ETX-LS 6 Auto Alignment

[Phantastes]

I am fairly new to astronomy and just purchased an ETX-LS. I love it so far and have no problem doing a two star alignment, however, I have not been able to get it to align automatically through the use of its built-in ccd camera. After a number of attempts at my house which has a lot of ambient light due to being in the city I took it to the country and gave it another try. It still did not work and I just keep getting the audio message that there must be something obstructing the view everytime it tries to find an alignment star. The moon was out and almost full but otherwise the sky was pretty dark and the stars were quite visible. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Mark Sibole]

I am not familiar with this scope so I can not give you an answer.
Giving Meade a call would probably be your best option on this.

Sorry I can not help you out.

Regards

Mark

[jimsz]

If you do a google search there seems to be many with this same problem.

Calling meade is your best bet.

[spaceman0421]

I am fairly new to astronomy and just purchased an ETX-LS. I love it so far and have no problem doing a two star alignment, however, I have not been able to get it to align automatically through the use of its built-in ccd camera. After a number of attempts at my house which has a lot of ambient light due to being in the city I took it to the country and gave it another try. It still did not work and I just keep getting the audio message that there must be something obstructing the view everytime it tries to find an alignment star. The moon was out and almost full but otherwise the sky was pretty dark and the stars were quite visible. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

"I have the same problem.  Whenever I allow the scope to auto align, it is way off.  While scrolling through the autostar paddle, I noticed that the GPS was not locating me anywhere near where I live.  It is off by approx 60 miles and this is enough to be off by several degrees in alignment.  However, when I did a manual 2-star alignment, the scope did fairly well.  But, I purchase this scope to take out to darker places rather than my LX200R (which weighs about 55 pounds without the tripod) and to align itself while I continue getting my imager and laptop set up.  In addition, I cannot get the scope to recognize the mini SD card. I have been in touch with Meade, but there is no one that can help.  I guess I will have to send my scope to them to see what's wrong.   

[autostaretx]

It is off by approx 60 miles

60 miles is less than one degree in latitude, and about a degree in longitude.

That should -not- be enough to confuse the ETX-LS (it's hard to get the tripod that level by eye, so it's equivalent to a mild tripod mis-set.)

Mike Weasner reports his new ETX-LS pointing "40 degrees below" Arcturus during alignment... so Meade's replacing it.
http://www.weasner.com/etx/reviews/2009/etx-ls-6-acf.html

good luck
--dick

[alhajry]

Hello good fellows,

I did purchase this telescope and I do love it very much, however I my self also facing the same problem on auto align I thought it was only my scope which has this kind of problem, but now I see that there others who face the same. I hope to get an answer or help on what to do especially that I have NO means of communication with Meade as I do leave in Oman.

Also my Autostar software got corruption and tried to reinstall using my PC and was unsuccessful. I shall be thankful for any assisstance from you.

Best regards to all

[cygnusx1]

Your auto star can be updatedd and fixed by flashing it with the ver 1.2g update from meade. Get your mini SD chip format it at Fat 32 and then burn the update onto the SD chip. Plug the SD chip into the chip holder on the telescope, turn it on and let it do its update. Takes about 1/2 hour. After the update finishes turn the scope off and take the chip out. Restart the scope. It should be all updated. For CCD camera operation make sure the small screw holding the lens is not loose and allowing the camera lens to come out and loose focus. I understand that this was a common problem. Hope this helps.

[Thomas]

I just got this scope and am too having the same problem except I cant get it to complete alignment because I get a power lost saving state error every time. Anyone having this same issue ?

thanks in advance