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LX200R-GPS alignment

mattifor

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mattifor

mattifor

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I am still struglling with my alignment.

I have trained the drive.

re calibrated the sensors

I have completed Auto align

I have followed advice given,

but alignment of the FX200R-GPS is still way off.

One question

Using the FX200R-GPS in AZ mode and Auto alignment Should Daylight saving be set in the ON or OFF postion Please?

With my LDX55 on GEM mount and Autostar 497 and third party GPS, the setup for the LDX55 requires Daylight saving to be off before starting Auto align.

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alfingido

alfingido

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I would imagine Daylight saving should be set to on. Daylight saving or BST ends on 25th October.

Have you tried with daylight saving on and off? Is the GPS having time to tell you it has established its position.

Can you turn GPS off and manually input your location to see if that helps?

I had an LX200 that was a nightmare to position sometimes, it was always off. I tried all the above then moved the scope to a new position in the garden. I think it was affected by a steel yardmaster shed that I had the scope next to, but never tried it there again because it worked fine where it now was.

Allan

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mattifor

mattifor

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Thanks,

having again attempted to align but some where I am missing something.

1. Train the Drives:

2. Calibrate Sensors: including centering on Polaris,

3. Brightest Star "Off".

4. Have tried Daylight saving both ON and OFF but very little difference.

turn off

turn back on

auto align.

but still stars and planets a mile off to the left on each slew.

totally lost and deflated

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mattifor

mattifor

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Well on the odd night that we have had part clear nights still not got the goto alignment sorted out.

So yesterday I decided to change from Alt/AZ. Installed the Meade Super wedge onto the Pier in the Observatory and installed the LX200R_GPS onto the wedge.

Set it up level and as near to North as I can in day light.

Then waited for dark but as it has been for the last week clouds, 1 AM still clouds so gave up and retired to bed.

So still no further forward.

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mattifor

mattifor

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thanks to Albireo380 for help locating Peterson Engineering EZ Focus kit.

Peterson Engineering EZ Focus kit fitted and Crayford focuser also fitted.

Mirror shift almost completely now elliminated.

LX200R now mounted on a Meade super wedge on Telescopic pier in Observatory in polar mode.

Still not got the alignment quite right GOTO still appears to be 5% out to the left on all GOTO slews after sync on particular star GOTO still slightly out except Synced star.

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alfingido

alfingido

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Peterson EZ clutch kit is a worthwhile addidtion too, stops the risk of stripping the dec clutch thread.

Re the iffy goto, have you got the latest software in the handset? This may make a difference. I had an ETX 125 that went awol when trying to align, It went to the right object, then slewed off a couple of degrees. It was the Autostar software that was causing problems

Allan

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RobH

RobH

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What method are you using to polar align the scope Ivor?

Re. daylight saving. I never bother with it.

My observatory computers all run at GMT, and the mounts I've had have all stayed on GMT too.

Works fine and you don't have to think about it again.

Cheers

Rob

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afm038

afm038

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Not sure if this is may be part of you're issues, it's a thread from the Cloudy Night Meade LX/RCX forum

In the Setup menu there is a setting for "GPS-utc Offset", it gets set to +13 as a default from the system bios but according to the people there it should be set to 0 (zero), you can manually change it.

Cheers, Andy

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mattifor

mattifor

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Thanks for the sugestion, having checked mine found that GPS UTC offset is already at 0.

Ivor

Not sure if this is may be part of you're issues, it's a thread from the Cloudy Night Meade LX/RCX forum

In the Setup menu there is a setting for "GPS-utc Offset", it gets set to +13 as a default from the system bios but according to the people there it should be set to 0 (zero), you can manually change it.

Cheers, Andy

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mattifor

mattifor

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What method are you using to polar align the scope Ivor?

I have just followed the instructions that are in the wedge manual

Positioned Wedge to align magnetic North of set 2.41deg east to face NCP

set altitude to 53deg North, and checked with electronic tilt meter to confirm 53deg

SETUP>TElescope>Mount changed setting to Polar

put scope into polar Home position :Hour angle 00:00 Declination 90deg U finder on scope is upside down

After dark checked and it was pointing to Polaris almost dead on.

adjusted sligtly .25deg approx east

put in 26mm wide field rectile eyepiece , rotat east and west, stars rotate around the centered Polaris.

Re. daylight saving. I never bother with it.

My observatory computers all run at GMT, and the mounts I've had have all stayed on GMT too.

Works fine and you don't have to think about it again.

changed daylight saving to No

set my obs computer also to GMT.

but checking Handbox after GPS align fount that it shows PST as 4 hours ahead of GMT???

cant find how to change this.

Cheers

Rob

regards

Ivor

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RobH

RobH

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Hello Ivor.

Your polar alignment routine sounds right, and doing it as you have done will get you reasonably close to the pole.

To get absolutely spot-on you will now need to drift align.

Re. PST. This should be 8 hours behind GMT so being 4 hours ahead makes no sense at all ;)

Cheers

Rob

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RobH

RobH

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Hello Ivor.

I just did a web search on LST but I don't think that in your case it stands for 'landing ship -tank'!!

What is it?....I'm assuming 'local standard time'

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter as long as the scope points to where it should do.

If you are only a little out, then this is probably because your alignment isn't perfect.

When I had an LX200GPS, if I was slewing to a target a long way from where the scope was currently pointing, I would get there in several shorter 'star hops', and resynchronise at each stage.

Cheers

Rob

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