OneOfOne
14-01-2008, 08:22 PM
I set up the CGE in the backyard on Saturday night and spent a couple of hours viewing. As weather for Sunday was fine and clear again, I just left the tripod outside and took the OTA off the mount.
Started it up Sunday afternoon around 7pm and just selected "Last alignment" as nothing much was changed. I had just finished installing the DSI software and I wanted to just point the scope at the Moon and have a play for a couple of hours. Alignment was good, no problems. Packed it all away last night.
Brought it out again tonight, Monday, around 7pm and put it more or less in the same spot as usual and selected "Last alignment" as I just wanted to point it to the Moon and try a few more things, accuracy unimportant. Ok...so I thought. Goto the Moon...it points at the horizon, even though the Moon is clearly nearly overhead around this time. Turn it off and on a couple of times with the same result. Disconnect the GPS and do it all again and enter everything manually...same problem. After scratching my head for a while I start again and this time do a two star alignment, of course at 7:30pm there are not a lot of stars visible, except the Sun! It seemed to head in the right direction for Sirius and Canopus so I just select Enter/Align. Goto the Moon, not quite right, but at least in the ballpark.
Hmmm....so why did it keep the last alignment overnight without a problem on Saturday night (no battery plugged in) and yet the next day it was no where near correct, maybe 60 degrees out! I would have thought it would be in a ball park.
I did this several times with the CG5 and at the next setup, even a few days later, it was within a ballpark.
Dunno...:shrug: Just waiting for the Sun to go down to have a bit more of a play with the DSI and redo the alignment procedure. Sometimes computers can be SO ANNOYING!
Started it up Sunday afternoon around 7pm and just selected "Last alignment" as nothing much was changed. I had just finished installing the DSI software and I wanted to just point the scope at the Moon and have a play for a couple of hours. Alignment was good, no problems. Packed it all away last night.
Brought it out again tonight, Monday, around 7pm and put it more or less in the same spot as usual and selected "Last alignment" as I just wanted to point it to the Moon and try a few more things, accuracy unimportant. Ok...so I thought. Goto the Moon...it points at the horizon, even though the Moon is clearly nearly overhead around this time. Turn it off and on a couple of times with the same result. Disconnect the GPS and do it all again and enter everything manually...same problem. After scratching my head for a while I start again and this time do a two star alignment, of course at 7:30pm there are not a lot of stars visible, except the Sun! It seemed to head in the right direction for Sirius and Canopus so I just select Enter/Align. Goto the Moon, not quite right, but at least in the ballpark.
Hmmm....so why did it keep the last alignment overnight without a problem on Saturday night (no battery plugged in) and yet the next day it was no where near correct, maybe 60 degrees out! I would have thought it would be in a ball park.
I did this several times with the CG5 and at the next setup, even a few days later, it was within a ballpark.
Dunno...:shrug: Just waiting for the Sun to go down to have a bit more of a play with the DSI and redo the alignment procedure. Sometimes computers can be SO ANNOYING!