Celsetron All Star Align

[gary1968]

I had my scopes out at the weekend for the 1st time since last spring.

This was the 1st time I have had the chance to use the mount since I flashed the HC and MC. For those out there that have a CG5GT I can thoroughly recomend doing same.

As I am pretty lazy I did my usual rough look through the polar scope bore hole for the polar alignment. I then, as usual, used the 2 star align routine and added 3 calibration stars, align confirmed the HC told me. I used goto and sent the scope to Vega.

I wanted then to try the Allstar Alignment routine, so, looking at the new CGEM manual, downloadable from celestron web site, I was instructed to press the Align button and scroll through until I found the 'Polar Align' section. I was then instructed to select 'align mount' option. The mount moved a bit then I was instructed to centre the star in the finder using the hc buttons, press enter then centre the star in the ep and press align. The mount then 'sync'd' to where Vega should have been in the centre of the ep, it was out a bit, was at the edge of the fov in a 25mm ep. All that was required then was to centre Vega in the ep using the alt and azi screws....

And that was the mount properly Polar Aligned.

After I un-syn'd the mount following the instructions all was well. Gotos were certainly very good, bringing M82 onto the the chip of my Orion CCD. Tracking was also very good, as a little trial I took a couple of 5 min subs of M81/82 and there was little or no trailing of the stars, although the images them selves were carp as it was getting a bit cloudy by then.

All thats left for me to do now is get the gear auto guiding and get used to using a Bartinov mask to get focusing spot on.

By eck this imaging lark aint easy is it??

Gary

[continuum]

I wish I could say that my CG5GT was easy to align but since it came back from David Hinds after repair ( flashing the MC upgrade failed midway ) It's been totally wrong. Way off onthe first star Arcturus then worse on subsequent stars.

I,ve checked all the inputs, date(rightorder) time location etc., all in order so

I'm going to go through every step meticulously in daylight and if I've been doing everything right - I guess it willhave go back again!

Anyone else had a similar problem?

RonJ

[gary1968]

Sorry to Hear that Ron.

I have only had direct experiance with 2 of these mounts, my own and Dogfish (on here), it was the success he had with his that prompted me to buy one and it has been faultless 'til now. At the end of spring this year I had started trying to autoguide, without success. It is probably me not doing something right but it may turn out that these mounts dont like it, time will tell I suppose.

I suppose it depends on your location / time but on Saturday night the alignment stars mine chose were Vega, Deneb then Mirfak. If you time etc were similar to mine then I wonder why yours chose Arcturus?

Hope you get it sorted out soon mate.

Gary

[continuum]

Gary, Don't kow why Arcturus but for me in my location it is ideal.

It will usually go on to Dubhe and Mirfak.

I've been using 12v Battery Pack charged up after every use but I'm going to try power through a 12v regulated transformer supply (from my ETX) tonight and see how it goes.

Have heard that 4.16 has caused similar problems for somebody else but I am reluctant to go back to 4.12

RonJ

[Psychobilly]

I Don't really know why but i am getting much better and less DEC guiding by performing One star alignment with my scope setup on the fixed pier and wedge...

So basically all i do is wake up the scope and re-sync to a single star and off to go...

Peter...

[AndyKeogh]

I wish I could say that my CG5GT was easy to align but since it came back from David Hinds after repair ( flashing the MC upgrade failed midway ) It's been totally wrong. Way off onthe first star Arcturus then worse on subsequent stars.

I,ve checked all the inputs, date(rightorder) time location etc., all in order so

I'm going to go through every step meticulously in daylight and if I've been doing everything right - I guess it will have go back again!

Anyone else had a similar problem?

RonJ

I have a CG5GT and it works fine after the firmware upgrade.

Have you tried controlling it from a PC using NXRemote? It is supposed to bypass the HC and talk directly to the motor controllers on each axis. This would help to isolate where the problem lies.

I have a cable running from the serial port in my PC into the bottom of the hand controller.

BTW even with a reasonable polar alignment I still find that the scope is way out on the first star (also Acturus) gets better on Dubhe.

Have you checked that the scope is level before you start alignment?

I use a torpedo level to make sure the mount itself is level rather than relying on the inbuilt bubble.

Andy

[continuum]

Thanks Andy but glad advise that subject to getting a clear sky I think I have the answer. After repairing you would have thought that they would have done a factory reset - apparently they didn't. So last night I did so and although I was not able to do an alignment because of almost total cloud,. I did a few random GOTO's e.g., Jupiter and Vega and it did seem near the mark. So hopefully tonight......

RonJ