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SkySafari Pro | Celestron Evolution WiFi Alignment Fail

Theodore Bade

May 25, 2018 14:12

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HI,

I recently purchased a Celestron Evolution with WiFi which I am learning to use. I tried alignment last night, I tried three times, but each time failed. After I was done, I began to think, the Celestron WiFi uses GPS/location data from the iOS device connected. However, I am connected with a Wifi only iPad (no cellular data). Perhaps the issue was that the iPad, for some reason, didn't have a correct location. The question is, if I tell SkySafari Pro that I live in a particular location using the location Map function, should this work okay with out the GPS data? Alternatively, is there a better solution?

 

Any help would be appreciated.

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10 comments

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  Bill Tschumy May 25, 2018 14:17

  SkySafari does use the user's location to control the mount.  You don't need GPS.  Whatever location you have set in SkySafari will be used when aligning/controlling the scope.

  You did choose Celestron Wi-Fi as the scope type, right?

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  Theodore Bade May 25, 2018 21:11

  Correct. I selected Celestron WiFi. I had no issue controlling the scope. I had no issue three times aligning on three stars using the iPad. Each time the program told me, alignment failed. The third time, I used the iPad to manually move the scope to view Jupiter, which was really my goal for the night. So I have no issues controlling the scope with the iPad. I just couldn't get it aligned.

  The first time I used and aligned the scope, I had no issues. It actually worked quite well and i was able to find several deep sky objects using SkySafari. It was spot on! This time, three tries with no success. Two things I am trying. One was to just reboot the iPad. I am not sure how long it has been since I did that. Secondly, I made sure that SkySafari Pro on my iPad has my location set up as my home location using the Map feature in the program. I had had it on use location services.

  Which brings me to another comment. How do I convince the program to just forget I tried an alignment and allow me to align on a single object? I figured, since all I really wanted to do was view Jupiter, well I could align on it, since I was looking at it. The program consistently make Jupiter the fourth object in a failed alignment. I tried the iOS application quit. When it restarted, it still did the same thing.

  On my first successful alignment, the moon's location was a bit off. I tried to adjust the alignment by centering on the Moon and saving align, It wouldn't do it. I got a message which I now forget, but it was something to the effect that doing that would mess up the alignment. But, since I was able to view lots of other deep sky objects, I wasn't too worried. The goto slew got it close to the moon and I just moved a bit to get it into the view.

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  Keiron Smith May 28, 2018 20:45

  Hi Theodore, 

  Please document in detail your alignment procedure, and provide a screenshot of the exact error message received.

  Thanks!

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  Theodore Bade May 29, 2018 12:43

  I will, next time I get a clear enough night to actually see some stars. It can be tough getting a clear sky in the Northeast!

   

  Ted

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  Bill Tschumy May 30, 2018 15:54

  Ted,

  Not sure why you are having problems.  You say:

  "I had no issue three times aligning on three stars using the iPad. Each time the program told me, alignment failed."

  I don't understand.  Are you saying you were able to align on the first 3 stars but the 4th failed?  Are you trying to use Jupiter as the 4th "star"?  I think that should work but it would be safer to just use a 4th real star.

  You can't really align on just a single object.  Three stars is the absolute minimum.

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  Theodore Bade June 17, 2018 11:45

  Sorry about the major typo in my comments, I wasn't editing my own posts. The Alignment Failed three times in a row. I finally got a chance to try again. The process goes as follows. First I set up the  mount and level it when there is some light outside. Later, when it is dark I attach the optics and connect using SkySafari Pro (v6). (Yes, it is the latest version). The software asks me to put at a bright star in the finder, I do and press okay, then it says to use the slower speeds to center it in the eyepiece, I do, then press align. It then asks me to do this for another bright star, then another. I have been choosing stars in the west (example alpha leo or another bright leo), south (one of the Scorpius), and one in the north (one of the Ursa Major stars). After the third star align, it just says "alignment failed and starts the process over again. Last night I tried using both SkySafari and Celestron's SkyPortal, to no avail, the process failed all four times. I also tried resetting the telescope's electronics and trying the process again, It failed two times and I gave up

  One thought that came to me this morning is now both of these two pieces of software on my iPad moved to a new version since I purchased my telescope. I honestly cannot recall if i used V6 or V5 on the telescope the very first time I used it, which was an astounding success. I aligned it in a matter of minutes and was observing in no time. So I know that this does work.  Is is possible there is a telescope firmware issue which is inconsistent with the v6 versions of both SkySafari Pro and Celestron's SkyPortal (which is touting that is is built on SkySafari v6)?

  Any thoughts you might have would be greatly appreciated. It looks like we are going to have some clear weather for a few days and I am willing to try again quickly.

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  Bill Tschumy June 18, 2018 14:17

  Theodore,

  It is not immediately clear to me why you would be having these issues.  There has not really (to my knowledge) been any change between SS5 and SS6 in how it handles the Celestron alignment.  However, Celestron maintains that bit of code and it is possible they have changes something.

  I would contact Celestron support about this.  They are much more knowledgeable about the ways that this could fail.

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  Theodore Bade June 18, 2018 21:45

  Thanks for the input. I had already contacted Celestron and am still waiting for a reply. If they actually manage to resolve the issue, I will puit the solution here in case someone else runs into an issue.

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  Donald Swetzig November 04, 2018 12:45

  Was there ever a solution to this post?   I am not able to get an alignment with SkySafari and I am out of ideas.   I always get a failed alignment with my 8SE. 

  Thanks

  Don

   

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  Theodore Bade November 04, 2018 21:08

  Hi to all on this,

  Sorry. I completely forgot to finalize this thread.

  I contacted Celestron, went through some troubleshooting with them, and the technician finally decided that the controller needed to be returned to them for repairs. After a few weeks, the controller was returned and I have had only one issue with aligning since then. I have had the scope out about six times over the past couple of months and it has worked well.

  I am still using the iPad as the intelligence source, with SkySafari Pro v6.x on it. It is a real treat using this. Find an interesting object on the screen, goto, then look!

  There are a couple of things I feel are important. I am not sure these are totally necessary, but I have a feeling.

  1. After I am done for the night I ALWAYS, use the software's disconnect command.

  2. I spend a good deal of time making sure the tripod is completely level before I start.

  3. I power cycle the iPad before each session.

  4. I don't run SkySafari until the Scope's WiFi is on and I have connected the iPad's WiFi to it.

  The only other issue I have had is the WiFi disconnecting because the iPad decided to sleep. So I think I will just keep the display on constantly while observing in the future.