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[Larrybia]

I am new to the forum and may have posted this somewhere else by mistake. I have a problem with LT-6 aliment following return from a star party at Death Valley. I traveled on some very bumpy roads. At home, time, date, location, savings time all entered correctly. For two star aliment, after setting true and level, initial pointing is 10 deg or so off on Az and about the same for Alt. Alignment fails. Single star alignment same problem. Any time I try a sync or align and then return to park the park position is off true park by the error values. Tube goes to the Alt and AZ the program saids it should go to but Alt and Az do not match Astrostar Alt and Az for the same object and time/date and location.

 

Updated hand controller software. No change. It appears that the computer does not calculate the Alt and Az correctly even though I am sure the time date and location are correct. As two hand controllers give the same bad results for calculating Alt and Az. Is there something in the scope that enters into this calculation? Do the motor drives provide some reference number used in calculations? Could this number be screwed up somehow? The pointing problem appears to be scope related and not in the hand controller.

 

I have contacted Meade with no help yet. Do not know where to go from here? The scope works OK with tracking for manual positioning but will not “go to” correctly. OK for planets but can not do deep space like I did before going to star party.

[MistrBadgr]

Hi Larry!

 

Welcome to the forum!

 

I have an LS 8, which has a different setup than your, but I have several DS-2000 mounts that use the same handset as an LT.  I am fairly familiar with that setup, just not on an LT.

 

If your scope was an LS, I would say that the bumpy roads had knocked your scopes positioning camera out of position.  In that case, there is a routine for resetting that.

 

For an LT, I will have to make a guess.  I suggest that you retrain your drives.  I think there is a possibility that the jostling could have changed something a little in the gear trains that affects the backlash between parts in one or both of them.  I think the routines you need are under the "Setup" menu.  You should find a routine for training AZ and another for training Alt.

 

When you do one of those, the computer in the handset has you center on an object, then hit enter.  It will then slew the scope in a direction and have you press the appropriate arrow key to recenter the object.  You will do this in both directions for Altitude and both for Azimuth.

 

I recommend that you do the routine for each two or three times.  I don't know why, but I seem to have better luck with my DS mounts when I do that.

 

The other possibility that I can think of off the top of my head is simply weak batteries.  If you have truly fresh batteries or are running from a power supply, then that problem is eliminated.

 

If retraining the drives does not work, you might try Meade Customer Support and see if they have any ideas.  Their phone number is 1-800-626-3233.

 

Hope this helps!

 

Bill Steen