"Al Gartner" wrote in
link.net:

Hi!

I have an entry-level Celestron telescope with an electronic
controller. I believe that it is their '60' model. I took it out to
take a gander at Mars during this time, and while I was setting it up,
I started to tinker about with it's 'auto-alignment' funcitonality.

I can not get auto-align to work worth a darn. Essentially, I point
it north and level, and then I get asked a bunch of questions, date,
time, city, state, etc. So I do this, and it is supposed to point to
a 'bright star' - one visible by the naked eye. Not a chance. Even
when I think I get it aligned right, I'll try my luck by using the
keypad to select Polaris or the moon or some other star that is
blindingly obvious. Well, when the thing stops moving, it may be
pointing at my intended target if it was on some other planet, but on
planet earth, it's pointing somewhere that is not even close to where
it should be.

It's obviously operator error. The question is what is the error? My
idea of North (I live in New England) is either use a compass and grab
magnetic north, or point the thing at the North star. Level - well I
eyeball it and make sure that the tripod is pretty close, but I'm not
out there with a bubble level or anything fancy like that.

As far as plugging in the 'location', I've tried both city and state,
as well as long and lat from a gps receiver. The scope itself is a
long tube type - I've tried the collaring the scope both at the
midsection, as well as at the hilt - directly in front of the viewing
assembly.

I'd really like some insight - if anyone can help, it would be greatly
appreciated.


-a.






The time you are entering could be the problem. Is your state still on
Daylight savings time? The scope might be working off the local standard
time.

L.