Mounting Problems

A few weeks ago, I was inspired by an ALPO webinar on daytime observing of planets, so I decided to try locating Mercury during it spring western elongation. Equipped with my Celestron CGX-L mount, I had high hopes of using its GoTo functionality for enabling me to find the planet amid the bright blue sky. However, what should have been a straightforward task quickly turned into a puzzling challenge. When I keyed in the time—just a little after noon—the mount's computer inexplicably believed it was just after midnight. As a result, daytime targets like Venus and Mercury refused to appear in the GoTo menu. After triple-checking every input and even rebooting the system multiple times, I felt equal parts baffled and frustrated.

Needing to get to the bottom of this, I opened a support ticket with Celestron. Their team responded promptly and suggested I double-check whether I was selecting AM/PM properly. While that might seem like a simple oversight, I assured them this wasn’t the issue—I had been meticulous in my entries. Notably, if I set the time to 11 a.m. instead of 12 p.m. the menu would display the expected roster of daytime planets in the sky.

The recommendation came back to update the firmware. Sounds easy enough, and there was even a link to a user’s video showing how to do it – but his mount and mine were different. Without the gory details it proved to be a process that I had to retry a couple of times before I got it right. And then, following the firmware upgrade, another issue arose where the scope would not properly return to the Home position. Another round of correspondence ending in a helpful call where the technician talked me through that issue and finally brought full resolution.

Though the experience was undeniably frustrating at times, I felt appreciation for the support Celestron provided. Their willingness to actually get on the phone and guide me in resolving the issue renewed my confidence in the brand and their equipment. Now with a little luck the next time Mercury has a decent elongation in the morning sky everything will work as expected!

The evening of the recent Lunar eclipse brought to light yet another technical snafu, this time with my iOptron HEM27 mount that I use with my Vixen scope. I planned to align the mount as soon as Polaris was out, but the iPolar software had other ideas. I’ve used it many times in the past with good results but that evening it would not display the crosshair that one must align to. Worse, the software was also crashing at times. I went with a manual alignment which worked well enough over the course of the frustrating evening which ended up in clouds engulfing the Moon moments before totality arrived.

About a week later I tried troubleshooting it. I first confirmed that the problem could be reproduced. Then I tried uninstalling and re-installing the software. Nothing worked and the software crashed upon each attempt. The next day I opened a ticket with iOptron.

Following guidance from the company, I downloaded and successfully applied a firmware update and took a new dark frame as suggested. However, to my disappointment, the core issue remained—iPolar continued to crash upon clicking the "Confirm Position One" button, as shown in a video I shared with them. I also ensured to clear the "Center of Camera" settings before testing further.

In response, iOptron Support requested details about the specific iPolar version and firmware I was using, directing me to check through their provided link. So, the back and forth continues without resolution. I am hoping that it can be resolved soon and certainly without having to send the unit back to the factory. The troubleshooting process with iOptron serves as a reminder of the challenges and patience required in astrophotography, where technical hiccups can cause you to miss opportunities to gather those photons.