Beginner - Nexstar 6SE Alignment Question

crawf57 (David) · #1 17-03-2015, 04:36 PM

Hello all. I have a Celestron 6SE and would really appreciate any advice you guys can give regarding the alignment process. I am located in rural South Australia on the central Eyre Peninsula. We have perfect dark skies making it an ideal spot for astronomy.

The issue is with the Timezone setup - Adelaide is in Time Zone 9 but as you know it is a half hour zone, unlike most other cities in the world.

I recently added a Skysync GPS to the setup to try to simplify the alignment since it can automatically pass location and time information to the scope. However (and I'm not sure why this is the case), the software still needs to know the time zone... If the GPS tells it where it is on earth and the universal time, why should it need the TZ specified?

Anyway, I look forward to learning plenty from this great hobby.

Cheers,
David

traveller (Bo) · #2 17-03-2015, 05:09 PM

Hi David and welcome to IIS,
A question to begin with, have you upgraded the firmware on the handset? Sometimes that can help with more time zones to choose from.
With Celestron's alignment, you don't need to know where to point, just point to two or three bright objects in the sky (even planets and the moon will be fine). Assuming you entered the date and location ok, you will get alignment without even need to know which star/planet you pointed to.
Then you just use the direction arrows to centre the object and it will happily track for you.
Good luck
Bo

crawf57 (David) · #3 17-03-2015, 10:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by traveller

Hi David and welcome to IIS,
A question to begin with, have you upgraded the firmware on the handset? Sometimes that can help with more time zones to choose from.
With Celestron's alignment, you don't need to know where to point, just point to two or three bright objects in the sky (even planets and the moon will be fine). Assuming you entered the date and location ok, you will get alignment without even need to know which star/planet you pointed to.
Then you just use the direction arrows to centre the object and it will happily track for you.
Good luck
Bo

Thanks for the info re updating the firmware. I found the CFM software and went to update the firmware - it got part way into the update and failed. Now it won't start up at all - failing with BOOTLOADER Invalid Pkg: 0040.

When I try to reconnect to it via CFM - CFM cannot find it.... any clues?

Amaranthus (Barry) · #4 17-03-2015, 11:07 PM

Might be a COM port problem. Check to see that the USB connection to the Hand Controller is working ok, and maybe try re-assigning the COM port.

crawf57 (David) · #5 18-03-2015, 12:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amaranthus

Might be a COM port problem. Check to see that the USB connection to the Hand Controller is working ok, and maybe try re-assigning the COM port.

Thanks Bo - I have emailed Celestron support and they asked me to check a couple of things and report back... Ive done that and am just waiting for their next response.

In Devices and Printers there are two items in the Unspecified section - USB HID Bootloader and Prolific USB-to-Serial Comm Port (COM9).

I'll try changing the COM port to some other numbers and see if that makes any difference. Thank you again for your assistance.

David

deanm (Dean) · #6 18-03-2015, 01:52 PM

I'm in SA & I've got a 6SE, too: I experienced the same hassles re. defining time zone on the hand controller.
I got round it by providing lat. & long. for Adelaide, but inputting UTC time.
Worked fine.
Also, beware of the US date format - month first, day next (I was tearing my hair out for I while until it dawned on me that I had them the 'wrong' way round!).
Dean

Amaranthus (Barry) · #7 18-03-2015, 02:36 PM

It will be the Prolific port COM9

crawf57 (David) · #8 18-03-2015, 05:59 PM

OK guys - I found the cause of the problem updating the firmware.

I discovered that the problem was due to an intermittent fault in the serial to USB converter that had let the scope connect to the computer initially but then disconnected part way through the update process. I found another serial to USB cable and it worked perfectly and the scope is now running normally.

Thanks for the assistance - very much appreciated by this old newbie

crawf57 (David) · #9 18-03-2015, 06:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by deanm

I'm in SA & I've got a 6SE, too: I experienced the same hassles re. defining time zone on the hand controller.
I got round it by providing lat. & long. for Adelaide, but inputting UTC time.
Worked fine.
Also, beware of the US date format - month first, day next (I was tearing my hair out for I while until it dawned on me that I had them the 'wrong' way round!).
Dean

Hi Dean - can you please elaborate on this a little? Are you saying select Time Zone 0 (UTC) then enter the UTC time hh:mm:ss? Or am I missing something? The Skysysnc GPS provides the lat/long and UTC automatically (I think) but then the scope still wants the timezone and time?

Scratching my head

yoda776 (Matt) · #10 19-03-2015, 08:46 PM

Yes, you can get dodger sub to serial adapters which is why I bought a cheap laptop with inbuilt serial port and works a treat. Glad to hear the scope is up and running.

Lucky is not like some game systems or computers where you can 'brick' the system which means it is essentially buggered!

Quote:

Originally Posted by crawf57

OK guys - I found the cause of the problem updating the firmware.

I discovered that the problem was due to an intermittent fault in the serial to USB converter that had let the scope connect to the computer initially but then disconnected part way through the update process. I found another serial to USB cable and it worked perfectly and the scope is now running normally.

Thanks for the assistance - very much appreciated by this old newbie

yoda776 (Matt) · #11 19-03-2015, 08:49 PM

Also getting a nexstar 6se soon myself but not really for the telescope so much as the goto mount which I plan to use the dovetail mount to use with a solar telescope and binoculars. Mind you keeping the 6se for my wife to use as she is getting into astronomy.

yoda776 (Matt) · #12 19-03-2015, 09:03 PM

I would also like to know what is meant by the time zone as I always have used gmt 9 for the time zone. Interesting to note about the GPS not providing time, as I thought GPS actually provided the longitude and latitude as well as date and time from the satellites?! That would mean it should be able to pick the timezone theoretically.

Quote:

Originally Posted by crawf57

Hi Dean - can you please elaborate on this a little? Are you saying select Time Zone 0 (UTC) then enter the UTC time hh:mm:ss? Or am I missing something? The Skysysnc GPS provides the lat/long and UTC automatically (I think) but then the scope still wants the timezone and time?

Scratching my head