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GoTo Scopes
May 2004

GoTo scopes have software that allows the scope owner to navigate to the spot he wants to view based on a database of information similar to what planetarium computer programs use. The owner tells the GoTo scope his location and date, points to a key star like Polaris, and the GoTo will then turn to view what is requested. With the Earth orbit affected and a tilt and lean in place, these scopes are not working well and must be manually tweaked in order to function.

I have been making some very careful measurements of the Sun at exactly noon every day using the shadow my roof makes on the north side of the house. There are some days where there is a significantly larger movement from previous days, like 2 1/2 inches instead of 3/4 inch. The Earth is tilting north more than it should. I took my data to a professional astronomer I know, and he was intrigued, but had no other comment. At least he did not kick me out. Then I asked if we could test out one of the GoTo scopes he sells by looking at the fingernail moon, which was out in the daytime (Fri, May 14,2004 at 1:30 PM, New Mexico). It did not point to the moon! It pointed to a spot approximately 20 degrees ahead of where the moon actually was. Of course there was not enough time to pursue this any more as my friend is a busy man, but I figured we will get to the bottom of it one of these days. Then I ran across this very interesting web page stating that there is something very wrong with the Moon. I think we are very close to some empirical proof here.
Ed
 
My "fancy" go-to telescope will not track jupiter or the moon (last time past) either [May 18]. I own a Meade ETX 70, (not a cheap telescope). Two different people both having the same problem is a problem for me.
 
The two other star watchers here are accurate when they say their telescopes don´t work. I have one as well and it has problems every month [May 19] finding the planets eg. Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus.