Meade autostar hand control

[I.C.D (Ian)]

G'Dall All,
After I have done a alignment a message come up saying successful align than their are some numbers (159> 30v ) .
Can anyone explain what they mean I have check the manual and I have look on the web but I can't what this means.

Ian C

[AndrewJ]

Gday Ian

The numbers are the theoretical error of pole relative to your RA axle and are given in arcmins
The actual message should have been "Pole Is 159> 30v"

Depending upon the type of Autostar involved, the data can range from moderately accurate to utter crud.
If you have an ASII type scope, then Polar 2 star aligning has a bug that gets worse relative to the error on the first star.

Andrew

[MikeyB (Michael)]

I haven't seen that myself on the various Meade scopes I've used, Ian, but to try to find an answer to your question, we need to know which model telescope and which Autostar hand control you're using (there must be dozens of different combinations!) Also, are you using a separate power supply or the scope's inbuilt battery system?

[I.C.D (Ian)]

Andrew & Michael
I have a lxd75 SN8 using a autostar 497 handbox it is powered via the mount if you need any more info let me know

Ian

[tlgerdes (Trevor)]

As Andrew said, it is telling you how far off your physical polar alignment is.

159 arc minutes (2.5deg) > that way in RA, and 30 arcmins (0.5deg) v that way in Dec.

[I.C.D (Ian)]

Thanks Trevor for that I will make the adjustment tonight and I hope all will be honky Dorree from now on.

Ian C

[AndrewJ]

Gday Ian

As you have a 497, the results will be certainly be better than an ASII,
however, i still wouldnt trust the numbers.
I have done many tests and the results are nowhere near consistent.

If you do a polar 2 star, it creates a transformation matrix to allow for polar misalignment, but it only uses this for "gotos", not for tracking.

For best operation of a 497 Austostar ( for tracking, image rotation )
you should do a reasonably good drift align
then do a Polar One star.

Andrew