GoTo Approach

[risingmoon]

:mad2:I still can't get my "GoTo" to go in the right direction. I know I am doing something wrong but don't know what. I have resorted to finding my own fun in the sky and it is more exciting finding what is out there without knowing what it is.
I have put in all the right info and have my scope perfectly level. :shrug:

[jjjnettie]

Ok, talking from experience here :rolleyes:, it could be a number of things.
1. when you plugged in your coordinates, you left it Nth instead of Sth or + instead of -
2. you haven't taken into account day light saving
3. Where the mount clearly says to face it to the North, you have done so, instead of facing it South.
4. You've chosen the wrong star during your alignment.

Astronomy allows one to have a myriad of "Doh" moments.
They reckon it's character building. I say BS. It just makes me feel like a dill. :rofl:

[Poita]

Oh, and the date could be in American format MM/DD/YYYY instead of DD/MM/YYYY
The date and time *must* be accurate otherwise it all goes pear shaped.

And yeah, it has to point south, not North, Americans forget there is a whole nuther hemisphere out there.
I agree with jjj, my character became way overbuilt trying to work out the bloody goto system.

There is a bit of a discussion on it here too:
http://www.cloudynights.com/ubbarchive/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/1930310/page/7/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1

[Allan_L]

Celestron Nexstar SE mounts don't need to be pointed South, North or any which way! They are not polar aligned, being fork mounted Alt Az.

If you do the auto align, you do not need to know what the names of the stars are. It works it out.

Do you have it GPS enabled? If not, it could be the N/S thing.

Daylight saving is over, so it won't be that.

I think it could be possibly you have the OTA mounted the wrong way around?
Have you tried mounting it the other way?
(Sounds silly I know guys, but it is possible with the Nexstar, believe me, I have done it)

It does sound like a time thing.
Do you have the time zone set to plus 10 ?

I will PM my phone number and we can go through it over the phone if you like,

Al

[Barrykgerdes]

Hi Sandra

I agree with Allan. However if you are completely new to telescopes and bought one from a non astonomy specialist dealer. The manuals supplied could probably be difficult to understand particularly if a lot of jargon is used. Allan has kindly offered to walk you through an alignment and I think that is just what you need.

Barry

[risingmoon]

Hi Peter,

I did do the date wrong in the beginning but that is all corrected now.
There is nothing in my book to say which way to point it, I just point it to the west where I am looking out to and do the 3 star alignment. Even when I do have success with the alignment I test it out and go to a star I know and instead of going up to it , it goes down to the ground????

[risingmoon]

I think you are right Barry. It helps when someone can actually guide you in the right direction. I know the book shows all the time zones but Australia/Sydney says 10 and I can't get a -10 on the hand control. Maybe that is what is wrong.
I bought it from the Celestron site and the purchase went through Telescopes Direct which is a subline with Kitchens Direct but it came from Celestron as it has the geniune instructions and equipment from Celestron.

[Allan_L]

Sandra,
We are PLUS 10
not Minus 10

[risingmoon]

Hi Allen,
It isn't GPS enabled and I did put in daylight savings when it was in but have changed it since.
I don't know about mounting it the other way as it looks to me it can only be mounted one say. It gets more confusing evey day.
When I align it, I do a 3 star alignment and succeed. I don't know what they are some of the time but at least it accepts it and then I believe it registers all the stars within that alignment (at least that is what the book says). so I just click on anything in the control but sometimes it goes down to the ground or right up in a straight direction. I have tried it on the moon and it still goes funny when I know where the moon is.
I will give you a call tomorrow when I have my hand control on and I will take it back to the factory setting so I can start it new again. The book is a little confusing and hard to understand.

[risingmoon]

Yes jjj I am beginning to understand what the "Doh" moment are all about. It can make you feel like you are to blame. NEVER, IS THE MACHINE
In my hand control I don't have to know what the stars are called. It is supposed to do that for me. I have had a good time exploring the sky under my own steam and have had some good fun. It certainly makes you appreciate the planet we live on knowing how much there is out there.

[EricB]

Hi Sandra,

I had a similar problem with my Sky Watcher GOTO a couple of months ago. The alignment was all over the place, and I couldn't understand why since I was doing everything according to the manual. Since I realised the date had been entered wrongly. In my case it should have been: Month/Day/ Year, the American style. Often, it's something obvious we can't think about. Here is the thread: http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=86683

I hope your problem resolves quickly.

Cheers,

Eric

[2stroke]

Sandra the best way to get help would be to go to a local club and have a member walk you through step by step. A few minutes at a local club and you will be running the thing like a pro :)

This link has a full listing of clubs around australia.
http://www.astronomy.org.au/ngn/engine.php?SID=1000022&AID=100136

[DarkStar]

Hi Sandra,

It is actually possible to put the OTA in the wrong way round, but the Celestron wording on the dovetail thingy would be upside down then.
Standing at the eyepiece, the fork arm must be on the left.

Make sure the power supply/batteries are good. The GOTO goes wonky if not enough power. Also, with cordwrap feature on (default) it can sometimes go in the opposite direction from what you expect (but not down instead of up :)). I always turn mine off.

Sounds like you have the correct timezone (zone+10), time (24h?) and date (MM/DD/YY) set.

I only tried auto align once and even though it said success it didn't work, so I always use 2-star align now. Just pick two bright stars whose names you know and that are not too close together (e.g. Rigel and Sirius). That works every time for me.

Hope this helps.
Paul.

[Intergage]

As someone currently looking at upgrading to a GoTo mount reading this has been a big help and I am not currently looking at every tut or video I can find on how to setup the GoTo mounts haha! :P