GoTo alignment not working

[Christopher Spencer]

Hello,

I have been trying to align my mount using the goto hand controller. I have successfully aligned it with Polaris, but now I need to do the internal 2 star alignment.

The issue is that when I choose my first star that I can see plainly in one direction, it slews in the completely opposite direction! I am using an Orion Atlas EQ-G. It does the same thing every time. I am wondering do I somehow not have it parked correctly? I have it set with both scales to zero.

What am I doing wrong? Much help would be appreciated!

Christopher

[jgs001]

I don't know that mount and setup, but check that you have set the handset to the correct hemisphere, and that you have entered the date in the correct format. I know when I setup my Celestron AltAz goto, and used the wrong date format, I got very similar results.

[Steve Ward]

It will undoubtedly be down to incorrectly inputted Time/Date/Location information ... 

Check the manual and make sure everything is fed in in the correct format.

[Dude_with_the_tube]

dont have the orion mount,but i have to agree with comments above,sounds like wrongly inputted date/month/year check what is the sequence in the manual as some mounts do them in the opposite way as you are normally used to. 

[ronin]

As you are in missouri I assume that the US date/time is familiar to you (mm/dd/yy)

I will have to presume that the Orion is a match to the Skywatcher/Synta iterms - they tend to base their items on those.

Just check that your coordinates are as required probably Long then Lat if you entered a custom location.

Not sure what the timezone will be and I think that it has changed in appearance recently also so that is one aspect to double check, you would appear to be -6 or UTC -6.

Just in case DST is Off at present, easy to get the wrong option, especially when stood outside in the dark, feeling cold and trying to get things to work. If it defaults to Yes (some have  default some use whatever was last specified) and you hit Enter then you are out by 1 hour/15 degrees.

Since your longitude wil be West (or -ve) check that the number of leading 0's is right, you should be around -91 or -92, maybe 91/92W but check for 091 and 092 being displayed.

[hjw]

Hi Christopher,

I had a similar query about a week ago - and I got a similar response. What it turned out to be in my case (HEQ5 which is a Synta mount just like the Orion). My mount was switched off/lost the power connection within a session. I switched it back on and tried to continue and I would find the same thing. The mount went to the opposite side. When you start the mount, make sure that the weight bar points down and the scope points to the north in your case. Doesn't have to be very precise. From this starting position the mount finds its way every time.

Hope it helps!

HJ

[Christopher Spencer]

Hey guys, I figured it out!

I had gone through and double checked and rechecked all my information. I knew all of it was right, but the one thing that was wrong was that my time zone kept resetting to +6:00hrs whereas for me, it should have been -6:00hrs. I looked this up and it turns out that there was a bug about this in my Synscan firmware version. I updated it today to V.04.36.02 and it is working perfectly now!

Thanks for taking the time anyway to give me possible solutions!

Christopher

[ronin]

Why am I sat here laughing?

Of all the bugs they could put in that really has to be one of the oddest.

Do you know if it only occured on -6 or did it do the same at say -8.

Don't you just love software.

[lensman57]

Check your location co ordinates and make sure that you have input the date US style. I always get the BST time the other way around.

A.G

[Christopher Spencer]

Why am I sat here laughing?

Of all the bugs they could put in that really has to be one of the oddest.

Do you know if it only occured on -6 or did it do the same at say -8.

Don't you just love software.

Yep, software can be great, but those bugs can really mess you up at times.

I don't if it will work with -8 hours or no, as I don't have the old firmware anymore, but I assume it wouldn't as the bug was with the +- symbol, probably unrelated to what time you enter.