Relief, and success!
I resolved my alignment issues this evening! I posted on Cloudy Nights late last night and got a number of thoughtful responses. One of them inclined me to look at firmware version, and it turned out mine was older. Fortuitously, the RS232-to-USB adapter I’d ordered was waiting in my mailbox, so I picked it up, and checked out the Orion Support Site for the Synscan system . The firmware and loader were easily downloaded, and with some tinkering I got my laptop connected to the Synscan, and initiated the firmware update. The update took about ten minutes as the whole thing was being transferred over a classic RS232 serial cable, but it was eventually successful. Once done, I powered up the mount, polar aligned, restarted the system in “home” position, and got a great three star alignment right out of the gates! I proved out the GOTO accuracy with a slew to M42 and got a nice squarely in frame shot without any adjustments. Psyched and relieved to have resolved the alignment proble...
