When GOTO doesn't go to...

[EricB]

Hi there!

I have recently purchased a Sky Watcher collapsible 10" GOTO. After days of frustrating cloudy nights, at last I get a chance to see the scope in action on Saturday. I set up during day light, read the GOTO section of the instruction manual to make sure I am on top of things before nightfall. The first stars appear, I set up the synscan goto as per instruction. I do a bright star alignment. Alignment successful says the handset. I press the Tour key to see what's out there and select Orion. The scopes slews to the right general direction and stops short nowhere near orion. I try the two star alignment, get the first star in the finderscopes, Enter, the scope slews to the second star but nowhere near it again (about halfway).

I have tried again tonight. Checked my coordonates. Same thing again and again. The scope misses all the targets and doesn't go to. It looks like the scope doesn't recognise where it is (it tells me Jupiter in the the eastern sky when it's in the northewest...). As far as I know I have set up the scope correctly. I don't move the scope by hand during the process and set up the scope on reasonably well levelled ground. What am I missing? Has anyone had any issue such as this one?

Thank you in advanced for you advice.

Cheers,

Eric

[Poita]

Make sure your date and time are correct, it may be in American MM/DD/YY format.
Also are you entering the degrees as a negative for the Southern Hemisphere?

Run us through your exact setup procedure a step at a time (leave off the last few digits of your long/lat if you don't want us to be able to find you...)

[EricB]

Thanks Peter. If the date is the American format, then I could heve got it wrong. If I can, I will do a reset and start all over again.

I haven't entered the coordinates as negative. I have just entered 137 xx'E and 35 xx'S. so it should be -35 xx'S then?

Cheers,

Eric

[Poita]

I'm pretty sure it is in American date format, that caused me no end of strife!

From the Manual:

[Screwdriverone]

Hi Eric,

Ahhhhh yeah, I have had my goto HEQ5 for well over a year now and guess what I did on the 3rd Jan 2012......?

Entered the date in as 03/01/2012 which of course meant that the goto thought I was in the March 1st Sky and I had EXACTLY the same issue, most of my goto jumps were three or four fields of view short as the "sky" was 2 months later in time.....good way to time travel but crap for finding stuff....took me 2 hours of realigning before I realised what the issue was.....DOH!

Also, make sure that you also get an ACCURATE clock to enter the time into the handset....near enough just introduces more error. I use a GPS app on my phone to enter the coords and accurate time. Make sure that you set the UT offset to +10 if you are in eastern states and that the daylight saving is ON (as it is right now).

The you shouldnt have too many issues. Make sure that when you do your star alignment, have say a 10mm eyepiece in the focuser and centre the SCOPE on the star, press enter and make sure the FINDERSCOPE is aligned on that first star also.

You get MUCH better goto pointing accuracy if you use a 100x mag eyepiece or so to centre the stars because when you then say put in a 25mm or other wider field EP, you can easily pick up the object as it should be smack dab in the middle of the field or near enough to identify easily which way you need to fine tune things.

Give it a burl, try to think, "date.....hmmmm its February 14th".....rather than the 14th Feb when you enter the date....saves you grief.

Dont feel bad, I have probably got this wrong at least 4 times now.... :sadeyes:

Oh yeah, also, DONT select Alpha Centauri from the handset and then fine tune the scope to Alpha Crucis (bottom of the Southern Cross)....there is another gem that I often stuff up and then scratch my head later and go DOH! :confused2:

(by the way, Alpha Crucis or Acrux as it is listed in the database is an excellent alignment star as it is an optical double and you can easily identify it in the scope like an old friend when you see the two pretty stars in the finder/scope)

Cheers

Chris

[EricB]

Well you wre right Peter and Chris, I didn't enter the date correctly :shrug:. Once I did and entered UT+9 ( for SA) it was all fine, although because I used the finderscope to star align, the degree of acuracy wasn't fantastic (but good enough to make me forget the frustration experienced the previous nights...).

I have some fine tuning to do: get the scope better levelled on the ground, align the finderscope to the telescope with better accuracy. By the way, the biggest issue I have so far with the SW flex is the finderscope, a right angle lense would have been so much better. Also, although I can see through eyepieces well without my glasses, it's all blurry through the finder scope because no focuse is possible. Do focussable finderscope exist?

Thanks Peter and Chris for your help. What would I do without IIS?:thanx:

Cheers,

Eric

[mithrandir]

Shouldn't SA be UTC+9:30?

I just use UTC and forget all about local offsets and the random changes to them the pollies like to foist on us.

[Shark Bait]

I have done the same thing Eric, and it was in front of a group of BAS members during a busy public viewing night at Mt Coot-tha Lookout. I spent well over an hour trying to re-align the scope before I realised that I changed the day but did not update the month :ashamed:. At least I was still able to move it onto a target manually.

Still waiting for some clear skies to track down the 'pup'. This weekend is looking promising.

[CapturingTheNight]

Hi Eric,
Good to hear the goto problem seems like it is fixed. You mention the finderscope isn't in focus. If it is a standard skywatcher finderscope which came with the scope then you should be able to focus it by screwing the black front bit either left or right. Do this during the day on a distant object and then fine tune at night.
Hope this helps
Greg

[Screwdriverone]

Greg is right Eric,

The front lens assembly of the finder scope has a locking ring just behind it. Loosen the locking ring and then as suggested, focus the finder by adjusting the front lens assembly either in or out depending on which way it needs to go.

Once in focus, hold the front objective while you gently twist the locking ring towards the front to lock it all down and you are done!

You will be surprised just how much those 9x50 finders can see,

Give it a go...

Cheers

Chris

[EricB]

Thanks Greg and Chris.

I couldn't do any worse if I was trying...:D

I have located the fucus ring and will adjust it tonight.

Cheers,

Eric

[Barrykgerdes]

An easy trick to set the date. This works with most:-

enter 20 in the first column. If it accepts the form is DD-mm-(YY)YY
If it does not work then the form is MM-DD-(YY)YY

Use Acrux as the 1st alignment star and Betelgeuse as the second. They are both easy to identify and are in favourable positions in the early evening.

Barry