Goto problems...HELP!

my much anticipated 80ed and ASGT CG-5 came in a few days ago and i was fortunate enough to have had clear skies ever since. But, no matter what Ive tried, gone over, double checked, triple checked, and re-evaluated, I simply cannot get the GOTO alignment to work. These are things that I have made sure to do and any possible variables i can think of...

Ive tried two separate cities

both single and double star alignment

made sure that the time and date were dead on

double checked lat and long of preset cities

polar aligned, though not with a scope

set scope to north each night

leveled tripod

and adjusted the lat alt on my mount to match my 32 degree local in macon.

Never the less every night I go out and do all of these things, and as soon as it starts slewing to say rigel or capella it moves in complete opposite direction, sometimes even upside down it seems. In fact tonight i was slewing to betelguese which was to the south est and the damn thing almost snapped it self apart by wedging the scope against the tripod.

I cant figure it out, does anyone else have such problems? Ive been able to view some things without the technology i spent so much money on to do for me. So far ive been out three times and been able to track down Saturn, M31, M81/82, M42, the Pleaides, and the moon. But without the goto working i cant track them, and honestly, i paid the money and i want it to work when i show it off to my friends and family over the holidays.

Any ideas on what could possibly be wrong? i know its got to be me , but i just cant see it. its like when you were a kid playing with legos, youd always need this one inparticular piece that you just couldnt find, and then your brother walks in and sees it right in front of you on the top of the pile. i guess i just need some fresh eyes on this ones to point out the obvious. any help, or even just a "yeah that happened to me, goto's suck" would be much appreciated.


Thanks

Chris,

Is there a setting for North/South on the mount? Or in the software? It sounds like the mount is working, but thinks it is in a different location on Earth. Something as simple as a "+" where a "-" should be could cause all sorts of problems.

Is there a "Factory defaults" settings? When all else fails, you can start over. Celestron has a few support pages. I've used a CGE, but not the ASGT, but someone here should have some hints.

Jeff

Chris, I'm not familiar with your mount, but both, Jeff & Jim, are correct, it sure sounds like your mount thinks it is in the Southern hemisphere... please check your documentation and see if the is a section in which you can adjust this...

Let us know, and good luck! 8)

Jeff:

Did you buy this mount used??? If so, I suggest going into the ulitity menu (I think that's where it is) and resetting the handcontroller to the factory defaults.

I bought my ASGT used and had some similar problems. Resetting the controller resolved my problems. These mounts "learn" so resetting them starts them out fresh.

Another issue is where to point the OTA, do you line up the alignment marks or do you point the scope to Polaris?? My understanding is that as long as you are consistent, it will "learn."

You can select EQ-North as a mode but I believe that has nothing to do with the GOTO tracking, if you choose this mode, then it operates as a manual GEM. You might give it a try.

Also, check out www.nexstarsite.com There is lots of information there, Michael Swanson has some good pages for Nexstar users.

Jon