problems alligning the CG5 Goto

Hi All. Im having difficulty alligning my CG5.

In the destruction booklet it tells me to do a two star allign. I set the index markers to the specified position so the arrows line up and i selected betleguise first. It got to within a few degrees of betleguise, and i centered it.

Then i selected Caph. It got much closer to this ,and then i centered that and hit the Allign button.

next i done a polar allign. It took ages for the scope to get near polaris, and then i centered it. after that i knew id have to allign it again, but what was the point in doing a polar allign if the scope tells me to line up the index points again. wont this just confuse the computer, as where it thinks polaris is, it now wont be there??

Also, to confuse matters, i read online that the index markers on the CG5 are notoriously badly positioned and i was told not to rely on them!!! what do i rely on so to be sure the mount is in its starting position, and how do i find the correct index marker points?

I presume when you do the polar align after selecting polaris that you move the mount axesmanually to polaris and not with the keypad. It will then require to be realigned once the mount has been moved. This is what the CGE mount does-the software is the same I think.

The alignment arrows :lol: . You mean the two bits of sticky plastic on the mount. It might be worth getting the polar alignment scope. I always regard the alignment arrows as nothing more than a home position, do a star alignment, then polar align goto and manually adjust ra/dec to centre it and then the tedious two star alignment again. You can repeat this a few times to get better refinement.

I presume when you do the polar align after selecting polaris that you move the mount axesmanually to polaris and not with the keypad. It will then require to be realigned once the mount has been moved. This is what the CGE mount does-the software is the same I think.

I do the two star, then i select polar allign and the mount points the scope somewhere in the vacinity of polaris, and i then use the keypad to centre polaris in the eyepiece. is this incorrect?

and i then use the keypad to centre polaris in the eyepiece.

Oooh Noooooooo!!!!!!!!

You must centre polaris by adjusting the position of the mount using the altitude and azimuth screws, i.e the two black knobs(azimuth) and the two silver levers (altitude) i.e. you are physically aligning the mount. Polar alignment is a process where you are lining up the mount with the north pole so you must NEVER use the keypad.

That sounds like the problem. After you do the first 2 star alignment, select polar align. The mount should slew somewhere in the vicinity of polaris. At this point do not use the keypad or move the telescope manually. Adjust the mount RA and DEC axes on the head of the mount until polaris is in the field of view. Don't touch the telescope itself. At this point the mount is polar aligned but as it has been physically moved you need to do the 2 star align to set it up. Hope this works out.