FINALLY have clear skies and can get my LX200 up on the Milburn wedge and learn the practical mysteries of polar alignment.

Mechanically, no problem. After practicing for a few nights I can get a tripod alignment that keeps Jupiter in the FOV of a medium-power eyepice for 2-3 hrs. Pretty sure I can also master drift alignment for eventual astrophotography.My problem is deciphering the instructions for polar alignment to make the GOTO function work. For my old brain, they are less than clear.

After getting a decent alignment I turn the scope on, set time, date and polar mount and slew to a star (e.g., Altair) and SYNC the drive, which seems to work fine. But if I enter another object (e.g., Jupiter, which I see over to the right) the computer comes back 'object below horizon'.

I'm obviously missing something. While GOTO isn't REALLY necessary, it would be nice to figure out how it works (I mean, I paid for it and all). Any suggestions are appreciated.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

Are you sure you aligned on Altair?

Are you sure your location was entered correctly?

first two things that come to mind...

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"I'm as accurate as any psychic. And I'm a cartoon!" -- Squidward

"Arrrgh, the laws of physics be a harsh mistress!" -- Bender

Definitely Altair. I don't know the sky all that well anymore, but I know the Summer Triangle.

OTOH, let me check the location entry and get back to you. My hand controller is wearing out and sometimes it takes the wrong entry.

Excellent suggestion, BTW. I wouldn't be surprised if that might be part of the problem. It would be funny if the scope thought I was in Greenland or something.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

I must have had the AM/PM time setting mixed up, vs the 24 hour clock. Or something. At least it now points where I tell it to. Finally saw my old summer friend, the Ring Nebula, last night. Now to move on to mastering drift alignment.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

I have done drift alignment on my equatorial platform, but I do it infrequently enough that I have to refer to my notes on which way to move the platform... If it was something I did every time, then I would get it memorized, but I usually don't take the time unless I want to do some imaging or I am going to be set up for more than one night.

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"I'm as accurate as any psychic. And I'm a cartoon!" -- Squidward

"Arrrgh, the laws of physics be a harsh mistress!" -- Bender

I'm practicing for next month's star party. If I'm lucky, three nights of near-perfect skies. Not really observing these nights, just doing setup exercises.

And yes, there is nothing worse than trying something like drift alignment occasionally. I have the notes in a plastic sleeve, yet still seem to hit the wrong button as often as not. I think it's mainly because I do almost all alt/az and can't easily rotate my inner reference frame to the polar setup; my mind still sees up/down, right/left instead of RA/dec.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.