GeorgeCarey

I have never bothered with the zenith park position. It is a long time since I did a polar alignment or pointing model but if I remember correctly I follow roughly this method: Switch motors on and let magnetic find do its stuff. ( I call it that to avoid confusion with Homefind and Homeposition). Clear old configuration. Move scope to near zenith and do a find Homeposition (Autoslew looks for the zero points on the encoders). Find a bright star with the aid of Cartes du Ciel. Get it centred. Now do a Sync in Cartes du Ciel (I have never used the Autoslew Sync button). ..........You do a new Homefind here..............no need for this......... Then start the pointing model and move in succession to the stars in one hemisphere you have chosen, all with similar Declination. Ignore the stuff about Synching on a star - you did this on the first star. Finish and calculate model. Then do the bit about moving to a Meridian star to do the Polar shift thing. Clear configuration and repeat the polar find over and over until it is good. Now clear configuration. Sync on a star in the hemisphere you chose for Polar alignment. Try a 6 or 7 star model in each hemisphere. You should find the stars in your 'good' hemisphere quite easily, and provided the collimation is reasonable, you should find stars in the other hemisphere. I assume you are not using Sequence and Pinpoint to do the pointing models? Maxim, Pinpoint and Sequence make it very easy - almost fully automatic.

Would it be good to have a section on 'Common Errors'? The dreaded never ending slews, errors due to balance, dodgy usb leads, interpreting the log files and so on. I have first hand experience of the rising current problem which can only be fixed by sending the mount back to ASA. I spent months trying to sort this out myself when the mount should have gone back immediately.

Congratulations to all those who have set this up! I had my first look at the Wiki and it looks really good.

Was the comparison on the same night? The seeing can have a big effect.

I always use guiding. I accept that there will be a delay. I take 5 second guiding exposures so with downloads adding and processing a correction is made every 6 seconds. However, if there is a wind gust Autoslew will correct it rapidly whether you are guiding or using MLPT.

Yes, balancing is tricky. You might like to have a look at this thread - http://forum.astrosysteme.com/index.php?/topic/553-scope-balancing/?hl=%2Bradial+%2Bbalance Since I balanced the scope both 'laterally' and 'radially' I have not had any problems.

Hi Dave, welcome to the club! There are not many owners of ASA mounts in the UK. Feel free to ask plenty of questions - the learning curve has been known to defeat some people.

To my fellow ASA users across Europe - I am deeply sorry for what my country has done. I was proud to gain British citizenship in 2012. Now I am ashamed.

Great image. I can only dream of SQM 21.2. My best ever was 20.11 What is your best SQM?

Good to read a report from a happy customer. I also have had good service from ASA. Yes, it can sometimes take a while to get things going, but once a problem is identified ASA has sorted it out. My mount has been back to Austria more than once, and each time at no expense to me.

Good news that it appears to be fixed now. I found that the magnetic angle find seldom gave a smooth curve. I always go straight to the Homefind operation and turn the mount slowly by hand. That method seems to give very reliable operation.

You could also try turning on the log files. At the beginning of the log file it tells you what the magnetic angles are, as set by the licence key. You can then try the manual Homefind and when you then check the log it will tell you by how much it has corrected the magnetic angle.

I haven't done the magnetic angle find for many months. If I remember correctly you click on the 'turn motors on' button. Autoslew will then send pulses of current to the motors and work out the angle. I used to put the scope facing North or South with the counter weight arm horizontal. When it has done the magnetic angle you do a Homefind as normal. Be ready to catch the scope incase it starts slewing. There may be some other parameters that are incorrectly set.

Some optical surfaces that I have cleaned have stubbornly refused to come clean with isopropyl alcohol. I now finish the cleaning by breathing on the surface and carefully wiping with a soft tissue. It seems to work well.

Odd. 5213 was 6.88 MB. All the others are around 5.5 MB.

It does appear. My mount went back to ASA last year for repair. When it came back I had to do a polar alignment, and even though I have fixed encoders I still got the message.

Thanks Luis. All very helpful to the beginner. It is strange that the part about encoder resolution still appears - even with mounts with fixed encoder resolutions.

It would appear that the only corrupted data was the Homeposition. I have synced on Aldebaran, set a New Homeposition, saved parameters, and everything seems to be fine.

Thanks Christer. It looks like the Homeposition value was corrupted. After the homefind which is almost at the zenith, Autoslew displayed this: Altitude 37 degrees and DEC -2 51 was clearly wrong. I pointed the scope at the Sun (with solar filter!), synced on the Sun and set a new homeposition. It seems to slew to sensible places now. Before switching off I saved the new parameters, switched on again and the mount seems OK. It could find the Sun with no problems. Strange that only the one setting was corrupted - everything else seems fine. I have made a full backup - as Bernard suggested!

Hello Bernard, I don't have a back up - something I clearly should have done. Thinking about the problem: if Autoslew had a corrupt Homeposition, perhaps off by 90 degrees, then it could produce this problem. Tomorrow I will align on the Moon (if the sky is clear) by hand, and set and save a new Homeposition. Then switch off and try again.

My last pointing model was made in July last year and has worked perfectly. When I switch on and go to an object it is spot on. Tonight for some reason it is way off. I told it to point at M31 and it went somewhere near the horizon. I switched off and started again, but it goes to the same wrong place. I tried Capella which is near the zenith and it went to Orion. Homefind works as normal. The correct pointing model is being loaded. The computer clock reads the correct time. Cartes du Ciel, the planetarium software I use, is using the correct time and location. Capella is at altitude 80 degrees now, which is what Autoslew says, even though it is pointing in the wrong place. My brain is frazzled and I cannot think what to check. Any ideas?

The first thing to do is to turn on current logging. Inspecting the log files can often pin down the problem.

The felt on my ASA tube rings looks very similar to Protostar flocking.

Have a look at this thread: http://forum.astrosysteme.com/index.php?/topic/726-important-fix-for-usb-driver-all-mounts/

Denis, I am delighted that you found the spreadsheet useful! Post the image of the comet. I tried it a week ago but the results were poor. Catalina is in a very light polluted part of the sky for me.