NexStar 8i help please

My friend's NexStar 8i doesn't appear to be working right. We actually
read the manual and went thru the alignment procedure, starting
horizontal/North/leveled, entered proper dates,time (in Central daylight
time which it appears to understand), lat/long and then told it to find
Mars. It misses it by about 10 degrees. Any suggestions on the likely
problem here? I suspect it isn't the scope design or their firmware--
it's probably cockpit error but where? Any help appreciated.

Please reply here, that email return is no good.

Joe wrote:
My friend's NexStar 8i doesn't appear to be working right. We actually
read the manual and went thru the alignment procedure, starting
horizontal/North/leveled, entered proper dates,time (in Central daylight
time which it appears to understand), lat/long and then told it to find
Mars. It misses it by about 10 degrees. Any suggestions on the likely
problem here? I suspect it isn't the scope design or their firmware--
it's probably cockpit error but where? Any help appreciated.

Please reply here, that email return is no good.

How are you gotos on stars and deep sky objects? If they're OK, your
problem is probably time/date/timezone related.

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_

Like SCTs and MCTs?
Join the SCT User Mailing List.
http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/sct-user

See my home page at
http://skywatch.brainiac.com/astroland/index.htm
for further info

For Uncle Rod's Astro Blog See:
http://journals.aol.com/rmollise/UncleRodsAstroBlog/

Joe wrote:

My friend's NexStar 8i doesn't appear to be working right. We actually
read the manual and went thru the alignment procedure, starting
horizontal/North/leveled, entered proper dates,time (in Central daylight
time which it appears to understand), lat/long and then told it to find
Mars. It misses it by about 10 degrees. Any suggestions on the likely
problem here? I suspect it isn't the scope design or their firmware--
it's probably cockpit error but where? Any help appreciated.

Please reply here, that email return is no good.


How are you gotos on stars and deep sky objects? If they're OK, your
problem is probably time/date/timezone related.

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_

Like SCTs and MCTs?
Join the SCT User Mailing List.
http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/sct-user

See my home page at
http://skywatch.brainiac.com/astroland/index.htm
for further info

For Uncle Rod's Astro Blog See:
http://journals.aol.com/rmollise/UncleRodsAstroBlog/


Rod, thanks for the suggestion. I guess I'm confused. If the firmware on
the scope gets the date and/or time/timezone wrong then it won't
correctly point at any star either. Of course there's an extra step to
find a wandering planet via an ephemeris, but either process must have
the correct time date -- don't they?

I'd think that if it does find a star OK, then that proves that the time
data is OK -- and then if doesn't find planets, the ephemeris is
corrupted. I guess I may as well search for a star and find out but I'm
not expecting much. I can't think of anything else to do at this point.

Thanks again

Hi Joe,

I don't know about the 8i, but I have a NexStar 5, a CGE and an Ultima 2000.
None of these scopes use the date and time information for deep sky gotos.
They all build a model of the sky from the alignment star data and use it
for most gotos. They only need to know the time when you use goto on a
solar system object.

I would assume that if your date and time were off, the exact symptom would
be that you can use goto fine with stars, but it would be off with solar
system objects. Because of that, I think that Rod's question is right on.

If it misses both stars and solar system objects, then I would start
thinking about issues with setting up the alignment stars.

I hope that this helps,
-Wade

"Joe" wrote in message
news

Joe wrote:

My friend's NexStar 8i doesn't appear to be working right. We actually
read the manual and went thru the alignment procedure, starting
horizontal/North/leveled, entered proper dates,time (in Central daylight
time which it appears to understand), lat/long and then told it to find
Mars. It misses it by about 10 degrees. Any suggestions on the likely
problem here? I suspect it isn't the scope design or their firmware--
it's probably cockpit error but where? Any help appreciated.

Please reply here, that email return is no good.


How are you gotos on stars and deep sky objects? If they're OK, your
problem is probably time/date/timezone related.

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_

Like SCTs and MCTs?
Join the SCT User Mailing List.
http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/sct-user

See my home page at
http://skywatch.brainiac.com/astroland/index.htm
for further info

For Uncle Rod's Astro Blog See:
http://journals.aol.com/rmollise/UncleRodsAstroBlog/


Rod, thanks for the suggestion. I guess I'm confused. If the firmware on
the scope gets the date and/or time/timezone wrong then it won't
correctly point at any star either. Of course there's an extra step to
find a wandering planet via an ephemeris, but either process must have
the correct time date -- don't they?

I'd think that if it does find a star OK, then that proves that the time
data is OK -- and then if doesn't find planets, the ephemeris is
corrupted. I guess I may as well search for a star and find out but I'm
not expecting much. I can't think of anything else to do at this point.

Thanks again

Wade, thanks for the words. I don't use alignment star data to get the
scope started. I am using their "quick align" I think it is called. You
start with the scope horizontal, level, and pointing north. Then of
course it needs date, time, and lat/long to know how to find a star or
planet. I guess I didn't make it clear how I was starting off.

So right now I don't know why this scope doesn't work as advertised. It
may be that it is a bug put in by the makers -- especially if everyone
else uses the two star technique to start it off. Maybe no one has ever
tested their "quick align" thing.

Thanks again, Joe

Wade A. Hilmo wrote:
Hi Joe,

I don't know about the 8i, but I have a NexStar 5, a CGE and an Ultima 2000.
None of these scopes use the date and time information for deep sky gotos.
They all build a model of the sky from the alignment star data and use it
for most gotos. They only need to know the time when you use goto on a
solar system object.

I would assume that if your date and time were off, the exact symptom would
be that you can use goto fine with stars, but it would be off with solar
system objects. Because of that, I think that Rod's question is right on.

If it misses both stars and solar system objects, then I would start
thinking about issues with setting up the alignment stars.

I hope that this helps,
-Wade

"Joe" wrote in message
news
Joe wrote:


My friend's NexStar 8i doesn't appear to be working right. We actually
read the manual and went thru the alignment procedure, starting
horizontal/North/leveled, entered proper dates,time (in Central daylight
time which it appears to understand), lat/long and then told it to find
Mars. It misses it by about 10 degrees. Any suggestions on the likely
problem here? I suspect it isn't the scope design or their firmware--
it's probably cockpit error but where? Any help appreciated.

Please reply here, that email return is no good.


How are you gotos on stars and deep sky objects? If they're OK, your
problem is probably time/date/timezone related.

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_

Like SCTs and MCTs?
Join the SCT User Mailing List.
http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/sct-user

See my home page at
http://skywatch.brainiac.com/astroland/index.htm
for further info

For Uncle Rod's Astro Blog See:
http://journals.aol.com/rmollise/UncleRodsAstroBlog/

Rod, thanks for the suggestion. I guess I'm confused. If the firmware on
the scope gets the date and/or time/timezone wrong then it won't
correctly point at any star either. Of course there's an extra step to
find a wandering planet via an ephemeris, but either process must have
the correct time date -- don't they?

I'd think that if it does find a star OK, then that proves that the time
data is OK -- and then if doesn't find planets, the ephemeris is
corrupted. I guess I may as well search for a star and find out but I'm
not expecting much. I can't think of anything else to do at this point.

Thanks again

Hi Joe,

I think that may be the problem. I don't have a NexStar manual handy, but I
believe that the purpose of Quick Align is to get the telescope to track. I
don't think that it will properly set the scope up for accurate goto. Based
on this, I would bet that your goto doesn't work for stars either.

If you do a two star alignment, then goto should work well for deep sky
objects. If you also make sure that the date and time are accurate, then
both deep sky and solar system gotos should work.

I hope that this helps,
-Wade

"Joe" wrote in message
...
Wade, thanks for the words. I don't use alignment star data to get the
scope started. I am using their "quick align" I think it is called. You
start with the scope horizontal, level, and pointing north. Then of
course it needs date, time, and lat/long to know how to find a star or
planet. I guess I didn't make it clear how I was starting off.

So right now I don't know why this scope doesn't work as advertised. It
may be that it is a bug put in by the makers -- especially if everyone
else uses the two star technique to start it off. Maybe no one has ever
tested their "quick align" thing.

Thanks again, Joe

Wade A. Hilmo wrote:
Hi Joe,

I don't know about the 8i, but I have a NexStar 5, a CGE and an Ultima
2000.
None of these scopes use the date and time information for deep sky
gotos.
They all build a model of the sky from the alignment star data and use
it
for most gotos. They only need to know the time when you use goto on a
solar system object.

I would assume that if your date and time were off, the exact symptom
would
be that you can use goto fine with stars, but it would be off with solar
system objects. Because of that, I think that Rod's question is right
on.

If it misses both stars and solar system objects, then I would start
thinking about issues with setting up the alignment stars.

I hope that this helps,
-Wade

"Joe" wrote in message
news
Joe wrote:


My friend's NexStar 8i doesn't appear to be working right. We actually
read the manual and went thru the alignment procedure, starting
horizontal/North/leveled, entered proper dates,time (in Central
daylight
time which it appears to understand), lat/long and then told it to
find
Mars. It misses it by about 10 degrees. Any suggestions on the likely
problem here? I suspect it isn't the scope design or their firmware--
it's probably cockpit error but where? Any help appreciated.

Please reply here, that email return is no good.


How are you gotos on stars and deep sky objects? If they're OK, your
problem is probably time/date/timezone related.

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_

Like SCTs and MCTs?
Join the SCT User Mailing List.
http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/sct-user

See my home page at
http://skywatch.brainiac.com/astroland/index.htm
for further info

For Uncle Rod's Astro Blog See:
http://journals.aol.com/rmollise/UncleRodsAstroBlog/

Rod, thanks for the suggestion. I guess I'm confused. If the firmware on
the scope gets the date and/or time/timezone wrong then it won't
correctly point at any star either. Of course there's an extra step to
find a wandering planet via an ephemeris, but either process must have
the correct time date -- don't they?

I'd think that if it does find a star OK, then that proves that the time
data is OK -- and then if doesn't find planets, the ephemeris is
corrupted. I guess I may as well search for a star and find out but I'm
not expecting much. I can't think of anything else to do at this point.

Thanks again

Joe,
Quick Align is only good for getting the tracking to "work" if you do
NOT use a two star alignment. In other words, if you only wanted to go
outside, set up the scope and manually slew to, say, the moon, you
would want the scope to track while you observed the moon. However,
the Quick Alignment was not ment to be accurate enough to actually find
an object although it may get you in the general area of the sky. For
the scope to work in GOTO mode, you will need to use the two star
method for your scope. Visit Mike Swanson's NexStar Resource
Site...much good reading and help: www.nexstarsite.com.
Dave

Joe wrote:
Wade, thanks for the words. I don't use alignment star data to get the
scope started. I am using their "quick align" I think it is called. You
start with the scope horizontal, level, and pointing north. Then of
course it needs date, time, and lat/long to know how to find a star or
planet. I guess I didn't make it clear how I was starting off.

So right now I don't know why this scope doesn't work as advertised. It
may be that it is a bug put in by the makers -- especially if everyone
else uses the two star technique to start it off. Maybe no one has ever
tested their "quick align" thing.

Thanks again, Joe



Hi:

Here's the way things work. Date and time and tripod leveling will get
you closer to the alignment star initially. However, the date and time
are not critical to a good alignment, getting the stars properly placed
in the eyepiece is. Always use up and right to position an alignment
star in the eyepiece. Your goto accuracy is dependent on how well you
do the initial alignment.

I can see what the problem is, however. Never use the one star
alignment mode; it's just not very accurate. One star simply does not
allow the scope to create a good model of the sky.

I've tested the one star align plenty of times, as have plenty of other
users, and it can be useful in certain situations--when you simply
can't find two visible alignment stars, for example--but most novices
don't have much success with it.

I'm not sure what you're talking about by a "bug put in by the makers."
It would seem self evident that a one-star alignment isn't going to be
as good as the other options, and that a "bug" has nothing to do with
it.

At any rate, you never replied as to whether your non planetary gotos
are good. I'm guessing nothing is very accurate with the scope due to
your use of the one star alignment procedure.

At any rate, that's my advice. If you think you know better, have at
it. ;-)

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_

Like SCTs and MCTs?
Join the SCT User Mailing List.
http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/sct-user

See my home page at
http://skywatch.brainiac.com/astroland/index.htm
for further info

For Uncle Rod's Astro Blog See:
http://journals.aol.com/rmollise/UncleRodsAstroBlog/

Joe wrote:
Wade, thanks for the words. I don't use alignment star data to get the
scope started. I am using their "quick align" I think it is called. You
start with the scope horizontal, level, and pointing north. Then of
course it needs date, time, and lat/long to know how to find a star or
planet. I guess I didn't make it clear how I was starting off.

So right now I don't know why this scope doesn't work as advertised. It
may be that it is a bug put in by the makers -- especially if everyone
else uses the two star technique to start it off. Maybe no one has ever
tested their "quick align" thing.

Thanks again, Joe



Hi:

Here's the way things work. Date and time and tripod leveling will get
you closer to the alignment star initially. However, the date and time
are not critical to a good alignment, getting the stars properly placed
in the eyepiece is. Always use up and right to position an alignment
star in the eyepiece. Your goto accuracy is dependent on how well you
do the initial alignment.

I can see what the problem is, however. Never use the one star
alignment mode; it's just not very accurate. One star simply does not
allow the scope to create a good model of the sky.

I've tested the one star align plenty of times, as have plenty of other
users, and it can be useful in certain situations--when you simply
can't find two visible alignment stars, for example--but most novices
don't have much success with it.

I'm not sure what you're talking about by a "bug put in by the makers."
It would seem self evident that a one-star alignment isn't going to be
as good as the other options, and that a "bug" has nothing to do with
it.

At any rate, you never replied as to whether your non planetary gotos
are good. I'm guessing nothing is very accurate with the scope due to
your use of the one star alignment procedure.

At any rate, that's my advice. If you think you know better, have at
it. ;-)

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_

Like SCTs and MCTs?
Join the SCT User Mailing List.
http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/sct-user

See my home page at
http://skywatch.brainiac.com/astroland/index.htm
for further info

For Uncle Rod's Astro Blog See:
http://journals.aol.com/rmollise/UncleRodsAstroBlog/

Joe wrote:
Rod, thanks for the suggestion. I guess I'm confused. If the firmware on
the scope gets the date and/or time/timezone wrong then it won't
correctly point at any star either.

Yes, you're correct.

However, if you have only the time zone wrong, and the longitude also
wrong by 15 degrees, for example, or if the date is wrong by exactly
one year, it will correctly find stars but not planets. Thus, _some_
date/time errors will have the effect described.

John Savard