Tasco Mission Impossible!

[dazliss]

Hi all,

A couple of months ago I brought a 114mm Tasco reflector second hand. It came on a motorised mount with a programmable hand controller. Its badged as Starguide but is referred to in the manual as Mission control. Now, as far as I can tell it works ok. Manually I can use the direction buttons to lock on to what ever I choose but using the automatic alignment is a nightmare. I have tried several different ways now, entering long/ lat, choosing my nearest city (Birmingham) but nothing is working. The nearest I have got so far has the scope pointing 180 degrees out. I am definitely starting from north but something is not right. It was pointing skywards tonight trying to located a star that was well below the horizon.

Am I right in thinking that the Uk's time zone for these things is 00? and also that the northing should be a positive not a negative number?

Any advice you can give would be a blessing.

Thanks in advance,

Darren

[barkis]

Hi. Darren

I would establish if the hand controller is set for the Northern Hemisphere. Whether the choice is a switch on the controller, or in a menu I wouldn't know, you will need to investigate.

Is there a manual that came with the telescope?

That should tell you if there is a Northern or Southern hemisphere choice. The problem has to an initial setup issue I would think.

Sorry I can't be more specific, I'm not familiar with that unit.

Ron.

[dazliss]

Thanks for the quick reply,

yes I have the manual but its poorly written and translated and there is no mention of selecting hemispheres. I'm sure its probably just something I am missing but its just a bit annoying. As I said it is still perfectly usable if I want to control it manually but as its there it would be nice to get it working.

[Capricorn]

As you say Long/Lat and Timezone of 00 it sounds similar to the Skywatcher/Celestron.

The latitude will be +ve and something like 52.5

Long will be something like 2.5W or -2.5 (not sure on the format).

One thing I would check, is are you sure that Birmingham is the UK one?

If the unit is based on a Celestron and with Celestron being US they will have used Birmingham Alabama as an entry. Think it could be the capitol of Alabama in fact so would appear in a list of places, just they would be US cities.

Not sure about the one you have nor 100% sure about the Skywatcher/Celestrons but on a Mead if I supply the Lat/Long then I define the Town/City/location name.

[dazliss]

Hi, Yes definitely selecting England, Birmingham. Like I say its second hand so maybe something has happened to it but Last night I pointed it north, Aligned what I think are the right stars then asked it to point to Jupiter. AT this point it then swung north again. Even I know Jupiter was in the south west.

Thnks for the advice. I guess I'll try it again tonight.

[CGolder]

Is the date set as numbers or do you select the month, perhaps its in the incorrect format. MM/DD/YY instead of the normal way?

[dazliss]

Nope the handset is set to the american format of mm/dd/yy is it possible that this scope is pre millennium bug? and its gone back to 1910?

[rowan46]

it seems that this is the same system as the old nexstar 4 gt here is a link which maybe will maybe give you a better manual ttp://www.nexstarsite.com/Manuals.htm

[dazliss]

Thanks, I'll give it a try

[Staffy]

If everything is 180 degrees out and it's pointing down instead of up have you checked that the telecope itself is not mounted back to front on the mount. Sounds silly but I have made sillier mistakes....

[dazliss]

No not that although I did consider it myself. The scope was pointing up towards where jupiter would have been if it was in the north. It only pointed down when it tried to align to stars which are below the horizon. It must be working off the correct star map for the date because when I asked it to find Uranus it pointed to almost exactly the same position as Jupiter (though still pointing north) which leads me to believe it is something I am (not?) doing. I have now sourced a mains lead so if I have clear skies over the next few days I will sacrifice star gazing to try to get to a point where I have it sussed. Good job I can take my little note book running stellarium outside with me to identify the stars I need....lol.

Thanks for all the help so far.

[Staffy]

I have just been playing around on Redshift, moving the observer's position around. You're not in the Falklands are you? The best position that gives Jupiter (and Uranus) to the north at 9.30 last night is Port Stanley. Port Stanley is the about the same latitude south as Liverpool or Manchester is north (everyone thinks it's much further south than that but it's not, it's just bl***y cold wand windy there cos there's not much land to stop the wind at that latitude south). That would indicate that your north/south desigation is the wrong way around. As for the longitude... I'm still working on that.

[dazliss]

Nope definitely not in the Falklands but it does feel cold enough. My long/ lat set up is weird (well to me anyway) it asks me to enter long first as W (or E),deg, mins, sec then when I enter lat instead of asking for N it asks for + or -. deg, min, As I'm in the northern hemisphere I guess I enter +. But the results are the same even if I enter international, England, Birmingham. I was going to give it a good try last night but had total cloud cover so no point.

[dazliss]

I think I have finally worked it out but have had to resort to running the scope off the mains. It now points in sort of the right direction but due to a low cloud base I have no chance of fine tuning it tonight.

Thanks for all the help

[clint]

Hi i have the same problem with my starguide 60, im in west sussex and the scope seems to point everywhere else other than where i want it to, if you have a solution could you let me know as the frustration is too much, i put all the right co-ordinates in but just does not want to know. Many thanks, Clint.

[mr saddo]

Hi, oh dear, i have just bought one of theses tasco mission control scopes off e -bay!! cheap mind you, i already have a 5 inch dob but am struggling to find stuff again, thought i would get one of these!! to help me out, ps, has it got a port so you can put a cable to lap top for control using stellarium etc. that may work? yours paul.

[mr saddo]

yep,, mine does the same it went to vega vertical nearly ripped the scope off mount, had to pull power lead to stop stupid thing!! vega was clearly below horizon, pressed udo went to another star all below horizon yet scope was pointing up wards and opposite way, made sure scope alt az settings were zero and mount was pointing north level. even put location in Leeds has iam in York, and it still goes mental. checked sidereal ok, time date entered right, time zone 00, daylight saving yes, still wont have it, i use a power pack has well. lat and long seem weired when enter location, it asks for west or east, the latitude+_ should be north first 53 58n then 1 06 34w surly.

[mr saddo]

iam thinking of hooking a cable to lab top with stellarium, but... the serial port on lap top his wedge shape 15 pin, we need a r j 22 or r j 11 to go to hand set underneath, then a 9 pin male serial connector, trouble is does anyone know if you plug the 9 pin to 15 pin on lap top? not use all the 15 pins on lap top port? cables are £20!!.for both male and female to usb!! if they work?

[rawhead]

Lots of info here:

http://www.nexstarsite.com/OddsEndsGTOriginal.htm

I have the mount but have given up on the goto features.

When I get the ST80 on board it will be a good little manual ALT AZ...

Cheers

[EssexMigrant]

Hi to all!

I also had problems with my Starguide 60 initially. BUT I NOW HAVE THEM SORTED! What I found was that I had the ORIGINAL handset that has bugs; read this page:

http://www.nexstarsite.com/OddsNEnds/CommonAlignmentProblems.htm

Without going inot details this page sorted my problems. One I did notice was that having saved my westerly location, it saved it as a converted easterly.

If any of you still have questions, please post them. If I don't answer, PM me which will go to my inbox.

Cheers

Max