Stellarium guiding issue with Celestron Nexstar 102SLT

[Hertford Stargazer]

Firstly, I hope I've posted this in the right section, apologies if I haven't.

I though I would cheat and use the above combo to find Comet Lovejoy a few days ago. I set up the scopes GOTO aligning on Jupiter and checked it's accuracy by slewing to Orion Nebula and back again. I then wired the mount handset to a laptop running Stellarium which I had previously set up the telescope guiding facility using the Nexstar option. Once Stellarium's telescope guidance had been activated it confirmed the scope was locked onto Jupiter so I then commanded the scope to slew to the Moon using Stellarium which it did successfully, I then told it to slew to Procyon which it again done with success. Now for the big one I thought, I sent it on it's way to Lovejoy but to my dismay it went straight past and ended up 180 degrees out pointing in the opposite direction.

I then sent it to Rigel and again it ended up 180 degrees out having moved only a small distance to the mirror opposite position. I sent it back again to Jupiter which it locked onto without a problem. Having disconnected the laptop I then confirmed the scope was still aligned by using the Celestron handset to lock onto various targets without issue. I re-connected the laptop to try again but had the exact same problems as before. I then tried using the Skywatcher software setting in Stellarium but with the same disastrous results.

Has anyone had the same issue and if so what am I doing wrong? Oh, I have since found Lovejoy without any computer guidance, at that point I decided I would never bother using computers again, but as so often happens I'm giving in (again) to my thirst for technology

Thanks in advance. 

[damnut]

Hi There,

A strange one, especially as stellarium firstly finds objects correctly. So just a couple of quesies

1. Check your location in Stellarium, is it correct

2. Check your scope choice? (make sure you have the correct settings)

Stellarium is usually reliable once you have the correct setup.

Good Luck

[Hertford Stargazer]

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I went through all the settings, location, scope type ect and it was all correct. I'm at a real loss as what to try next. At least this is something I can work at resolving inside while this dismal weather blows through. 

[Vega]

^{I always thought you shouldn't use the hand controller's goto function at the same time as using a laptop connection for telescope control. I always turn off and start a new session when using telescope control (using stellarium scope). I might be wrong though.}

^{The only other thing I can think of is you're Lat Long might be set to  South instead of North or East in stead of West etc. It wouldn't explain the fact that it worked on two previous objects though ... hmmm}

[Hertford Stargazer]

Just been experimenting again, now each time I command it to an object it slews round to Polaris. Daft thing is, when controlling the scope from the handset Stellarium tracks the position of the scope and identifies its target perfectly. I've just watched some youtube tutorials on the subject and I still can't find where I'm going wrong   

[Tacobrahe]

I also had the weird response from Stelliarum. If I hit the center button then double clicked the object I wanted it would slew.