Broken GOTO???

[keithsizer]

Hi

I bought a Skywatcher Skymax 127 goto in January. With the clear skies this week, we had our first go at trying to align, via brightest star and 2 star alignment. We soon ran into a problem, as the handset has got the stars in the wrong position. It was saying that Vega was in the southern sky (at roughly 8pm), Arcturus and Saturn Were both in the western sky (again at 8pm). When we tried to align first with Dubhe, it then slewed way over to the west for Arcturus. We then slewed back to the east for it, centered it, pressed enter and was told alignment failed. Was hoping someone may know why it is doing this?

Thank you

[brianb]

Are you sure you had the time entered in the correct format? Sounds to me like it might have been confusing am & pm ...

[Donkeiller]

Lots of possibilities, mainly Human error spring to mind

1) have you input the date in American format (mm/dd/yyyy)?

2) have you input the lat and long in correct format (Long then Lat)

3) used 24 hr format correctly?

Very easy to make a mistake. My Synscan worked perfectly first 3 times then was hopelessly out. Tried all sorts, then after an hour of frustration took it indoors and discovered I had entered the date in English format (dd/mm/yyyy). Once altered worked fine again.

[Astro Imp]

It looks to me that you used the wrong date format. Use American style for inputting dates ie mm/dd/yyyy

HTH

Sorry, as above.

Note to self "must type quicker"

[keithsizer]

I double checked everything, even triple checked! Time was entered i 24 hour format (20:00.00). Used location from Google Earth. Not sure what else it could be...

[keithsizer]

Oooh, I did input the date wrong... Will try a mock alignment...

Thanks

[Marcus daniel]

I had that when i first got my Nexstar, its a dam pain in the you know what, especially having to do it every time. I know it's a bit morbid, but the only way i remember about it is 9/11 and 7/7. I can't believe it would be that flippin hard to do a quick flash of some kind when these scopes enter europe !

[keithsizer]

Tried a mock alignment (know roughly where Dubhe and Procyon were last night). It seems to be working now. Thanks for your help )

[Astro Imp]

Glad you got it sorted, now you can start to enjoy, good luck.

[RascalUK]

Heh. I put my long / lat in backwards and wasted two hours going outbid my mind. Lesson learned!