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jhenline
newbie
Reged: 02/11/09
Posts: 2
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thanks for the advice. I still need to get out and see how well I can align the scope without an illuminated reticle EP. If I am somewhat successful, I'll hold off purchasing ONE MORE THING. I'm finding this to be a very expensive hobby. :-)
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CounterWeight
Pooh-Bah
Reged: 10/05/08
Posts: 1292
Loc: PDX chronoplast
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It's certainly 'do-able' just doing centering in an ep - I know I have when I 'misplaced' my illum ep and had no choice. (Found it in the garden after about two weeks while weeding) I used a 26mm widefield with really pretty great results.
Difference is with the illum reticle you know your getting it as good as possible, but depending on your visual acumen that may be only a little better or a lot...
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 - 
CGE (Frankenmount mod.)
Onyx 80ED, Tak FS-128 #02058, TEC APO160ED #030
CCD: Orion SSPDSCIv2, SSI3, SSAG
diags, ep's, tubes, filters, Binocs
My CN Image Gallery
Experience is a difficult teacher, it gives the test first, and gives the lesson later
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Harold925
member
Reged: 07/11/09
Posts: 38
Loc: Near Charleston, S.C. Cluster
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Quote:
thanks for the advice. I still need to get out and see how well I can align the scope without an illuminated reticle EP. If I am somewhat successful, I'll hold off purchasing ONE MORE THING. I'm finding this to be a very expensive hobby. :-)
While I was waiting for the backordered Orion 20mm illuminated centering EP, I went ahead and purchased an Antares 27mm focusable cross-hair centering EP from AgenaAstro.com for $40.00 shipped free. If you don't need the illuminated version, this one will save you almost enough to buy an illuminated 9x50 finder scope. It works fine, just no bright red cross-hair. Check it.
http://www.agenaastro.com/Antares-1-25-inch-27mm-Cross-Hair-Eyepiece-p/e-an-k27x.htm
Take care.
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Harold
Celestron CGEM, C-9.25 XLT
Orion XT8i
Celestron SkyMaster 9x63
Many Accessories
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waassaabee
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 11/26/07
Posts: 2693
Loc: Central California Coast
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Quote:
Thanks Gary. Missed that about the RTC. Perhaps someone can help me with a problem I had last night. Leveled tripod and polar aligned looking through the polar shaft. Aligned the marks for RA & DEC.. Went through the startup procedure to set time, etc... Selected two star alignment and chose Arcturas. It slewed toward it, but ended up at least 15 degrees "left" of it. I used the hand controller and got it lined up. Selected the next start Mizar and the same thing. It was 15 degrees to the left again. Centered Mizar and selected a calibration star and it was still off by the same amount.
Powered off and tried the same procedure again with the same results. What am I doing wrong? It worked the night before at a different location using the same alignment procedure.
I also wondered if there is a way to get out of the two star alignment procedure? I tried undo and it keeps cycling thru stars for alignment. No other key seems to get you out.
Another issue that I had was in trying to enter the longitude it wouldn't let me put in the minutes and seconds for my location. I ended up going to the city nearest me (about 5 miles away) for the location.
A way to get out of the 2 star alignment? Power switch is the only way I've found..
And to get back to input the lat/long, it seems you have to do a factory reset and start all over. 
Quote:
Hello Steve,
From reading the posts here, I've noticed that the original poster and yourself turn off your mounts after completing the All-Star polar alignment. From what I've read in the manual and on the Celestron Support link, I just continue to slew to the original alignment and calibration stars after the All-Star, then move on. Has there been any other revised procedure to power down and up again after you polar align the mount? Just curious, thanks!
IMHO you ARE doing it the correct way. I never power down after PA, just go do another 2+4.
Quote:
Update on my CGEM alignment. I was able to go out last Saturday and give it another run. I was able to get it working well after the two star alignment and two calibration stars. Near perfect goto. It still was further off than I would've expected with the two first alignment stars. Perhaps it's because the first time I used it a friend had a gps unit that he plugged in. The alignment stars weren't far off. The next time from a different location I was manually putting in the location and it was much further off initially.
I only use mine at home so I'm not sure if this will help. But pg 28/29 of your handy dandy CGEM Users Manual tells about Calibrating the mount. After a successful 2 star + 4 calibration star alignment, I send my mount to the home position and calibrate the RA switch. Next time out, my initial alignment stars are much, much closer.
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Gary
34N 120W
-My kingdom for blue squares!-
WO Megrez 90FD/TV 0.8x FR/FF
AT8RC
mini Borg 50/Q-Guide/PHD
CGEM
Canon 350D Hap Griffin Baader mod - o.o
My Friend Flickr
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stevecoe
"Astronomical Tourist"
Reged: 04/24/04
Posts: 2637
Loc: Arizona, USA
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I only have to hit "Undo" several times while the time is showing during the startup alignment routine and it takes me to the Lat and Long input command. I have set my CGEM up from Washington State to southern Arizona and had no problems. I just enter the values from my Garmin GPS.
Hope that helps;
Steve Coe
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TeleVue 102 refractor on CGEM mount
10 inch f/4.7 Newtonian
Author "Deep Sky Observing" Springer-Verlag
Author "Nebulae and How to Observe Them" Springer
Canon Xt astrocamera with Hutech modification
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freestar8n
sage
Reged: 10/12/07
Posts: 299
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Hi-
Some comments-
Sometimes just holding down the menu button will get you out of things like alignment mode. Just hold it down for a few seconds and see if it works.
After doing allstar alignment, you may not need to do anything at all and you will have good goto accuracy. If you want improved accuracy you can replace two alignment stars, but it isn't essential. And there is definitely no reason to power down unless you want to do a complete new alignment for some reason. You can always do more and get some improvement in accuracy - but if you just do AllStar carefully, you be ready to go immediately.
For calibrating the RA switch, just do a good 2+4 calibration on a polar aligned mount and do Calibrate/RA. No need to find home position.
Frank
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waassaabee
Carpal Tunnel
Reged: 11/26/07
Posts: 2693
Loc: Central California Coast
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Thanks for the tips gents!!
--------------------
Gary
34N 120W
-My kingdom for blue squares!-
WO Megrez 90FD/TV 0.8x FR/FF
AT8RC
mini Borg 50/Q-Guide/PHD
CGEM
Canon 350D Hap Griffin Baader mod - o.o
My Friend Flickr
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