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Bright Star disappeared from list despite being well above horizon
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Hello All,
I'm new to this group, having just recently purchased a GM811G mount to replace a Celestron CGX, which had served me well, but I wanted to upgrade.? I really appreciate the quality of the Losmandy mount.? I had to install a wavy washer to loosen up the RA axis, and so I was out last night doing some visual for the first time in 6 months with my Tele Vue 127is, as I'm usually doing AP, just to test it out and everything went smoothly.? I did modeling for both east and west, and pointing accuracy was good.? But at the end of my session, I wanted to go back to Sirius just once more to check pointing, and it was no longer on my Bright Star list, despite still being at least 20-25¡ã above the western horizon and plainly visible.? I tried slewing to another object to see if it might reappear on the list, and it did not.? Being as I'm going to be wanting to image some objects that will be low on my southern horizon, that concerned me a bit.? Any help would be appreciated. And while I'm at it, another question.? As I recall when I set up about 2 months ago, the GM811G was not one of the mount choices, so I believe I chose G11 as my mount.? Was that the correct choice, or should I have chosen the GM8? Thank you, and I look forward to perusing the threads here.? I'm sure it will be a great learning experience! John |
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Hi John welcome?to the losmandy side of things :)? Usually when this happens it's because there's a mis-configuration in date/time and/or location. Being low on the horizon, it wouldn't take much, maybe an hour or two difference. One way you can figure out where it thinks it's pointing is by using a planetarium hooked up to your mount, such as Stellarium () which supports ascom connection to losmandy.? PS i'm curious about astroitalian moniker? On Sun, Apr 19, 2020 at 4:22 PM <astroitalian@...> wrote: Hello All, --
Brian? Brian Valente portfolio |
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Sonny Edmonds
Hi John, and welcome to the group!
I also am a new owner of a GM811G (HD tripod). (February 4, 2020) Mine does have the G811 as a choice in the hand controller. But the default is for a G11. For me, if the G11 is chosen, it throws off the GM811G mount. I haven't intentionally chosen it, but have had it change mounts, probably after doing a "Factory Reset". It only happened once, but once was enough that I like to do the Quick start menu to make sure I'm on the right path to begin with, as a review. And the Quick Start winds up at a Cold Start anyway. Tanya walks us through in this easy to follow video. I've done it a few times just to be sure any goofs I may have caused were wiped out. But as I got rid of the bad habits from my old Celestron mount, things have gotten much better. I would suggest you try a factory reset, and see if it helps. I don't see how it could hurt anything. You will have to go from scratch through the Quick Start Menu, check the location, mount type, time and date... just the routine. But see if the (push)menu-(push)mount-(push)type doesn't show 7 options. Custom Mount, GM8, G811, G-11, GMT, HGM-200/M250, and lastly Titan. I'm finding the more I unlearn from my Celestron mount, the better and faster I'm becoming with my new GM811G. I move mine out, and back in, every night. CFO rules, she wants it stored in the house. (She never let me bring my Harley in the house.) I just smile and say "Yes Dear." I just love my new Losmandy Mount! (I hate the clouds that are punishing me, but love the Mount) -- SonnyE (I suggest viewed in full screen) |
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Hi Brian,
Thank you for the response.? I did not realize I had responses here as I was under the impression some notification would come into my mailbox.? Just checked here on a hunch.? So thanks to everyone who did respond.? I'm likin' this already! I have checked and rechecked (and rechecked) date, time and location, and all's well with those (and the battery, btw).? I'm using UTC for the time.? I've not tried Stellarium yet.? Still learning the ropes with a new mount and configuring PHD guiding, ASCOM, and Astrphotography Tool.? For this old dog, that's alotta new tricks all at once.? Last night we were out (we being my wife, who assists me with PoleMaster alignment and some of the tech stuff on the computer when needed, and crawls into her Snoopy "I Need My Space" sleeping bag that we got from Lands End and watches for meteors) and could not get the mount to connect to the computer.? She finally figured out that some cleaning up she'd done the other day apparently removed the Gemini 2 setup parameters, so she did a system restore and that fixed it.? Just making a note of that here, in case anyone else encounters that problem. As for "astroitalian," I'm of Italian descent, and lived in Italy a number of years.? Had an astro pal there whom I went to visit once, and did a Messier Marathon with a bunch of other Italian astrophiles.? Great time! |
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Hi Sonny and thanks for the welcome!
Now that you jogged my memory, I think there was a G811 setting and that's the one I chose.? I had thought about doing the factory reset; maybe I'll go ahead and do that.? With the virus shut-in situation, I'm running out of projects anyhow.? And we finally have some good nights coming up, albeit with iffy seeing, but great transparency and I want to shoot DSOs, so that's welcome news. I've watched all of the Losmandy videos, and they've been a GREAT help.? Much as I liked the Celestron CGX, helpful tutorials were definitely lacking there, as was the operating manual.? But that's not to "dis" Celestron stuff.? I liked the mount, and love the EdgeHD SCTs!? Have owned a couple of those.? Anyhow, back to Losmandy... I have to drag my outfit in and out the back door too - just a regular opening, and I have it on JMI Wheeley Bars, too.? So, it's "counterweight out first" then maneuver the other two struts around the door jambs.? Getting it all back in is quite a bit more hassle than getting it out, that's for sure. |
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Was out last night for a few hours.? Tracking and pointing were good.? I double checked and yes, once again Sirius was well above the horizon but missing from the Bright Star list after a while.
I'm still getting used to and learning the Gemini 2, and was wondering if it's possible to look for an object by name like I could with the Celeston NexStar hand control, which had a list called "Named Objects"?? For example, if I did not know the Messier number 42 for the Orion nebula, could I just look up "Orion nebula" somehow?? Or do I have to know the catalog number for every object?? Not a big deal, just a convenience. Thanks again for any help. |
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Just a follow-up.? Two nights ago was a night from hell, like all of us have now and then.? Just could not get good pointing and tracking, despite very good seeing, and finally gave up after about 2 hours of having my patience tested.? Last night was much better, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to spend some time reading the "pointing woes" threads here.? What I've been having to do is align on a star close to the object I want to image, and then going to that object.? Otherwise, pointing is not real great most of the time.? I slewed to Denebola, which was not centered real well, but ok, then tried to slew to M65, which is right nearby, and it wasn't even in my first camera shot (at ISO 6400, just to see if the object was there).? Slewed back to Denebola, which was no longer centered, did an alignment on it, then went back to M65, and that worked.
And once again, Sirius was no longer on the BSL, even tho' it was still well above the horizon. |
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Assuming you are building a pointing model correctly, and your gotos on the same side of pier are still off, 99% of the time it's bad date/time and/or location information also the majority of the time when people say "my date/time and location is correct, i am 100% confident" it ends up being one of those values is off On Fri, Apr 24, 2020 at 9:44 AM <astroitalian@...> wrote: Just a follow-up.? Two nights ago was a night from hell, like all of us have now and then.? Just could not get good pointing and tracking, despite very good seeing, and finally gave up after about 2 hours of having my patience tested.? Last night was much better, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to spend some time reading the "pointing woes" threads here.? What I've been having to do is align on a star close to the object I want to image, and then going to that object.? Otherwise, pointing is not real great most of the time.? I slewed to Denebola, which was not centered real well, but ok, then tried to slew to M65, which is right nearby, and it wasn't even in my first camera shot (at ISO 6400, just to see if the object was there).? Slewed back to Denebola, which was no longer centered, did an alignment on it, then went back to M65, and that worked. --
Brian? Brian Valente portfolio |
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Thanks, Brian, but no, that is not it.? I even did a factory reset just to be sure nothing was stored that was interfering in some way.? I have checked and re-checked location data -online, with my wife's smartphone GPS app, and also with a Losmandy-supplied GPS unit, and it was all the same, and I set up at the exact same spot every time I'm out.? I've entered and re-entered that data just to be sure.? I use UTC, not local time, and have checked and re-checked that too.? At some point, you have to be 100% confident!? And from the number of "pointing" issue threads I've seen about Losmandy mounts here and elsewhere, well, I realize a good bit of it could be user error, but certainly not all of it.? But thanks for the suggestion in any event.? I just want to assure you that those things are NOT factors.
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>>>I just want to assure you that those things are NOT factors.
If what you are describing is accurate (i'm not saying it isn't, but assuming no errors in how you are building your model, etc.) this is literally the only way your gotos can consistently be off. There isn't any other obvious explanation. Is it possible there's a diode blown somewhere or something else? sure it's possible, but the likelyhood if it *only* affecting your gotos under specific circumstances is very low.? I encourage you to try the other post i mentioned I just was talking to someone who assured me up and down their location was 100% accurate, checked their gps, etc. and it turns out they had a + and - sign reversed |
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<<I encourage you to try the other post i mentioned>>
Did you mean the Factory Reset video or something else?? Sorry if I missed something there.? I've watched the FR video a number of times, and followed it to a T when doing the reset. I'd imagine if I had + and - signs reversed, my pointing would REALLY be off, and it's not.? And when I do a model, and start with Sirius, it usually is in my field of view, and then I just center it.? So the computer "knows" where Sirius should be with my coordinates, so I don't see how a change as dramatic as reversing latitude from north to south, or longitude from west to east would result in that sort of near-accuracy. Again, I do appreciate any suggestions here.? I want this mount to work well.? I like the mount! |
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