Help alligning a Celestron 90GT WiFi

[frank2958]

Hi

I was wondering if anyone could help me i am a total newbie at this i have always wanted a telescope and finally i got one after looking around for a decent entry level one i finally decided to get a Celestron 90gt WiFi which had decent reviews.

After numerous attempts to align it using the Celestron Navigator app and i tried Sky Portal using a 3 star align and 25mm eyepiece it just wont align so as a consequence it is a long way out. I have alligned the scope finder which is fine and i managed to look at the moon and saturn (saturn found by accident) the views are totally amazing and i want more but with the app and telescope out of alligment i am finding it very hard to locate objects in the sky.

i have checked all the date, time and location settings there set correctly when im using the app looking at the sky with it using the moon as guidance the app is slightly out and the crosshair for the telescope within the app is way off.

I've tried it using the moon and two different bright stars in different locations then without using the moon I have also made sure the tripod is leveled.

The only options in the settings for alignment is the 3 star align and manual allign which I've also tried there is no 2 star allign option.

I think It could be the app that's at fault because even though I'm looking at the moon through the eye piece the app crosshair says I'm pointing to a totally different place in the sky but looking at the sky through the app it's slightly out as it shows the moon a bit lower that it really is i am going to experiment with different apps to see if that helps any.

Any advice would be greatly appriciated

Thanks in advance

Frank

[ronin]

Usually something that is either silly or looks right but isn't sort of thing.

Your Longitude is 2 degrees 12 minutes West, entered I think as 002  12 W

Your Latitude is 54 degrees 30 minutes North, entered I think as 54  30 N

Your Time Zone is UTC, from other posts I get the idea it is UTC, however it might have a 0 in there as in UTC 0.

It used to be just 0, no UTC bit, that was simpler.

(I have a Meade and it wants -0, 0 is no good neither is +0, it has to be -0) :BangHead:

Check you have Longitude in where it should be, we talk of Lat and Long but the scope wants Long and Lat, then it get's the odd idea it is in Brazil not Newcastle. And before anything is said I recall someone in Newcastle did this, swore blind they had it all correct and this went on for 3 weeks. Then someone called in, entered the data in the correct order and magically it worked.

At power up/alignment it will ask for DST, this is On or Yes.

DST= British Summer Time.

Time is whatever your watch says, PM or AM if that is the format you have picked.

Date is US format, so MM/DD/YYYY - this one is easy to forget and do it wrong.

Today is NOT Jan the 8th.

Level the mount, may not be necessary but the errors the scope has to correct for is related to this, so keeping the corrections minimal is a good idea.

If there is a start position then set it to that - often this is the mount level and the scope OTA pointing North and it also level.

If there is no defined starting position then set it to level and North anyway - it is good practise, and makes people think you know what you are doing. :grin:

Don't use the moon for alignment, suggest you do not use the odd planet either.

The position of these needs to be calculated, stars are "fixed" so again less chance of something going wrong.

How many stars do you know?

I would suggest Arcturus, Altair and Capella.

Capella may be too low, so maybe Polaris.

Pick stars that are sort of "alone"

I generally suspect the Time Zone being wrong, then DST, and Long/Lat being the wrong way round.

The "problem" with Long/Lat is that the handset displays the locatiion and you see 52  30 the presumption is everything is fine as the right number is there, just it is in the wrong place.

Another one is check that the Longitude is 002  12, just in case it has taken the numbers a bit wrong.

Unfortunately is is a computer and they tend not to point out that something is or looks a bit wrong, they just don't do what they are supposed to.

[frank2958]

Usually something that is either silly or looks right but isn't sort of thing.

Your Longitude is 2 degrees 12 minutes West, entered I think as 002  12 W

Your Latitude is 54 degrees 30 minutes North, entered I think as 54  30 N

Your Time Zone is UTC, from other posts I get the idea it is UTC, however it might have a 0 in there as in UTC 0.

It used to be just 0, no UTC bit, that was simpler.

(I have a Meade and it wants -0, 0 is no good neither is +0, it has to be -0) :BangHead:

Check you have Longitude in where it should be, we talk of Lat and Long but the scope wants Long and Lat, then it get's the odd idea it is in Brazil not Newcastle. And before anything is said I recall someone in Newcastle did this, swore blind they had it all correct and this went on for 3 weeks. Then someone called in, entered the data in the correct order and magically it worked.

At power up/alignment it will ask for DST, this is On or Yes.

DST= British Summer Time.

Time is whatever your watch says, PM or AM if that is the format you have picked.

Date is US format, so MM/DD/YYYY - this one is easy to forget and do it wrong.

Today is NOT Jan the 8th.

Level the mount, may not be necessary but the errors the scope has to correct for is related to this, so keeping the corrections minimal is a good idea.

If there is a start position then set it to that - often this is the mount level and the scope OTA pointing North and it also level.

If there is no defined starting position then set it to level and North anyway - it is good practise, and makes people think you know what you are doing. :grin:

Don't use the moon for alignment, suggest you do not use the odd planet either.

The position of these needs to be calculated, stars are "fixed" so again less chance of something going wrong.

How many stars do you know?

I would suggest Arcturus, Altair and Capella.

Capella may be too low, so maybe Polaris.

Pick stars that are sort of "alone"

I generally suspect the Time Zone being wrong, then DST, and Long/Lat being the wrong way round.

The "problem" with Long/Lat is that the handset displays the locatiion and you see 52  30 the presumption is everything is fine as the right number is there, just it is in the wrong place.

Another one is check that the Longitude is 002  12, just in case it has taken the numbers a bit wrong.

Unfortunately is is a computer and they tend not to point out that something is or looks a bit wrong, they just don't do what they are supposed to.

I will try this tonight if its clear its looking promising though thank you very much i though it would be so easy how wrong i was

[ronin]

The big part is making sure that you have the data, then it is getting it in. With the entering of Longitude first and the Date format they cause trouble.

The timezone is another, and that depends on how they display the options.

I think at one time they showed the US timezones and almost "hid" the others. I recall someone saying they only had -5 to -10 = the US timezones, took them 2 days to locate the ones for the rest of the world. You can end up with a Longitude of 2^o  12" and be in the timezone for California (California used to be the default timezone for Celestrons).

The Meades have a defined start position, which is a good option. I suspect yours does not, although it sounds good it isn't. I took a small Meade solar viewing, owing to the defined start it was easy and it worked fine all day. Not sure how you would manage it on yours.

Meades also expect Latitude then Longitude entered in that order.

Before you go out to give it all a go, power up the scope inside get into the menu and check every value you can.

[frank2958]

Thanks for that I finalally got it to align tonight woohoo and it worked a treat but here is a total newbie question will I have to align it everytime I use it in a different position ?

[BeanerSA]

Thanks for that I finalally got it to align tonight woohoo and it worked a treat but here is a total newbie question will I have to align it everytime I use it in a different position ?

Yes.

[gemzkebab]

Beaner i have the same problem what did u do to fix

[cletrac1922]

Welcome aboard from land down under

If you have an astronomy club close to you, rock up one meeting night

Members only too happy to show you their equipment, and assist with yours

Big learning curve

John