Celestron CG5-GT selecting stars that are not visible when aligning

[Sponcom]

Hi All

I trying to get the alignment to work on a Celestron CG5-GT and having numerous problems.

The main issue is that when trying to align it's trying to align on stars that are below or very close to the horizon. For example it will try to align on Vega at 9pm this evening when it is right on the northern horizon.

I have ensured latitude and longditude is correct (N 51° 34' 12.00". W 1° 54'.00") and I am aware of the nexstar's US date format and it's set to universal time (i.e. not DST)

All the encoders seem to be working correctly and are reading the correct DEC and RA.

It has all the hallmarks of location or date/time being incorrect but I have checked and double checked the settings!

Has anyone any suggestions? The handset firmware is fairly old at 3.04 and therefore cannot be upgraded to the current versions.

Thanks

Paul

[philming]

Maybe check you're set in trcking mode "North". It might be set up to "South"...

Else, have you polar aligned the scope ?

Are the brakes tight on the axis ?

[Glider]

You can program an object filter with Alt limits so that only objects above say your house roof or the local hill are shown in lists.

[Sponcom]

Thanks for the replies guys.

The alt limit is useful and I'll remember that in future. Guess what the real problem was - inside the mount the previous owner had put it back together but internally the RA motor was wired to the Dec motor and vice versa!

After eliminating the probable what's left is the improbable (or some such quote!)

I spent two days scratching my head over this one!