Celestron "OTA orientation" option

[philming]

Hi all !

I only had one chance to try out my side by side system so far, mounted on a CG5-GT. I just spinned the mount's head 90° so as to have the OTAs pointing north, and just locked into position.

After doing some reading I realized there was an "OTA Orientation" setup on the HC.

How am I supposed to use this ?

Leave the OTAs oriented so as to have the index marks aligned ?

Is there some sort of process ? Since it didnt cause much problem last time I've used the setup...

Thanx for your input !

[johninderby]

Hope this helps.

From page 27 of the CGEM manual

http://www.celestron.com/c3/images/files/downloads/1235085036_cgem11097inst.pdf

OTA Orientation-

Some users may wish to use an optional tandem bar adapter which allows you to attach to the mount two optical tubes at the same time. When most tandem bars are attached to a mount, the optical tubes are positioned at a 90 degree angle from the standard configuration. In order for the mount to be successfully aligned with the stars, it must know that a tandem bar is being used and in which direction the optical tube(s) are positioned (East or West) when beginning an alignment. The tandem option must be set before beginning any of the initial star alignments. To set this option, go to the Scope Setup menu and select the Tandem option and press ENTER. Then select from one of the following options:

 East- If the attached optical tubes are facing towards the east when the declination index makers are align, select East.

 West- If the attached optical tubes are facing towards the west when the declination index makers are align, select West.

 Normal- If the tandem bar is no longer being used, select "normal" to turn off this feature.

John

[philming]

Thanx for your reply. That's what I have read so far. So my understanding of this is that I should leave the index marks aligned as they are, so facing west I guess.

Doesnt that option get canceled if i reset to factory default ?

Cause here's my procedure :

• startup, reset to factory default

• Do a 3 star align

• Do a polar align

• switch off

• Do a 3 star align again.

Since I cant access the option before doing an align, when iam i supposed to enter this setting ? And how should the OTAs be oriented in the process ?

[brantuk]

If you park it before switching off then it should remember all the previous settings when you next switch on

[philming]

Thanx, but i still dont understand when I'm supposed to do all that.

When I first power up the mount, it's going to ask for a Two star align (in order for me to be able to do a polar align). So I guess I need to have the OTA pointing north right ? To start with ?

• reset to factory default

• Then I do my first alignment (probably just a quick align)

• Set the option on the HC

• switch off and change to OTA orientation (physically)

• switch on > 3 star align

• Polar align

• switch off

• 3star align again

It all seem very complicated this way doesn't it ?

[Deneb]

Hi

I have a CGEM Mount, I would do the following, so you understand the procedure I would do a factory reset on the mount 1st.

1. Polar Align the mount if you have a polar scope.
   
2. Make sure index marks are aligned up where marked
   
3. Factory Reset, then cycle power
   
4. When displayed on HC do you wish to align confirm it, press undo to get into config settings.
   
5. set your longtitude & latitude of location (you'll find it if you have google map/earth/GPS or something).
   
6. Enter Time & Date with DST
   
7. Select Two Star Alignment Option
   
8. Select the 1st star from the list nearer to the meridan (facing south) as possible, the other night the 1st star was Regulus. Align the star into your finderscope 1st, hit ENTER, with an highpower eyepiece center into the star into the eyepiece fov then press ALIGN.
   
9. Select the 2nd Star from the list, I usually select a star on the other side of the Meridan & follow the same procedure as indicated with 1st alignment & with the calibration stars.
   
10. After alignment of 2 stars I usually also do 4 star calibration, those stars can be any on the list, apart from the one's directly overhead.
    
11. Once the mount calibrates itself it will say Align Successful.
    

Now just remember, you will only have to set the longtitude, latitude, Time & Date once as it will auto remember next time when you cycle the power down after your session.

HTH

Cheers

Nadeem.

[philming]

Yes that's the procedure I usually follow, except I add the polar alignment through the HC too.

And here I need to set the OTA orientation at some point, and move the OTAs physically at some point too. That would definitly be BEFORE doing any kind of alignment...

So at what stage do i have the option to do that ?

[Deneb]

The procedure explained was without moving the ota using the latitude & azimuth knobs if you have a polar scope fitted if not then you would have to do this after the 2 star alignment before you calibrate any further stars for the mount.

This explained in the manual, bottom of the downloads page:

CG-5 Computerized Mount (item #91518) / Mounts / Products / Celestron.com

Nadeem.

[old_eyes]

Yes that's the procedure I usually follow, except I add the polar alignment through the HC too.

And here I need to set the OTA orientation at some point, and move the OTAs physically at some point too. That would definitly be BEFORE doing any kind of alignment...

So at what stage do i have the option to do that ?

I have a CG5 and this confused the hell out of me for a while.

Mount the scopes and set the mount to the index marks. Power up the mount, select menu and ferret out the OTA alignment. In my case the scopes are now pointing west, so I choose that option. Once this is done you don't have to do it again unless you either switch back to a normal orientation or do a factory reset.

I do not do a factory reset unless something has gone horribly wrong.

So now when I power up the mount it goes straight to two star align. The mount knows the scopes are offset from the index marks by 90deg anti-clockwise 'cos you have told it so. So it compensates and slews (more or less) to the first alignment star. Normal process from then on including using the mount polar align.

So in the end it is easy. Tell it what configuration you have and then leave it until ou change. Normal index marks and everything works from there.

old_eyes