Audiostar alignment problems

[mikepacitti]

Hi all, i got my son a Meade starnavigator 102 for his Xmas, i think its a costco version of the Ds 2080?, i have tried resetting a few times then enetering Edinburgh as home site, but whenever i try to align it it seems to be miles off the stars its supposed to be locating, i am getting to the stage where i reckon its time to give up on it!!!!

I have trained the drives etc, the only problem i can see is the very 1st time i switched it on i don't think i put in edinburgh as my home city.

Can anyone help please!!!!!!

[Capricorn]

What you have said is not the full alignment.

I am assuming that you have stated the main parts of what you did and not all of what you did.

Could you write down everything you did and in the order they were done?

As a comparison the Autostars on the Meades I have go through the following:

Enter your location either from the listed options or via the Setup menu: Setup - Site - Add.

Edinburgh should be something like 57N 3W (May be -3)

(Complete guesses)

At startup the last location is the one used. So only done once.

Level the tripod so that the scope base is flat.

Level the scope so that the tube is horizontal and pointing due north. Use Polaris.

Supply Date,

Supply Time

Supply DST (Off at present)

Select Easy Align.

Scope tells you whatthe first star will be and slews to it, centre it and press Enter.

Scope slews to the second alignment star, centre this and press Enter.

Should now say aligned.

You do not mention any of the actual alignment.

I assume you mean Autostar not Audiostar?

[mikepacitti]

It is a audiostar handset that came with the scope, i don't know any stars really, looking at stellarium the most obvious stars at this time seem to be sirius and rigel, i think i can se them in the sjy tonight as it is really clear here, should i try an alignment using them and see how i get on?

[Capricorn]

I may be wrong here. I am assuming that the handset performs the same alignmnet as the normal Meade Autostar handset. It may be a different name but I cannot see Meade rewriting the alignment software they have had for a number of years. That is the assumption I have made.

On the Meades I have you set the mount and scope up in what is termed Level and North. This is absolutely essential.

Because the whole thing is level and pointing North, from the date, time, location the scope then determines where the first star it chooses should be. You do not select it.

The scope slews to that star, probably Capella at this time. It will say the star but it needn't. It could just call it Star 1.

Meade scopes do not request you to know a star, the ones that they use tend to be brightish but more relevantly are single ones away from others. Basically you should just have one brightish star visible. That is the one that you centre.

Now if the selected star is not visible, house in the way, you can tell them to pick another, cannot recall how and cannot be bothered to find a manual.

I will have to locate the Audiostar manual and see what it says.

I am not aware of a Meade alignment where you pick the stars as you describe. At least not without over riding the standard alignment processes.

Does the scope offer an option called Easy Align?

If it does then level the tripod and the scope tube.

Point the scope tube Due North, maintaining it level.

When happy select Easy Align.

If the process has changed I will be amazed as they have had the same one for the last 12+ years.

Off to dig up an manual.

Still would like a record of every step that you do.

Until that it is guess work concerning many things.

[mikepacitti]

Hello again, i went out last night as it was a mild clear night, i set the scope up just before dark to north and level then when it got dark i had a look at stellarium for obvious stars i then selected easy align and the scope slewed to sirius which i know is in the sth east, when i looked thru the eyepiece it was nowhere to be seen, and the scope seemed to be pointing in the wrong direction ie west??

During the day i had tested the motors and trained the drives but still i cant seem to align the scope, can anyone help me but in plain english for a total newbie, i don't want to be baffled with science etc just some pointers that i can follow easily!!!!

[Capricorn]

If you have levelled it, pointed it North, selected Easy Align then the scope has slewed to where it believes that Sirus is it hopefully means that it is operating but that the information fed into it is in error. This is amazingly easy to get wrong. Make an assumption and that's it.

So back to the previous question: Exactly what have you entered?

Unfortunately this does not mean what you think you have entered, but have actually input. This may not be so easy to get out.

Where are you?

How did you select the location?

Did you enter the right time? AM/PM I think on a Meade. 12 hours wrong could answer the problem.

May sound daft but can the scope be used the wrong way round? I presume that the scope cannot rotate 360 when on the arm?

[mikepacitti]

Hi again, i reset the autostar and entered the date and time i assume correctly(would it make a diff if i enter 24hr clock instead)

then entered Edinburgh as my nearest city, then i changed the lat and long to my location(Drumoak, Aberdeenshire), then tested the motors and did a train of the drives.

Then i pointed it north and levelled it, waited till it got dark, it was a very dark clear night as well gggrrrr, then tried the easy alignment but it was way off course.

I am assuming that maybe the time is being input wrongly, and that would cause it to slew where it thinks the star is at that time?

I will have a look at it today and see if i can enter the time in 24hr format and try again, (oh to be able to afford a Meade Lightswitch lol).

Thanks agin for your input, i will let you know how i get on.

The time was entered correctly cause i checked it this morning and it was showing am, also there are 6 entrys for the time, i assume its hour, minute, seconds you enter?