Alignment help

[MND]

Hi guys,

I recently bought a C9.25 SGT and im having real problems with alignment.

Bear with me but this is what I've been doing. I point roughly North to Polaris. Set the little arrows together on the mount and lock clutches. I turn it on and have entered correct long and lat. Enter time and date then standard and universal time.

Now problems start. I choose a star to align to but there is nothing there. At first I thought it was just because I dont know where they are or what I was looking for. Ive since downloded stellarium and am now choosing stars I know and can see but it slews miles away from them, at least 50 degrees.

I even tried with Jupiter but again it was nowhere near it, 90 degrees away.

I'm at wits end. Its 4th time I've tried with no luck. Am I doing something obviously wrong?

[davefrance]

Hi guys,

I recently bought a C9.25 SGT and im having real problems with alignment.

Bear with me but this is what I've been doing. I point roughly North to Polaris. Set the little arrows together on the mount and lock clutches. I turn it on and have entered correct long and lat. Enter time and date then standard and universal time.

Now problems start. I choose a star to align to but there is nothing there. At first I thought it was just because I dont know where they are or what I was looking for. Ive since downloded stellarium and am now choosing stars I know and can see but it slews miles away from them, at least 50 degrees.

I even tried with Jupiter but again it was nowhere near it, 90 degrees away.

I'm at wits end. Its 4th time I've tried with no luck. Am I doing something obviously wrong?

If its like the Skywatcher set up you need to enter the date in US format i.e. MM/DD/YYYY, are you doing that?

[Tinker1947]

I'm afraid to say its going to be operator error...location or date in the wrong order....

[MND]

Sometimes you can feel really stupid....I set it for UK Date format. Hopefully we will get another clear sky sometime this year and I can try again.

Thanks for the help.

[JMac85X]

Now you said you roughly point it at Polaris. Are you using a Alt Az Mount (Fork Mount) or are you use an Equatorial Mount (with the bar and weights). If your using an Equatorial you should use a polar scope, sometimes these mounts don't come with them. Anyway when you look through it you will see a sketch of the Big Dipper and Cassiopa ( the costellation that looks like a W or M ). You need to move your Right Ascension until the sketchs line up with the Big Dipper and Cassiopa. I'm not sure how Alt Az works. 

[ronin]

I set it for UK Date format

You are not the first and certainly will not be the last, in what is generally the first 12 days of any month that happens.

The handsets used by the manufacturers are getting a bit old now (came out 15 years ago) and out of touch with "modern" technology.

Check also that the location is entered in the correct order. We talk of Lat and Long all the time, googles gives location as Lat and Long but one of the scopes has the location entered as Long first then Lat.

I can understand why iOptron have GPS on (I think) all their scopes.

One bit for alignment, if you can pick the stars then use ones like Arcturus and Aldebaren, they sit alone and are orange/red so stand out.

[MND]

Now you said you roughly point it at Polaris. Are you using a Alt Az Mount (Fork Mount) or are you use an Equatorial Mount (with the bar and weights). If your using an Equatorial you should use a polar scope, sometimes these mounts don't come with them. Anyway when you look through it you will see a sketch of the Big Dipper and Cassiopa ( the costellation that looks like a W or M ). You need to move your Right Ascension until the sketchs line up with the Big Dipper and Cassiopa. I'm not sure how Alt Az works. 

Looks like polarscope is on the to buy list!

[MND]

One bit for alignment, if you can pick the stars then use ones like Arcturus and Aldebaren, they sit alone and are orange/red so stand out.

Annoyingly you choose from a small list of stars, it doesn't include the very obvious ones in the sky for some reason, although that may be because it thought it was January and not March! I'm also limited by vgiewing location to only being able to see 180 degrees of sky.

[Tinker1947]

Not sure on the type of mount you have a EQ Skywatcher type will allow EQMod with this you choose a star to align to so you get what's  in your night sky, or if its a Celestron they have a Star Sense add-on, it aligns for you (somehow)...

[MND]

Its an eq5 I believe. I did see the starsense thingy but I didn't want to throw more money at it until I've had a proper go with it.

Of course there is a solid cloudbase tonight!

[Tinker1947]

The starsense won't work.....

[Chris Rowland]

Starsense will only work with Celestron mounts. With those it works well.  I now don't need to look through a finder at all - don't even have one on the scope.

Chris

[todd8137]

Does this handset have day light saving and non daylight saving.

Paton it just a thought

[MND]

The mounts is a Celestron CG-5GT, does starsense not work with those?

[hobsey]

The mounts is a Celestron CG-5GT, does starsense not work with those?

It does work with them, just there has been reports of some cases where it hasn't.

There is a new firmware update to sort this problem so hopefully it will work as I got my starsense delivered today and I own a cg-5 gt.

[MND]

Would you let me know how it goes If we ever get a clear sky please !

[hobsey]

Yeah, no problem.

Think there is a few people wanting to know.

[MND]

Do you need to buy a splitter for it also?

[hobsey]

Yes you do.

[MND]

Hobsey did you get to try it with CG5?

[hobsey]

No, not yet.

As I don't have a garden and I need to go to a dark site, I don't go out by myself as they say safety in numbers so I need to wait until I can meet up with someone.

As the moon is quite bright at the moment, don't think it will be until the end of the month.