Celestron Astro fi 90 issue

[Bigfellani5]

Any help appreciated

I bought a Astro fi 90 telescope and am having issues.

Using the SkyPortal software I aligned the finder scope.

Next was to align 3 stars. Star 1 no issue. Could not get telescope to star 2. After resetting everything got 2 stars to align. Would not move to star 3. After resetting and re aligning first 2 stars finally go star 3. Tried the to center thing on Venus and scope pointed the wrong way. Tried to move manually using software and telescope won’t move. After an hour of resetting and trying I gave up. Not a great experience for me and my son tonight.

Any help would be appreciated

[Mick H]

Hi Bigfellai5, and welcome to SGL.

Sorry to hear of your problem.

I'm not familiar with your scope, but can you get tablet/phone to ignore your home's wifi hub (if you have one), maybe wifi is interfering.

Can you do a factory reset with your scope?

I guess you do not have a hand controller like goto scopes, maybe you could see if one is compatible with your scope.

[happy-kat]

Hi

Any date entered would need to be mm dd yy

The tripod ideally should be level.

[Chris]

Hi, I've reviewed the Astro FI 90 for my YouTube channel. 1st question: Do you use Android or Apple devices? I tried various android devices and never managed to get my example to align. Apparently these telescopes work better with Apple devices. 

Being sincerely honest with you, I would just return it and buy a goto system with a hand controller. Having said this I've heard good things about the Skywatcher AZ-GTI which uses a tablet or phone, so if you're dead set on tablet control I would give that one a go

[happy-kat]

Or Skywatcher also do a 90mm refractor on the stardiscovery mount which comes with a wifi dongle but does have the port for a handset as far as I recall.

[Bigfellani5]

5 hours ago, happy-kat said:

Hi

Any date entered would need to be mm dd yy

The tripod ideally should be level.

Date is auto set in the software and is correct. Tripod is a level as I can get it. 
 

4 hours ago, Lockie said:

Hi, I've reviewed the Astro FI 90 for my YouTube channel. 1st question: Do you use Android or Apple devices? I tried various android devices and never managed to get my example to align. Apparently these telescopes work better with Apple devices. 

Being sincerely honest with you, I would just return it and buy a goto system with a hand controller. Having said this I've heard good things about the Skywatcher AZ-GTI which uses a tablet or phone, so if you're dead set on tablet control I would give that one a go

I have used an iPhone and an iPad. 
 

during the day I spent 20 mins playing with it and aligning the scope. When it can to the business end of using it at night it fails me

[Chris]

Can you exchange it? The Astro FI is probably the worst setup I've ever tried, and I've tried a lot of scopes!

[happy-kat]

Is there a chance you aren't picking the star you think it is. Have you checked using say a star map or similar to know which star you are picking. 

[Bigfellani5]

Update. I can make the scope move using the Goto command in the software but cannot use the manual controls in the software

[Bigfellani5]

18 minutes ago, happy-kat said:

Is there a chance you aren't picking the star you think it is. Have you checked using say a star map or similar to know which star you are picking. 

The main issue at the moment is I can not use the manual controls to try a realignment

[Bigfellani5]

New update. Deleted and reinstalled software and manual controls are back so might be a software issue. Will go through it all tonight

[happy-kat]

I've had a thought. When using my skywatcher on aligning the subsequent star the slew rate is very slow for precise adjustment but this can make it seem like the mount is not moving. Can you select a faster slew rate and then use a directional button just to see if it is moving.

End alignment movements with up and right where possible it helps minimise backlash slop.

[Bigfellani5]

My mount is definitely not moving

[bigbrian451]

So What has happened. Did you resolve your issues, or did you return it?