Pulling hair out with Meade 2090 Just bougt

[dalejohn]

Just been out for an hour tonight, can not get the scope to goto correctly, Put in the home position selected time etc and Manchester,(closest City to me) England as the position, then easy align, scope says ok. then put in the Moon thinking thats a good start, the scope goes nothing like where the Moon is. read manual again but can not see what I am doing wrong. any ideas?

[perkil8r]

remember the date will need to go in back to front, Ie mm/dd not dd/mm that might help?

[Ags]

Goto mounts often struggle with the location of the moon.

[hemihaggis]

please tell us a little more info on what kind of scope mount ect you have

[dalejohn]

The scope is a Meade DS-2090 with 497 autostar, does that help? really just bought the scope yesterday.

[smudgeball]

Hi

Some things to try.

If possible get your location into the controller in longitude and latitude.

Really spend that bit of time levelling the scope.

I find that the more time I spend on levelling, the better my GOTO accuracy.

Also, not sure on the Meade options for alignment, but it's better to use stars far apart across your viewing area for alignment.

Some things to try.

Regards

Neil

[dalejohn]

Thanks very much, will try, it as gone really cloudy now so will try

[Tinker1947]

When i had a Meade LT-6, the first couple of GoTo never worked,but somehow it just starts to, so point it North, get it level, get the scope level, pick a Star that's a little to the left or right of North near your horizon, this helps a lot if it goes completely the wrong way switch off and start again, if it get close to the chosen star get it centered in the scope then change to a high power EP and recenter, its a good time now to align your Red Dot Finder, select a 2nd star and it should get close do as for the 1st star and that should be that, once i got my Meade working it was pretty good but it just seems it need a couple of goes.

[Capricorn]

If it is the "standard" Mead alignment then the base of the scope needs to be level and the tube needs to be level and pointing due North when you select Easy Align.

The scope then thinks for a second or two and slews to the first star, you do not select one on a MEade unless the process has been changed. You centre this press OK and it slews to the second star. Again you centre it and press OK and that is it. Use the long eyepiece.

First question is: Is the scope doing the slewing as described and after you have levelled it all and aimed it North?

If by chance the set up is not as described then Meade have changed it so ignore these ramblings.

If the setup is as described and you are centering stars it should go to the moon.

Cannot recall the date format but if wrong the alignment will have been way off. The time defaults to 20:00 which is 8:00 at night, they use a 24 hour clock.

Have to admit I have always entered my own position and not used the supplied close ones.

It all depends on: Does the alignmet procede as described, if it does then it suggest the data is OK, if not then that is where the problem will be. It will be something simple, just identifing it is usually a pain.

[patomlin76]

As far as I know, you need to select one of the brighter stars rather than the moon - Arcterus/Betelgeuse etc...

Also as others have said, tripod has to be spot on level, and accurately North as well, so line it up with Polaris to start with. GOTO can be hit and miss but as long as you centre both your alignment stars in the viewfinder, you will often find that your chosen goto stars/planets will be somewhere within the viewfinder...

[dalejohn]

Thanks everyone for all your help, I am going to try all suggestions. thank you

[Tinker1947]

If it is the "standard" Mead alignment then the base of the scope needs to be level and the tube needs to be level and pointing due North when you select Easy Align.

The scope then thinks for a second or two and slews to the first star, you do not select one on a MEade unless the process has been changed. You centre this press OK and it slews to the second star. Again you centre it and press OK and that is it. Use the long eyepiece.

First question is: Is the scope doing the slewing as described and after you have levelled it all and aimed it North?

If by chance the set up is not as described then Meade have changed it so ignore these ramblings.

If the setup is as described and you are centering stars it should go to the moon.

Cannot recall the date format but if wrong the alignment will have been way off. The time defaults to 20:00 which is 8:00 at night, they use a 24 hour clock.

Have to admit I have always entered my own position and not used the supplied close ones.

It all depends on: Does the alignmet procede as described, if it does then it suggest the data is OK, if not then that is where the problem will be. It will be something simple, just identifing it is usually a pain.

I brought a Meade LT-6 last summer and then used to select Capella as the first star due to it being N/east and not to high, so as of last year you could select your own stars, and yes, level the mount, level the scope, point it north, should then work...)