You can purchase an optional polar scope, mounts on the side of the mount, or of course even better drift align, especially if its going into an observatory.
You can purchase an optional polar scope, mounts on the side of the mount, or of course even better drift align, especially if its going into an observatory.
Thanks mate.
David, did you get the polar alignment scope with it? Anyone got a pic of the setup with the polar alignment scope?
Chris has one and may share a photo, but they realy aren't necessary. The Synscan has a built in polar alignment routine which I am told works very well, just set it to roughly south and roughly your lattitude and run the program which uses
I haven't tried it, as I use PemPro, but it is meant to work pretty well and basically uses a couple of reference stars to help you get the mount just right.
David, I think Paul actually said "putting it to the same spot" and to within a couple of pixels the next night. This is as good as dithering as far as I can see anyway.
But you do need that sort of accuracy night to night and I'm afraid to say that with a well tuned eq6 or Losmandy G11, Sequence Generator can do that to within a few pixels. With the plate solving in SG this can be done with a photo taken last year or someone else's image you want to get for yourself and you don't need a PMX to do it with.
Demos at Astrofest if you are interested.
Allan
SGP gets me within 2 pixels on my G11 and my current (on loan) camera. I am getting more and more impressed with the program. I'm interested to see how the EQ8 goes, I've been thinking about adding encoders to the G11 and using the SiTech controller with it.
Chris has one and may share a photo, but they realy aren't necessary. The Synscan has a built in polar alignment routine which I am told works very well, just set it to roughly south and roughly your lattitude and run the program which uses
I haven't tried it, as I use PemPro, but it is meant to work pretty well and basically uses a couple of reference stars to help you get the mount just right.
Cheers for that.
So, do you set it up in the general direction and elevation, then the scope slews to a couple of stars one at a time then you manually adjust the mount to bring the star into the centre FOV? Is that how it works?
So, do you set it up in the general direction and elevation, then the scope slews to a couple of stars one at a time then you manually adjust the mount to bring the star into the centre FOV? Is that how it works?
Baz.
That's pretty much it - in the style of alignmaster I am told. Chris (OneCosmos) has done it, I'm sure he will chip in when he catches up with the thread...
Hi, finally caught up. Yeah, I did try the alignment routine using the handset on a night when alignment wasn't my main priority. As Jonathan said it worked pretty much the same as alignmaster but actually better in two important respects, particularly given the limited amount of sky I see from my garden:
There are vastly more stars to choose from - most of which I didn't know but have since made a concerted effort to learn; and
Unlike alignmaster it doesn't seem to mind how far off alignment you are at the start of the routine.
With Alignmaster I found that I might go all the way through only to find it says error too large move the mount and try again.
Both require an iterative process for accurate alignment to be achieved, but essentially it takes you to a star, you centre slew it, then to another, centre it. Once done it moves in RA to where it thinks alignment should be and you move the mount physically in RA to centre, then the same for dec.
I may use the hand controller at AF for an initial alignment and then see if Alignmaster agrees or refines it (or just changes it completely).
I don't see why it should be less accurate than Alignmaster though. We will see.
One other thing - not really related, but worth mentioning is that when you go to the home position using the hand controller it does a kind of dance whilst it finds the position which doesn't happen when you home with EQMOD. I assume the hand controller is more accurate for this...?
My usual supplier here in NZ tells me he can sell me the EQ8 for NZ$6,450 (AU$5,630) so I guess we do pay a bit of premium being on the far end of the supply train.
My usual supplier here in NZ tells me he can sell me the EQ8 for NZ$6,450 (AU$5,630) so I guess we do pay a bit of premium being on the far end of the supply train.
Sounds like it, although in Europe i believe they are going for 4,300 euro (A$6,100) - with the tripod.
Well its taken me a while but i now have the case packed and ready for the tripod, the feet, the polar scope, scope covers, power supplies and a few odds and ends (not shown in shot) - all fits. Quite happy about it as I reused some of the packaging from the original carton. In hindsight you could buy the case without foam and just add what you need and reuse the original foam. I did have to cut down a piece slightly but not much. this has turned out to meet my needs exactly.
. Quite happy about it as I reused some of the packaging from the original carton
. 
In hindsight you could buy the case without foam and just add what you need and reuse the original foam. I did have to cut down a piece slightly but not much. this has turned out to meet my needs exactly.
?
