AVX Alignment Paradox

[richyj8]

Ok, I finally got some clear skies to try out the AVX mount All Star Polar Alignment. I'm located 40 degrees north latitude. But I can't get past the first step. I'm on the front porch which faces south. The house blocks all views to the north. the south east and southwest have limited views, but south is clear with many bright stars. The ASAP calls first for aligning two stars, but the menu choices have none listed that I can see. Is there a way to choose a star not listed on the menu? Unless this step is completed, the ASAP cannot be done.

Thanks in advance,

Rich

[Steve Ward]

Should be over 200 stars to choose from in the menu , two of them must be visible surely ... ?

[richyj8]

Thanks for the reply, but the question remains...why are none of the bright stars I can see listed? And it still doesn't answer my question--is there a way I can choose a star not listed? If I could do that , I could proceed with ASPA.  I will try again and see if there are stars I missed.

[kalasinman]

Sounds like your time and location are off. Try a program like Stellarium to identify what you see. Of course your lat-long and local time have to correct for it to work also.

You can also snap a picture of what you see and upload it here  http://nova.astrometry.net/upload which will identify what you see.

[kalasinman]

Thanks for the reply, but the question remains...why are none of the bright stars I can see listed? And it still doesn't answer my question--is there a way I can choose a star not listed? If I could do that , I could proceed with ASPA.  I will try again and see if there are stars I missed.

I don't have your brand, but I believe there is still a choice for user objects. Use my suggestions to identify the stars you see and enter their coordinates as user objects. Then  use them.

[ronin]

They have a lot of stars in their list (too many I think) and they stick a month next to them.

What could be happening is that the bright ones have May or July against them, so software being software assumes that there are better.

There is usually the option to scroll up or down the list by pressing one of the Up/Down movement keys.

What seems to occur is that the handset displays on which for whatever reason it thinks is good, you decide otherwise and "simply" move up/down the list to a better one.

Someone had this problem a couple of months back, the handset picked Algieba, easy but not exactly well known in Leo. Why it did not pick Regulus or Denebola in Leo was not obvious as both are brighter, easier and better known.

Find manual, read on how to pick a different alignment star.

[ronin]

Manual P14:

Select Two-Star Align from the alignment choices given.
Based on the date and time information entered, the hand
control will automatically select and display a bright star
that is above the horizon.

• Press ENTER to select this star as your first alignment
star.

• If for some reason the chosen star is not visible (perhaps
behind a tree or building), press BACK to have the
hand control automatically select the next brightest star.

• Or you can use the Up/Down keys to browse the entire
Named Star list and select any one of over two hundred
alignment stars.

Looking at the handset the 6 and 9 keys are the Up/Down.

So when it offers you a star do not press Enter go up and down the list for a visible one, then I assume press Enter to tell the software to use the one selected by you.

[richyj8]

Thanks for all the advice, I'll re-read the manual again. I was using Stellarium and will use it again as suggested. Regulus was one of the stars on the menu, and I would have chosen it for certain, but  the view was blocked by my house. It's only my second week with a telescope, so thanks for bearing with me.