My telescope mount took 45 minutes to find the moon last week

I got a new computerized mount for my birthday, set it up in my backyard in Phoenix, and it took 45 minutes to even find the moon. The alignment process kept failing because my neighbor's palm tree was blocking half the sky. Turns out I had the time zone set to UTC instead of Arizona time, which is just embarrassing. Has anyone else had their mount get confused by a single tree?

2 comments

2 Comments

dianawilson6d ago

Is it just me or do these computerized mounts have a real attitude problem sometimes? I swear mine throws a fit if there's a single tree branch within 50 feet of it. The time zone thing is a classic, happens to everyone at least once. But honestly, palm trees are the worst for blocking stuff because they're tall and bushy and never lose their leaves. You'd think the mount could figure out it's not a mountain, but nope, it gets all confused and spins around like a lost puppy. Maybe try doing the alignment during the daytime when you can actually see where the tree is and plan around it, that's what I started doing after my own palm tree incident last summer.

perry.jesse6d ago

Yeah palm trees are the worst for that. Time zone thing is a rite of passage honestly.