Select and slew to object

[Ospervat]

I have just bought a SLT 102 and am having trouble with the Align / Slew to selected object feature.

I have followed the instructions very carefully but once aligned the scope slews to object and stops in the completely incorrect position.

Worst case scenario tonight at about 7.30pm - I aligned scope with Venus selected slew to Mars and the scope moved from SW to E in the direction of Mars (OK) then slew down to look at the ground and stopped?

There have been other incidents where it just doesnt seem to know where the object is and ends up pointing in the wrong place missing by quite a wide margin.

Truth is probably operator error. Have you any ideas what I could be doing wrong that is common to a complete newbie.

Appreciate any insight at this stage.

Thanks

N

[kharga]

Have you entered the date as MM/DD/YYYY as they usually follow the american system?

[Ospervat]

Yep

[Ospervat]

Hows this for a thought..

Are we Std time or DST in the UK?

[rowan46]

we are gmt at the moment we change to daylight saving last weekend in march

[Cornelius Varley]

Coordinates inputted correctly ? Your coordinates should be similar to 000 45 24 W, 52 02 18 N.

Peter

[cosmological]

Was that a Solar System align you done? For Solar system align the scope needs to be fairly well polar aligned otherwise it won't find objects very well. Try a two or three star alignment, that usually works better.

[Ospervat]

Coordinates inputted correctly ? Your coordinates should be similar to 000 45 24 W, 52 02 18 N.

Peter

Co-ords are very close to what you say. Closer to 41 min W

[Ospervat]

Was that a Solar System align you done? For Solar system align the scope needs to be fairly well polar aligned otherwise it won't find objects very well. Try a two or three star alignment, that usually works better.

Yes it was Solar align. I'm not sure what you mean by polar align. Do you mean Long and Lat co-ords?

If so I have got those correct. Checked on two sites and accurate to within 10m.

Must admit I have not tried 2 / 3 Star align yet. Just trying to get used to working with the kit. Baby steps.

Will try tomorrow weather permitting.

Thanks

[Ospervat]

we are gmt at the moment we change to daylight saving last weekend in march

Once I have entered the time in 24hr format and pressed enter the system then asks me to input Std time or DST.

Is GMT the same as Standard time.

IE we are Std time Oct - Mar and DST Mar - Oct.

[mallorcasaint]

We are on Standard Time until end of March.

[Ospervat]

Thanks. The penny has dropped. :-)