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Reset
member
Reged: 08/27/09
Posts: 15
Loc: Columbus, Ohio
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Hello
I'm going to need help with this one...I don’t think my scope could find the moon if it was a full.I have tried several nights to align my scope but after it's say's a successful alignment, the scope gets lost. Last night I aligned my scope with summer triangle. I asked my scope very nicely to find Jupiter and it moved 90 east of Jupiter and pointed to the ground. I was so hopeful I played with the scope around noon and it appeared to go to Saturn. I eagerly waited until dark and the scope lost its way.
I get a sensor error some times. Some times I get unsuccessful auto alignment error. Last night after auto alignment the autostar said to center on the brightest star, oh yea lol very funny. Most of the time I end up manually aim the scope. I have tried to reset the sensors, as well as auto setup. The gps correctly find my location, my city and I have checked the time. I have also updated the autostar.
If that was not enough my binoculars look better than my scope does. My coarse focus appears to operate correctly but I seem to miss true focus always seem to be on either side of focus. I suspect it could be the Micro focuser.
My next step is send it to the factory.
Meade 8 Lx 200 ACF GPS
Zero Image-shift Microfocuser
Autostar II
Meade 5000 26mm
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GeorgeDuke
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 04/24/03
Posts: 1592
Loc: PARADISE! (So.Florida)
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Hi Reset, What are you using for a power supply?
If you are using little batteries in the mount that probably is your problem.
Did you just get the scope or has it worked fine up until now?
Get one of the battery booster power units or an AC power cube.
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George
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SkyShed POD XL-3
LX200GPS 203mm f10
StellarVue SV102ED2 Feathertouch Ser#0018
LXD75 GOTO with Orion 16" pier extension
Baader Hyperion 8mm ,13mm, 21mm + FTRs
2" GSO ED barlow, 2" SV Dielectric and Orion Prism Diagonals
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Joe Lalumia
Post Laureate
Reged: 01/24/07
Posts: 3616
Loc: Rockwall, Texas, USA
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As per George, also you have RESET the hand controller and started from scratch with a Calibrate motors using the same power supply you use outside, train drives, and double check time, date, and site, Daylight Savings Time = YES right now.
Your scope may also have Calibrate Sensors which adjusts for the magnetic deviation of your SITE. Do all of the above in the order listed.
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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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Reset
member
Reged: 08/27/09
Posts: 15
Loc: Columbus, Ohio
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FYI I have a powersupply, The scope is new I'm second owner. I gave it first light. Ill check the things you guys suggested. Thx
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Joseph Gillman
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 12/06/05
Posts: 2784
Loc: Aston, PA
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Try and find alignment stars further apart. You are pointing to Home position (north and level), two stars overhead, and asking it to extrapolate to find jupiter low in the south.
You can test to make sure things aren't toally whacko by GOTOing M-57, the Ring nebula if you used Vega as a Guide star.
Mixing up Castor and Pollux as alignment stars is problematic as well.
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GeorgeDuke
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 04/24/03
Posts: 1592
Loc: PARADISE! (So.Florida)
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I had not used my LX200GPS for quite a while. I have been using the more portable LXD75.
I finally have the LX on a pier in an observatory. Of course it has rained incessantly for months so it was just this weekend I finally powered it up! It could not find the Moon!
Anyway, I went in to check the setup in the hand controller and found many wrong settings. I could not understand why but anyway I entered the proper data, I thought.
One thing I messed up on was the GPS time zone. It was set to +13 so I changed it to 5 but overlooked the fact that it should be -5. I finally found the moon!
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George
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SkyShed POD XL-3
LX200GPS 203mm f10
StellarVue SV102ED2 Feathertouch Ser#0018
LXD75 GOTO with Orion 16" pier extension
Baader Hyperion 8mm ,13mm, 21mm + FTRs
2" GSO ED barlow, 2" SV Dielectric and Orion Prism Diagonals
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Joseph Gillman
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 12/06/05
Posts: 2784
Loc: Aston, PA
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The gps thing that I think you refer to is the difference in SECONDS, not HOURS between GPS time and UTC time. 13 seconds will only mess up your Goto's by… 13 arc seconds. UTC adds leapsexonds every now and then and the GPS satellites don't. Or maybe te other way round. But either way the "gPS-UTC offset" is not a major factor in alignmen or goto issues.
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GeorgeDuke
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 04/24/03
Posts: 1592
Loc: PARADISE! (So.Florida)
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No Joseph, It is the GMT time zone shift.
I am in the eastern time zone which is -5 hours from GMT.
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George
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SkyShed POD XL-3
LX200GPS 203mm f10
StellarVue SV102ED2 Feathertouch Ser#0018
LXD75 GOTO with Orion 16" pier extension
Baader Hyperion 8mm ,13mm, 21mm + FTRs
2" GSO ED barlow, 2" SV Dielectric and Orion Prism Diagonals
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Joseph Gillman
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 12/06/05
Posts: 2784
Loc: Aston, PA
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Ah. For a while this setting was supposed to be 13, (number of leap seconds between gos time and utc time), but with the latest firmware anyway the gps offset should be zero. You said 13 so that made me think of this other setting which is commonly misunderstood.
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GeorgeDuke
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 04/24/03
Posts: 1592
Loc: PARADISE! (So.Florida)
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You are right Joseph, I was confused!
I see that the offset should be set to zero with GPS set ON at startup and Daylight Saving set to YES.
Thanks for sorting it out for me.
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George
--------------
SkyShed POD XL-3
LX200GPS 203mm f10
StellarVue SV102ED2 Feathertouch Ser#0018
LXD75 GOTO with Orion 16" pier extension
Baader Hyperion 8mm ,13mm, 21mm + FTRs
2" GSO ED barlow, 2" SV Dielectric and Orion Prism Diagonals
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rat156
member
Reged: 09/21/07
Posts: 67
Loc: Melbourne, Australia
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Quote:
Hello
I'm going to need help with this one...I don’t think my scope could find the moon if it was a full.I have tried several nights to align my scope but after it's say's a successful alignment, the scope gets lost. Last night I aligned my scope with summer triangle. I asked my scope very nicely to find Jupiter and it moved 90 east of Jupiter and pointed to the ground. I was so hopeful I played with the scope around noon and it appeared to go to Saturn. I eagerly waited until dark and the scope lost its way.
I get a sensor error some times. Some times I get unsuccessful auto alignment error. Last night after auto alignment the autostar said to center on the brightest star, oh yea lol very funny. Most of the time I end up manually aim the scope. I have tried to reset the sensors, as well as auto setup. The gps correctly find my location, my city and I have checked the time. I have also updated the autostar.
If that was not enough my binoculars look better than my scope does. My coarse focus appears to operate correctly but I seem to miss true focus always seem to be on either side of focus. I suspect it could be the Micro focuser.
My next step is send it to the factory.
Meade 8 Lx 200 ACF GPS
Zero Image-shift Microfocuser
Autostar II
Meade 5000 26mm
Getting back onto the thread of trying to help this person out...
Update your autostar to the latest version, and use Dick's patch, which allows you to get rid of the "centre brightest star" message and gives you the star name. That way you can be more certain that you are picking the correct star. If you are unsure as to which star you should be using, then scroll through the alignment stars until you get to one you know. I had similar problems when I didn't know the sky so well and in the Southern Hemisphere there are lots of bright stars.
From the description of the alignment procedure you're trying, I'm assuming that you're trying to do an Alt/Az alignment. Is the scope on a wedge?
If the tripod is level and you know where two stars are in the sky, forget all the finding North/tip/tilt stuff, just set it up in Alt/Az home position (tube level with ground pointing North), cancel the align, pick your first star out and goto, loosen the clutches and centre the star, sync on that star. Pick a second star (usually a good distance in both Alt and Az away from your first star) goto that, use the handbox to centre and sync. That should model the sky pretty well. Goto a known deepsky target to see if the model is OK. The planetary and lunar calculations done by the Autostar are approximate, they should get you close, but won't usually put the target in the middle of the eyepiece.
Cheers
Stuart
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Tombstone Sky
One-Eyed Jack
Reged: 12/18/06
Posts: 1708
Loc: Tombstone Arizona
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Also - there is a battery in the LNT module. You can kind of figure that the one that comes from the factory is used up. I'd replace it as a matter of course.
Be CAREFUL taking the LNT apart. There are springs in it, and the LNT comes apart a lot easier than it goes back together. A lot of us use Telrads and throw the LNT springs away.
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MJ "Morg" Staley
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M5 Dark-Site Observatory
Meade 12" f/10 LX90GPS "River"
WO 2" Dielectric Diagonal
Meade SP 5000 full set, 24mm Meade 5000 UWA,
BO/TMB Planetary 8, 9mm, Nagler 13mmT6
Meade 505/USB/ASU/SNP6
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christurner
super member
Reged: 06/24/08
Posts: 171
Loc: Nova Scotia, Canada
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i had same issue. I realized what i was doing WRONG. When the scope would select a star during alignment it wouldnt be on it but reasonable close. So I would MANUALLY slew to the star and think everything was great! then after the scope said it was aligned successfully, it indeed WAS NOT. I lrealized this error over a few frustrating nights and realized i need to align with the keypad! Duh to me! after that it worked great. This was my issue anyway, maybe it's yours, maybe not but thought I would throw that out there...
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Chris and Family
Nova Scotia, Canada
Dark Sky Country
www.spatialenergistics.com
Platforms:
Meade LX200 ACF 12"
newstar 5.1" reflector
26mm plossl meade
13mm Ethos
Kendrick Digi10 Dew System
A wife that understands!
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deSitter
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 12/09/04
Posts: 2928
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Here is the map the Apollo crew used to navigate to the Moon:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/a11/A11StarCharts.html
I think all of these named stars are Autostar alignment stars - so it's a good idea to learn them! Hey it worked for Mike Collins!
(Well on second thought, I doubt you will find Dnoces, Navi, and Regor. These are Second, Ivan, and Roger spelled backward - that is, Ed White II, Ivan Grissom, and Roger Chaffee - the lost Apollo 1 crew. They were named, not in honor of the perished astronauts, but by the wry Grissom himself, as an inside joke.)
-drl
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Rick Woods
Postmaster
Reged: 01/27/05
Posts: 5684
Loc: Inner Solar System
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Quote:
(Well on second thought, I doubt you will find Dnoces, Navi, and Regor. These are Second, Ivan, and Roger spelled backward - that is, Ed White II, Ivan Grissom, and Roger Chaffee - the lost Apollo 1 crew. They were named, not in honor of the perished astronauts, but by the wry Grissom himself, as an inside joke.)
... and perpetuated by George Lovi in the old S&T monthly sky maps!
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- Rick
14" LX200GPS
Dyslexics Untie!
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