g'day good folks. Still struggling with the set up of my very second hand GPS Lx200. Now have the after market GPS that works well, but my slews are still off initially. I know i need to calibrate with stars but for a starting point, can anyone clear up the confusion in my mind about start position?
I have read control box to North and scope pointing south, then just a video doing the opposite. Its not explained well in the manual of course. Any tips would be greatly appreciated as I am a quarter of the sky off the Moon when I use just GPS.
Cheers
Graham
I assume you are setting the telescope in Alt/Az mode. So setup in the south hemisphere is as follow; the controller panel should be on the southern side of tripod e.g point south. The OTA should be pointing north and level.
There are other sets which follow this procedure but this should help you.
Also what firmware version does the telescope have load. Currently the patch version 4.2gg is the most stable. You can find it here https://www.stargps.ca/downloads.htm
Also, check the time and date that the control box is showing. If the CR2032 battery in the panel is flat, it won't save, but keep reverting back to an old date.
As Shano592 pointed out, probably good idea to replace the CR2023 battery. Best method for replacement is removing the bottom cover for much easier access. Probably also go back to scratch, do a complete factory reset and retrain drives (this can be done on a landmark of your choosing). You can also add in your site information in manually as well for those occasions the GPS doesn’t work. Check UT is plus 10hrs for Australian. Recently I found my LX200 was set at +11 so my point was off by an hour. P.S. My LX200 is on a EQ Wedge.
When I first got my LX200 GPS, I update/wound back the firmware to 4.2gg (Patch version) as it has been well tested and is not buggy. I like it.
As for setup as mentioned before, control/power panel southern side of tripod and OTA pointing north and level. One interesting flaw with the system the closer you get the telescope aligned with true north accuracy improves.
So at start up let the telescope do its thing. When prompted to do the star alignment best to use two stars alignment. Choose two well known stars east or west of the meridian and a few degrees apart. First one will be off a bit but should be in the FOV of the finder. Then just follow Meade direction.
If all goes well the telescope will be able to find any object and place them in the FOV of the supplied 26mm.
Hope this helps, and I am sure other members will chip in with additional advice.
