alignment of scope.. daylight savings 'on' or 'off'

Hi

Daylight savings should be switched to on

are you talking about the alignement stars or the actual gotos?

Also have you trained the drive?

Hi

I presume you have the version of the ETX which has the LNT module and automatic alignemnt.

I have a meade Lx90 but it uses the same autostar 427 so it should be similar to the ETX.

I do find that when you are using automatic alignment, it seldom places the alignment stars in the FOV of the viewfinder let alone the eyepiece.

Things you can do to improve things are if you perform the "calibrate censors" routine. This will give the LNT censors in your etx a more accurate notion of where polaris is in relation to you local latitude and other local magnetic anomolies. This alone can throw your alignment stars off by 10-20%.

Also you should check the date that the LNT module is giving at start up. Sometimes if the battery is loose it can give a false date/time.

Also I recall that the last time I changed the DST I found that I had set the actual time incorrectly by an hour.

Finally you should checlk the software version that the autostar is using. I found that generally versions later then version 4 have better pointing to allignmemt stars then previous versions.


If the differenc is arising after allignment and only happens when you are "going to" an object it could be;

1) Backlash or rubberbanding- this is where the the telescope will slew past the object due to excessive play in the drive motors and encoder. Try centre it and it again moves past the object... very frustrating....This is cured by training the motor drive.

2) Power supply issues - check that you are using a good power source/battery. Sometimes a battery that seems to be Ok is really acting as your worst enemy.

Hope this helps but we need more information to describe what is actually happening.

I get my DST or UTC wrong by an hour - approximately 15 degree misposition.

Of course, the pole star doesn't move 15 degrees in an hour so presumably it only applies to objects along the celestial equator and decreases as you move toward the poles.

You are absolutely right, of course. I must have left my brain at the door!!

AS you say if the 15deg misplacement is in RA then the hour would account for it, however if it's 15deg on the celestial sphere (ie 15deg of sky no matter where the object is located) then there is something else going on.

Thanks lads.
A simple 'train drive' seems to have solved it!

I guess it looses alingnment when you change the batteries.

We are in Daylight Savings Time, would you believe... I always thought it was during Winter...

We are saving daylight for the winter - the daylight saved now will help us when the days get dark again