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Observer
journeyman
Reged: 08/08/09
Posts: 9
Loc: The Hills That Have Eyes, NM
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First night out with the new scope and problems. First question is: When you do the training, does it wipe out the last train you did? Or does it average them? The reason I ask is because when we first set it up in the daylight, we mounted it backwards on the tripod. If thats my problem, then I quess I will just do a reset tomorrow and be back at it. If not..... We set it up in the home postition, and used the Automatic align. There weren't any signifigantly brighter stars than any others in the FOV, so I made the best guess. After alignment was done, I went to Polaris to check the alignment... It ended up pointing nearly WEST!!!!!
So, I re-trained to an easy to see roof peek a ways away, then re-aligned. This timeI used the easy align. Now it "found" Polaris almost SOUTH... UGH. Tried over and over and over again with no luck. My wife finally told me to call it a night and try again tomorrow, and maybe call Meade. Any ideas??? Pictures of proper mounting/home position. I am 95% sure I have it mounted and set to home correctly, but you never know.
Thanks
Russ
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New to Astronomy.... again!!
Meade 8" LX10
Meade 12" Lightbridge (will be here soon)
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brianb11213
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 02/25/09
Posts: 2099
Loc: 55.215N 6.554W
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Quote:
Pictures of proper mounting/home position. I am 95% sure I have it mounted and set to home correctly,
Assuming you have the scope set up altaz (not on a wedge i.e. the cylindrical bit of the mount that connects to the tripod is vertical) then the "home" position is with the tube pointing North and level. But there's a "gotcha" with the ETX - there is a "hard stop" in the azimuth drive (to prevent the wires getting wrapped up inside) - so you need to undo the azimuth clamp & rotate the tube anticlockwise (to the left) until it obviously hits the stop, then back 180 degrees. At this point tighten the azimuth clamp (the silver lever on top of the cylindrical mount base) - firmly but do not force it - pick up the whole mount & tripod & point the scope North (roughly will do). Set the tube level & tighten the altitude clamp (firm but not forced). Power the thing on & do the alignment.
Whenever you start the alignment the scope forgets EVERYTHING about the previous alignment so no problems there.
You should check that:
(a) your scope is set in the correct mode : altaz or equatorial - suggest altaz if you have a choice, at any rate until you build confidence
(b) you have your position, time & date set properly if you do not have the GPS module on your scope
(c) you have the right time zone & daylight saving set up.
The usual problems are people getting confused about date format: dd/mm/yy or mm/dd/yy? : & setting the time zome wrong, e.g. EST is 4 hours behind UT/GMT so the time zone is -04:00 (what you have to add to UT to get EST).
If all else fails, don't call Meade, find someone in your locality with some experience of setting up one of these scopes & ask for a demonstration. A local astro club/society is a good place to find "observing buddies" & well worth joining for the help you can get in the early stages.
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rmollise
Post Laureate
Reged: 07/06/07
Posts: 4570
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Quote:
First night out with the new scope and problems. First question is: When you do the training, does it wipe out the last train you did? Or does it average them? The reason I ask is because when we first set it up in the daylight, we mounted it backwards on the tripod. If thats my problem, then I quess I will just do a reset tomorrow and be back at it. If not..... We set it up in the home postition, and used the Automatic align. There weren't any signifigantly brighter stars than any others in the FOV, so I made the best guess. After alignment was done, I went to Polaris to check the alignment... It ended up pointing nearly WEST!!!!!
So, I re-trained to an easy to see roof peek a ways away, then re-aligned. This timeI used the easy align. Now it "found" Polaris almost SOUTH... UGH. Tried over and over and over again with no luck. My wife finally told me to call it a night and try again tomorrow, and maybe call Meade. Any ideas??? Pictures of proper mounting/home position. I am 95% sure I have it mounted and set to home correctly, but you never know.
Thanks
Russ
Does it wipe out the last drive training? Yes.
Does the scope need to be in home position for the drive training? No. As long as you do _both axes_ properly, it won't matter pea-turkey.
Make sure you enter proper TIME, TIME ZONE, DST STATUS, LATITUDE AND LONGITUDE, AND that the SIGNS of latitude and longitude (east/west) are correct.
You can't "guess" at alignment stars, you have to be on the money. If you don't know which is which, a simple planisphere or sky chart can help. Print one out from heavens-above.com for your locataion and time.
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Uncle Rod
Rod's New Book:
Choosing and Using a New CAT
Available now!
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Observer
journeyman
Reged: 08/08/09
Posts: 9
Loc: The Hills That Have Eyes, NM
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OK, here is something my wife found in the Meade FAQ... When I am using the GOTO, when I am scrolling through the menu and find an object I want to slew to I just press GOTO to go to it. The FAQ said something about having to press enter when I see what I want , THEN press GOTO. Is that right??
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New to Astronomy.... again!!
Meade 8" LX10
Meade 12" Lightbridge (will be here soon)
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Joe Lalumia
Post Laureate
Reged: 01/24/07
Posts: 3606
Loc: Rockwall, Texas, USA
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Observer- press ENTER then GOTO. You will get "acclimated" to doing this as the scope will just SIT THERE until you press GOTO! Enter "selects" the object.
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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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Captain Gadget
newbie
Reged: 03/20/09
Posts: 4
Loc: Desborough, Northants
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I had similar problem 1st time with my 125PE. Turned out the date AND time were wrong, then I got confused with daylight saving time and got that wrong too - duh. I was still disappointed with the pointing accuracy though, but I eventually took note of what was being said on this forum about training and calibrating etc and took a lot of care, particularly with drive training. It seems particularly important to this step very carfully. Best to use a high magnification eyepiece so that the target fits field of view. This ensures that you are returning to exactly the point where you started the training. Pointing accuracy is pretty much spot on now.
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Meade ETX 125PE
Revelation 10" Dobsonian
Various Televue Eyepieces
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Joe Lalumia
Post Laureate
Reged: 01/24/07
Posts: 3606
Loc: Rockwall, Texas, USA
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AND-------- a trick is too look through the eyepiece just as the scope finishes it's FAST slewing to the target and WATCH. Many times you will see the object slowly go by in the eyepiece as the scope does it's final slow slewing.
It usually is just outside the eyepiece FOV. But you know exactly where it is and can easily recenter it and SYNC. Just another goto scope "trick".
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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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Jimmy2K63
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 04/26/09
Posts: 1188
Loc: Kentucky
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Found another little trick tonite where you can turn on high precision in the setup, where it will slew to a bright star nearby, center it, and SYNC it before moving onto its final target.
Meade does a lousy job writing documentation and should hire Joe as a consultant as he really spells it out very clearly, something they certainly can use some help on. When in doubt...ASK.
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http://astronomyguy63.blogspot.com/
LXD75 SN6-UHTC
Cave Astrola 10" f/5
Garrett 15x70/FarSight
Canon XS (1000D)
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AlexDJ30
sage
Reged: 09/02/08
Posts: 276
Loc: Monterrey, Mexico
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High precision is real good..i used most of the times and its easy, the scopes goes to a bright star near the object you want to see, you center it... hit enterenter and then it goes to the target. Real easy and will track much better, of course first you need to have a calibrate motors and to drive training every few timesa year (remember to put correctly time date, SITE! and daylight savings if its need it)
Its a really good scope and if you take care of it it will give you years of joy.
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Equipment:
- ETX 125 AT
- C6 ASGT
- WO 66mm SD
- 2.5X ED Barlow, 8-24mm Zoom Eyepice
- Canon EOS Rebel XSi
- Celestron Nextimagen
- Orion Starshoot CCD cam
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orionspotter
super member
Reged: 07/29/09
Posts: 159
Loc: Los Alamos, NM
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I'm his wife.....
We've talked to Meade and apparently the scope is messed up. We tried again with everything and it's just doing some crazy stuff. It won't even "find" the same star in the same place (and none of the places it "finds" them are correct). Also, the tube doesn't level at "0" like it's supposed to. It clearly tilts up at the front of the tube.
We've talked to Woodland Hills and they're going to give us a full refund. We're not thrilled with the whole GOTO thing and aside from the problems with this scope.....we just don't feel that it suits us personally. So, we're going to look into doing something else instead.
Thanks for all the help though!
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10" Meade LX200 SCT on a CG5-GT
80mm iOptron SmartStar (kids' scope)
Galileoscope (kids' scope #2)
Celestron SkyScout (really fun for the kiddos...love this thing)
Edited by orionspotter (08/13/09 12:24 AM)
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rollout
member
Reged: 03/25/08
Posts: 85
Loc: Broken Arrow, OK
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Just be glad you are dealing with Woodland Hills instead of Meade.
Bill
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Meade ETX-125PE
Purchased 4/7/8...I am a newbie
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