Synscan dob 2 star alignment help

[poncho]

Hi

Recently bought a 10" dobsonian collapsible with synscan.

Can get the 2 star alignment to work
- have the right date/time/lat/long/altitude
I align on the first star, then it auto slews to the second star i choose...but its completely off.

Any ideas??
Got it to work one time a few weeks ago, but now have tried multiple times and cant get it to align.
Mirrors are collimated

[Atmos]

All that pops into mind right now is the Daylight Savings, that changed a few weeks ago.

[chuckywiz]

Happy to assist if you like .. looks like i dont live far away. It will be a basic setup issue. Had similar issues with mine once long ago. Setup right the gotos are pretty accurate

[poncho]

I;ve had another look at the manual:
For "Autotracking Operation" it says point the scope north and have it level before turning on controller
For 'AZ GoTo Operation" it says to point the scope at brightest star before turning on controller

Which do i do? Does it make much difference??

I think i had been turning it on with it pointing in a random direction

[chuckywiz]

From memory
Level it
Face true north not magnetic
Start alignment

[raymo]

Why would you point it North? mounts are aligned on the South celestial
pole in the Southern hemisphere.
raymo

[chuckywiz]

Thats how i always did mine and it was accurate. Ive no idea why the alt az is different

[Malcolm]

I have never had to point mine to North or South. I use a small spirit level, and I have fitted small screw type leveling feet instead of the rubber stops under the dob base. Once the base is level I fit the tube and do a quick level check again. If the base is not perfectly level, tracking will be out. If your location, altitude, date and time is incorrect, tracking will be out. All these factors will affect the align.
I usually do two star align, and the second star is always a little bit out. If a bright planet is up the handset will choose one if you select three star align. I have even used a daytime align choosing the Moon and then found the align to be reasonably correct later in the evening. Your timezone is +8. Daylight Saving = (N). Date input is month/day/year US style. In the Utility Menu, you will find PAE, clear this data before you align. Under Alignment Menu, you will find Cone error and one other that escapes me right now, these should be at zero. If the scope was second/hand, it is possible that these have an adjustment in place that you may not be aware of, so it's probably a good idea to remove them. Then do the alignment. Regardless of whether or not you have cleared any stored data, the handset still says Previous NPE Applied after a successful align. If the second star is way off, it can only be a date or time error in initial align input.
If after say half an hour of viewing, and you choose a star or planet, selecting PAE will allow you to re-align on said star or planet for a small adjustment in tracking in that zone of sky only. So if you were observing an object in the East, and then slew to an object in the West and it is a bit out, try using PAE to align again. PAE works in Zones for areas of sky. Remember to clear the data before doing another two or three star align.
You do not need to use the Park function, unless your base is permanently fixed or you can accurately place it in exactly the same place each viewing session. Not having used it myself, I think it can recall the last GOTO object, so if the base is not in the same place, it will not find the object.
I have had a lot of trouble myself when I first started with Synscan, and the manual, having been written by a potato is not a great deal of help. Now I use SkySafari Pro with a wifi adapter on the handset and all align issues I had disappeared. I select an object using the app, make a small adjustment if necessary and tap align. Job done. One of the best accessories I have thrown into this money-pit. Which reminds me of my boat, a hole in the water I also throw money into.
Good luck, I'm going camping and fishing for four days. :-)

[gaseous]

+1 to everything Malcolm said, although I do try to get the OTA level and pointing north. As someone else mentioned, make sure you use true rather than magnetic north - I use my iphone and it's automatically set to magnetic - changing it to true makes a noticeable improvement (I think the difference between true and magnetic in brisbane is about 11 degrees, so it's not insignificant). The second star in a two star alignment is always a little bit out I've found, but it should certainly be in the general neighbourhood.

[rustigsmed]

be wary of the date format mm/dd/yyyy
i generally point my dob south and have it pretty level.

sometimes they go haywire, consider updating the controller to the latest firmware.

another option is to try one star alignment first.

[eskimo20]

Malcolm

I assume you have an Alt-Az mount. The following comments apply to the Skywatcher Star Discovery mount and SynScan control.

I don't point mine in any particular direction and it works well. In fact I wouldn't know how to point an Alt-Az mount North or South.

As has been said already your Lat/Long, Time, Daylight Saving, Levelling the mount and identifying the stars correctly are critical.

You can move the mount by hand to the vicinity of the first alignment star but then you must complete all the alignment actions with the hand control.

Make sure that the altitude clutch is tight and cannot move at all before you begin the alignment.

You might also check that your SynScan software is reasonably current.

Regards
Robert

[gaseous]

Autotracking will follow an object (or more accurately, it'll track a spot you've aimed at) once you've moved the scope to see it (either manually or using the arrow controls) - hence the need to align it north first, so the scope has an idea of the path it needs to track, but won't allow you to punch in objects to find.

The GoTo operation setup will allow you to punch in various objects (stars/planets/various catalogued items) and the scope should slew and track them automatically.

I've been pointing my scope north (as for autotracking) but then doing a 2 star alignment (for goto), and it seems to work fine, although the second star is never exactly in the field of view when aligning.

[eskimo20]

Patrick

Your mount must be different from mine.

I have a Skywatcher Star Discovery Alt-Az Go-To with SynScan 4.

I just level it and manually line up the first star in the finder before I power it up. It can be pointing anywhere depending on the location of that star when it starts.

Robert

[gaseous]

Yes Robert, mine's on a dob mount, although I dare say my setup process is probably not as per the textbook. seems to work though.

[eskimo20]

Ah I see. That explains it.
Thanks