureate
Reged: 10/10/05
Posts: 4195
Loc: Frederick Maryland
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Quote:
Hmm...Now I am really confused. But thanks all for your recommendations and I'll give em a shot. Im a member of this forum now, so I will keep you all posted
you can definitely play around with the scope in your living room during the day....Just manually enter the time instead of accepting the time from the GPS...enter like 10 PM...
Do a 2 star auto align and just accept where the scopes stops as being centered....then do a goto to Jupiter the scope better slew to somewhere in the South East ...
If you have Cartes Du Ceil or Stellarium you can goto a 1000 targets if necessary to verify the scope is slew somewhere close to where they should be.....
IF not then manually enter your location and time and do it again..For your location just enter a near by city ....I think you will find that one of your settings is wrong...but you can do al the playing around you want to from inside...BTW the GPS may take a little longer to connect or you may have to move it close to a window if that fails then or lug it outside...
Bob G.
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CPC1100
Nexstar 8i + GPS & Rays Brackets
Denk S1 power switch
Orion 100 mm Refractor
Meade LXD 55 ...AR-5 127 mm Refractor
Exploradome Observatory S.I.E. (Smiling Irish Eyes)
39*21'03" N
77*28'12" W
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boeingfan
member
Reged: 08/28/08
Posts: 29
Loc: El Dorado Hills. CA
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Thanks Bob for all your input/
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Ted
CPC 800
TELRAD
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Oly Olson
super member
Reged: 02/17/08
Posts: 155
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Status report? Is it aligning properly yet?
Best,
Oly
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boeingfan
member
Reged: 08/28/08
Posts: 29
Loc: El Dorado Hills. CA
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Thanks to the TELRAD it's working fine. I just took way too long trying to center the star of planets
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Ted
CPC 800
TELRAD
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