I have an issue with my HEQ5 pro it find target very well, but slowly goes off cours

[Pebs4 (David)]

I have an issue with my HEQ5 pro it finds targets very well, but slowly goes off course. what can cause that?
1. I roughly polar align point to south in Australia. manually move tripod to point true south.
2. The scope is parked so i just start it off with the configuration, time date ETC.
3.I always do a 3 star alignment.
4 It find planets very accurately, BUT is slowly goes off course. What could that be? takes around 5 minutes and it goes out of camera view.

kind regards

David

[billdan (Bill)]

Hi David,

If its losing position in RA, the only thing I can think of is the tracking is not set to sidereal in the Synscan controller. You have a choice of Sidereal, Lunar or Solar tracking modes
Or if its drifting away in Declination means your polar alignment is not good enough.

Cheers
Bill

[glend (Glen)]

My bet is that your Polar Alignment is off. It is getting easier to get a pretty exact alignment, from hardware sokutions lije a Polemaster, to Sharcaps excellent new PA tool, which is free. The catch is you need at least a camera of some sort and a laptop to run Sharpcap PA, and Polemaster costs hundreds. Otherwuse, its drift alignment for you, which is time consuming. Or live with your rough alignment.

[Pebs4 (David)]

Thanks Glen and Bill, i thought that if you found 3 points of reference it would accurately find the target and stay on the target. Because when it goes off target if i redirect back to target it finds it again. being an IT guy that doesn't make sense, but you wisdom sounds correct i will try to get an accurate polar alignment and see if that helps much appreciated.

So you guys are basically saying it will find the target ok. But will drift off if not polar aligned.

much appreciated David

[glend (Glen)]

It is also about your field of view. A wide field scope under low power is going to 'appear' to be better at retaining a target than a narrow field scope under high power.
I am not saying PA is the 'only issue' but eliminate it first if you can, as it us a foundation element. Synscan has the provision to divide the sky into 85 zones, and this can improve tracking of a target in a particular zone. Try turning on PAE.

[The Mekon (John Briggs)]

I use EQ6 - very similar to HEQ5 and always roughly polar align - I reckon I would be from 1/2 degree to 3 degrees off most nights I use it. Yes it will find objects quite well despite this misalignment. But even with my rough alignment I can hold objects in the field at 200X for a long time before I have to re-centre. As Bill said in the first reply, check tracking rate.

[Pebs4 (David)]

Thanks john and glen will check turning on PAE tracking rate
Much appreciated

Kind Regards

David

[Pebs4 (David)]

Thanks Bill will look at sidereal as well

Kind regards

David

[Pebs4 (David)]

Was set to sidereal already so i have reset to factory, and i might try to delete any PAE stored if there is any thanks all

[The Mekon (John Briggs)]

David, last night I set my EQ6 up with the polar axis approx 4 degrees east of the SCP (could not see sigma oct. in the polar scope).
Did a three star align and pointing was good. Sent scope to Acamar and centered at 100X. After 10 minutes Acamar had moved about 1/2 way to the edge of the field. Later on 39 Eridani at 150X took about 5 mins to move half way from the centre. So this is what can be expected with a rough polar alignment.
In your first post you stated "slowly goes out of camera view" - a camera has much less F.O.V. than an eyepiece, so I think you may need to accurately align if you are using a camera.

[Fox]

G'day David, the HEQ 5 comes with a built in polar scope, does it not ? It will depend whether or not you have a clear view of the SCP and dark enough skies from where you are, but it may be helpful to learn how to use the built in polar scope (assuming you don't already know).

The Octans 4 star pattern is actually pretty well recognisable and in full field of view through 7x50 binoculars, and because it's so close to the SCP, I certainly find that you get used to locating it quickly each time, albeit depending on seeing conditions. Then, once you level the tripod, and get the first sighting through your polar scope (remember the image may be upside down through the polar scope vs true orientation), then you lock in the latitude angle of the polar axis, which won't change for your regular site. Now, from that point onwards, provided you get pretty good tripod levelling, using the polar scope (ie. to achieve good enough alignment for visual) should also get easier each time cos it's only the azimuth that should need adjustment.

Hope this helps, cheers, Fox

[Pebs4 (David)]

Thanks fox and John it does have a polar finder, but i haven't used it as yet. i have just used the level and vertical angle for my region and a true south compass on my phone. Im working nights this week so it sucks, nice view of the sky when i drive home tho, but i will try it on the weekend.
The heq 5 has a polar alignment in syscan as well have you guys used that ever?

Kind regards

David

[Fox]

Hi David, it sounds as though you might not be getting close enough to the SCP using your current methods. For starters, magnetic south is around 10 deg off the SCP I believe. Interested to hearing how you go with picking out Octans pattern, esp through the polar finder - its not easy at first if the seeing isn't good.

One thing to note: I think the HEQ5 polar scope reticle/FOV only shows chi, sigma and tau Octans. Whereas my Meade LXD75 reticle shows all 4 stars of the Octans trapezium (chi, sigma, tau and upsilon) making it a lot easier to use IMO. Cheers, Fox

[Steffen]

Originally Posted by Pebs4

The heq 5 has a polar alignment in syscan as well have you guys used that ever?

Yes, I use it all the time, and it works well. You can go through as many iterations as you like until you're happy with the alignment accuracy. I typically get to well below an arc minute error in azimuth and elevation within a couple of iterations. That's more than enough for my high-magnification visual use. It's important to perform a new star alignment after each polar alignment run.

After each 2- or 3-star alignment the Synscan controller will display the polar alignment error in Az and El, as a guidance.

As a quick start, when you set up the mount try to get it level and the RA and Dec axes into neutral as well as you can eyeball it, turn it on, don't continue from parked position, then enter time, location etc. and do a star alignment. When the scope slews to the first alignment star you get an idea of how far off your polar alignment is. Instead of using the hand controller drag the mount (or tripod) around to get close to the alignment star, then start over. This will get the RA axis pointing closer to the pole and make subsequent alignments easier and faster.

To save time don't bother with a 3-star alignment until you're happy with the polar alignment. Stick to 2-star alignments using alignment stars in the same hemisphere (east or west), and not too close to the pole.

PAE or any other Synscan feature has no bearing on the tracking performance. After slewing to an object the mount will not use any smarts but simply turn in RA at the set tracking rate.

[Pebs4 (David)]

Thanks steffen and fox,

Thats a good idea, to move the mount physical to suit the 1st star alignment to get closer to the true south.I was aiming true south but my phone maybe not accurate enough, because my first star alignment was off by a bit.
It like reverse engineering the system very cool.
kind regards

David

[Pebs4 (David)]

Thanks Steffen,
Some very good advice. I have copied and pasted it into my setup doco. What you have said reminds me of the
'CCD drift method", that the Bintel guys sent me. But you way is heaps easier and faster....

Kind regards

David

[Pebs4 (David)]

Hi All,
I tried the drag the mount to the 1st star alignment, worked very well thanks, my mount stayed on target for much longer then expected, very impressed thanks all for you good advice it seems the most obvious was the issue, not an accurate enough true south pole alignment, my pics of Jupiter where far better then usual.

Kind regards David