Meade 2080 LX6 CAT problem

With the recent Mars event I was persuaded to pull my old Meade 8" 2080 SCT
out to do some viewing. I had difficulty going through the "start" process
using the CAT in spite of reading and re-reading the instruction manual.

The good news - Mars is an easy target without the CAT.
The bad news - The CAT appears to have a Y2K glitch.

I have the 1996 CAT upgrade chips and am using the "2000" chip which is good
though 2008. What I noticed is that during the START process I aligned on
Polaris and then was asked to align on a bright reference star ON THE OTHER
SIDE OF EARTH! This happened consistently. I rechecked my encoder setup
although this couldn't possibly be the problem because, regardless of
encoder alignment, my LONG, LAT, GMT settings should have been enough to
determine which hemisphere I am in.

I finally ran a quick test by running the START process using a 2003 date
followed immediately by the same process using a 1999 date. The 1999 test
actually used a bright star reference in my hemisphere and gave coordinates
very close to it! If I used a 2003 date I was pointing about 10 hours
behind (or 14 hours ahead) of actual star positions and was given bright
star coordinates high toward zenith, but for a star in the wrong hemisphere.

I suspect the 1996 chip upgrade had planetary tables through 2008 but the
underlying code didn't properly handle dates beyond 2000 or 2001. I haven't
done the research but I suspect I was being given bright star coordinates
that were accurate in 1903?

Has anyone heard of this problem or have any suggestions for a resolution
(short of buying an new scope).

--

Mike Payette

Has anyone heard of this problem or have any suggestions for a resolution
(short of buying an new scope).


Hi:

Why would you buy a new scope? The CAT system was nothing but a fairly
primitive digital setting circle system. I would be fairly sure that JMI would
be able to sell you not only a computer but an encoder installation package for
the scope that will be nicer than the clunky old CAT encoderd.

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html

Has anyone heard of this problem or have any suggestions for a resolution
(short of buying an new scope).


Hi:

Why would you buy a new scope? The CAT system was nothing but a fairly
primitive digital setting circle system. I would be fairly sure that JMI would
be able to sell you not only a computer but an encoder installation package for
the scope that will be nicer than the clunky old CAT encoderd.

Peace,
Rod Mollise
Author of _Choosing and Using a Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope_
Like SCTs and MCTs?
Check-out sct-user, the mailing list for CAT fanciers!
Goto http://members.aol.com/RMOLLISE/index.html