What a Night. Again!

Hi all

As you may know, or not know, or not care. I have been having trouble with my CG-5 mount of late, it has been behaving erratically. Last night, thought the seeing was terrible and the moon was full, I had to set it up and see what was happening. I mounted my 100mm refractor and set about it.

I had the mount pointed to Polaris, balanced the scope in both axes, turned it on and went through the two star alignment process. I selected Altair, the scope slew and was nowhere near, OK, I centered it and selected align. Next was Mizar, once more, it was way off. I centered it and aligned it. A calibration
star was added, Enif, again it was off and I aligned it. Alignment was successful, according to the readout, so I selected Mars. The scope slewed towards Mars and was nowhere close. I was using a 50mm eyepiece and this gave me a magnification of 12, but Mars was not seen in the field of view. I selected M15, it slewed and missed the globular completely.

OK, I turned it off and started again. When I selected Altair as my first star, the mount promptly pointed the scope at the ground, I was closer to Acrux than Altair. At this point, I am ready to toss the thing over the wall, lately I have been scouring the retailers for a good alt-az mount, that's what I think of the CG-5.

I decided to give it up for a lost cause, I had been an hour at this point, the seeing was deteriorating to such a point that only the Summer Triangle stars were visible. I was about to begin dismantling it when I thought, give it one last go and do something different. On the handset I selected factory settings, this meant that I had to enter my location and time and date again. Once more, Altair was selected, it was not too far off, this I aligned. Next was Mirfak, again, not too far off, this I aligned. I decided on a pair of calibration stars, Albireo and Mizar. All the time I used the 50mm eyepiece, I could not be bothered switching to a higher power eyepiece at this point. Calibration success, I selected Mars, the scope slew and Mars was right in the middle of the FOV, wow! amazing!. M57, again, right in the middle, though I could not see it with such low magnification. Alibreo? Spot on. M15? In the middle. Deneb? Perfect.

The seeing conditions by this point were useless, the moon was wreathed in cloud and observation was impossible.

I have come to the conclusion that reverting to factory settings might have done the trick, I also wonder if the lighter weight of the refractor, as opposed to the 200mm Newt might also be a factor. I will have to wait for another clear night to attach the Newt and test it out.

Even though it looks like it is sorted, I am still weary of electronics, they have failed me in the past and I am waiting for them to fail in the future. I might still opt for an alt-az, Skytee, Altair Sabre, something like that. Do you think I should update the hand controller software?

Thanks for spending the time while I rambled, I have to go for a haircut, to cover over the tufts I had ripped out.

Paul

Cant quench your thirst for more info on this Paul- but sounds like you've already sorted your problem. Your fix is classic I.T. Crowd "Have you tried turning it off and on again?"

Hope your next run goes smoothly.

Sean

Yeah, Sean, the old Windows solution.

Hi Paul. I have been through the same scenario with the CG-5 and a factory reset solved the problem for me too. I did update the software a few years back and the update proceeded without incident. The On/Off switch is a notorious weak link in the CG-5, and mine failed. I had a motor failure too, but managed to find a replacement to keep the setup alive. In many respects, it's a fantastic mount, and I doubt that the weight of your Newt would be an issue, I used it with a C11 for years. You always have the option of disconnecting the power, releasing the locks and using it in "manual mode". Following targets is easier with an equatorial mount (even with a very rough alignment by eyeball) and the stability of the CG-5 tripod is excellent. Mike