Thanks for the info, I've had some trouble aligning myself, using alt-az mode on azeq5 so this is good information.
I'm finding objects to be just out of view on Goto attempts on a wide field 30mm eyepiece... it might be star selection, which varies for me based on observing location.
How important is the home position in alt-az mode if doing 2-star alignment on Synscan mounts? There seems to be varying opinions on this. I usually am unable to have a permanent setup location and have been doing compass north rather than true north. The annoying thing about SynScan in Alt-Az mode in the southern hemisphere is that its home position requires true north rather than true south - which would be a heck of a lot easier to find, especially as the entire northern hemisphere is blocked by trees from my home, meaning I can't use SkySafari to pick a star that's approximately north at that moment in time.
I'm tempted next time to find a point close to celestial south pole eg. sig. octanis, lock the setting circle to 180*, move back to 0*, spirit level the OTA, and then power it on.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Startrek
Chose Rigel Kent and Spica for the 2 Star alignment ( about 90 deg apart in Az ) only required 2 iterations to get alignment error down to 2 arc minutes with a 20mm illuminated reticle and 2x powermate.
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Do SynScans actually get more accurate with repeated alignment iterations? I was, perhaps mistakenly, assuming that it wipes/resets its internally aligned map on each attempt and didn't have the capacity to update it the way SkySafari does.