Celestron GOTO woes

[Hootsitabernacle]

Howdy..i have a Celestron C6-GT with a CG5 mount but I cannot align it!!..I have the altitude set correctly and the mount is pointing north but when I pick my first star it heads for my garage...I reckon I am avbout 3 full hand widths out from the first star..no point trying to get the next..i even tried solar system align and Jupiter was well out too..i use a powertank so running out or batteries isn't an option..is there anything I should be doing but am not?..i have had the scope for a full month..before this I have a 200 skyliner and I got the GOTO to make it easier to find stuff..yeah im laughing too!..help?..pleaseeeeee

[Pint Of Stellar]

Did you put the date in to the handset in the right format?

[ronin]

Data:

Longitude -4.0 degrees, may be 4.0 W. Check for leading 0's:- 004 00, these mucked some up a few day back.

Latitude 55.8 degrees, 55.8N, 55 degrees 48 minutes, whichever it expects.

Celestrons want Longitude first if I recall and this throws people.

Date is US format, so MM/DD/YYYY (o4/14/2014), you should be safe as if you had it wrong then the scope is taking the month as the 14th month of the year. But intelligence is generally not shown by most scope goto's.

Timezone is 0, could be UTC. If 0 then check if it will accept -0. Sure I have read this being used some time.

DST is Yes or On.

Time is whatever your watch says.

I assume that the goto knows it is on an EQ mount and not an Alt/Az? One of mine didn't and tried to smash it's way through the mount once.

Strange but the alignment option is defined as using Polaris or is Polaris the start position?

Not overly familiar with the details of the goto.

Sometimes it can start anywhere and you manually move the OTA to the first star.

Is there some odd set up, point at polaris then power off and on cycle defined.

Basically check all the data, especially as it is easy to swap one around.

[ronin]

Slightly odd but these mounts appear to have 2 reference marks that have to be set or visible or something.

As a total guess I assume that you set the latitude and aim North to get polar axis alignment, then wiggle the 2 reference markers into view and that this defines the start position, without knowing I would guess some aspect of the thing is now either pointed at Polaris or is level and North. Only a guess however.

Are the 2 reference marrks in the correct position?

[Hootsitabernacle]

yes to all im afraid....damned if I know whats wrong

[Lonestar70]

Hi Gordon,

Have you polar aligned the mount using the polar scope?.

This must be done before you do anything else... the handset assumes this as a starting point and calculates the goto coordinates based on this and your latitude/longitude as entered on your handset along with the current time.

Polar alignment of the mount is totaly independent of GOTO alignment and can be done (best done) without the main scope attached to the mount... especially the first time, since the mount can be well out and the scope can get in the way.

You cannot rely on the altitude scales on the mount for this... these are at best, only very rough angle guides.

If you can describe your entire set-up procedure we may be able to see where you may be getting/doing things wrong.

Best Regards.

Sandy.

[Hootsitabernacle]

I point the mount north..or as close to it as my compass says..due to the position of my house I cant see polaris unfortunately..the angle on the mount is roughly 55 degrees..i even did a factory reset on the handset and reset everything again..i think im doing it properly..then again.....

[ryandsimmons]

I had massive issues with mine when I first got it.  A factory reset of the handset solved it for me.