[MikeM (Mike)]

Dluth,

I am encountering a similar problem to what you reported a few months ago with alignment. Did you ever find out what was causing the problem? What have you done to get around it?

Some background on my problem ...

I have an HEQ5 Pro with a GPS. I just upgraded to v3.23 (from v3.12) and everything seemed to work well a week ago until last night which was not fun at all.

During set-up, the time that comes up on Synscan is a couple of hours off. My time zone seems to come up as +4GMT when it should in fact be -4GMT. I select DST as well.

After going through a 3 star alignment, the following error message appears:

"WARNING RA OFFSET > 45º"
"Pls. check time and location settings"
"Alignment failed."

A colleague at the star party suggested that I try aligning with the 1 or 2 star methods and not over-ride the time or timezone. I was able to go to overhead objects but not objects low in the sky. Synscan said the object was below the horizon - suggesting a time problem.

Does anyone know what is going on here and especially how to fix it?

Mike


***


Hi, I can't get my Synscan (V3.21) to work with my EQ3-2 mount and it's frustrating the heck out of me. The problem is that after I enter all the info and try to do an alignment, the telescope doesn't slew at all. It seems to try to move then gives up and after that even the directional keys won't work manually and I have to turn it off and on again to use them.
I enter all the details first (ie. Lat 144.40E, 38.20S; Time Zone +10:00; Date 03/24/08; Time 21:00:00; daylight savings? YES) and then it says the following on the screen:
Polaris HA = 05:17
Clock = 03:21

Begin Alignment?
I choose YES and choose 3 star.
First star choice is Sirius which I select.
The telescope then clicks as I said but doesnt move at all. The screen says briefly Slewing... 00:00 00:00 on the screen, then "Use dir. keys to centre object". But at this point the directional keys don't respond (they do normally).
I then press enter and it says choose 2nd star? Achernar. I select that and the screen says:
000º00' +16º42'
I then get "Use dir. keys to centre object" on the screen again but again the directional keys don't respond. I press enter and it says choose 3rd star? Alpha Centauri. I select that and the screen says:
000º00' +16º42'
"Use dir. keys to centre object"
I press enter as the keys don't work (by the stage the telescope has not moved an inch).
The screen then says: "WARNING RA OFFSET > 45º"
Pls. check time and location settings
Alignment failed.

Does anyone know what any of this means and what the problem could be? It also ocurred when I had V3.12 which is why I upgraded to V3.21 but the problem is exactly the same.

Thanks in advance!

Daniel