Problem with Synscan or Me?

[Misplaced (Craig)]

Hi All,

Well I was trying to get true polar alignment tonight so I did the first 2 star alignment and checked the Alt and Az. Adjusted as much as I thought and then tried the 2 star alignment again. When i did this it then went to where it thought Sirius was but it was along way off. Now I think this is because I didn't set the scope back in the home position - is that correct?

I then tried again but on the second attempt this time started from the home position but again it went right off when trying to find Sirius! The only way I could sort this out was to turn off the GoTo and then turn back on. Anyway, after about five attempts and some very frustrating angles I managed to get within -1 and -1 minute. Is that okay for Astrophotography?

Anyway, may main concern is the Synscan why do I have to keep switching off and back on to do a second run at alignment?

I have v3.35 Synscan.

PS - the good news is Jupiter looked great and with my binoculars got to see comet Lovejoy

[glend (Glen)]

There have been a number of reports of problems with the V3.35 polar alignment error correction, that are pretty much as you describe. I believe the recommndation was to upgrade to V3.36 - assuming its available. I will let the other victims give you a full run down.

[Eden (Brett)]

Hi Craig,

I'm running v3.35 on my AZ-EQ6 and although i've not had any major issues with the polar alignment routine, there are a couple of things you can do to make the process easier for yourself.

You can save yourself some time by roughly polar aligning your mount to the first star of a two star alignment. For example: if you start a two star alignment and the first star is Sirius, rather than using the hand controller to bring the star into the eyepiece after the mount has completed it's approximated slew, use the azimuth and altitude knobs to bring the star into the eyepiece. If you find that you don't have enough movement in the azimuth to do that, you may need to rotate the whole mount a bit.

Now return the mount to the home position, switch it off and then on again and do the two star alignment as you usually would. This time, the mount will slew much closer to the first star and you will only need to make small adjustments with the hand controller.

Likewise, when you go to do the polar alignment (Sirius also a good choice for this at this time of the year), you will only need to make small adjustments with the altitude and azimuth knobs to refine the rough polar alignment you already have. Handy, considering how difficult it can be to look through certain scopes or the finder whilst adjusting the azimuth/altitude. Using a webcam connected to the scope makes this process much simpler (and indeed, the resulting alignment more accurate).

If you unlock the clutches and return the mount to the home position without cycling the power, the mount thinks it's still pointing where it was before you disengaged the clutches, so even if you tell the mount that you want to redo your alignment, it will slew based on your last known location.

Whether the resulting polar alignment is good enough depends on your scope focal length and whether you're going to be autoguiding. Personally, I think the more time invested in polar alignment the better. If you have the time/patience then doing a drift alignment after you've completed the mounts polar alignment routine (which is adequate but mediocre in terms of accuracy) is worth the effort.

[Misplaced (Craig)]

Hey! Thanks Eden I will give that a go.

As for the Drift Alignment I will need some explanation on that

Cheers!

[photosinferno (John)]

Originally Posted by Eden

Hi Craig,

I'm running v3.35 on my AZ-EQ6 and although i've not had any major issues with the polar alignment routine, there are a couple of things you can do to make the process easier for yourself.

You can save yourself some time by roughly polar aligning your mount to the first star of a two star alignment. For example: if you start a two star alignment and the first star is Sirius, rather than using the hand controller to bring the star into the eyepiece after the mount has completed it's approximated slew, use the azimuth and altitude knobs to bring the star into the eyepiece. If you find that you don't have enough movement in the azimuth to do that, you may need to rotate the whole mount a bit.

Now return the mount to the home position, switch it off and then on again and do the two star alignment as you usually would. This time, the mount will slew much closer to the first star and you will only need to make small adjustments with the hand controller.

Likewise, when you go to do the polar alignment (Sirius also a good choice for this at this time of the year), you will only need to make small adjustments with the altitude and azimuth knobs to refine the rough polar alignment you already have. Handy, considering how difficult it can be to look through certain scopes or the finder whilst adjusting the azimuth/altitude. Using a webcam connected to the scope makes this process much simpler (and indeed, the resulting alignment more accurate).

If you unlock the clutches and return the mount to the home position without cycling the power, the mount thinks it's still pointing where it was before you disengaged the clutches, so even if you tell the mount that you want to redo your alignment, it will slew based on your last known location.

Whether the resulting polar alignment is good enough depends on your scope focal length and whether you're going to be autoguiding. Personally, I think the more time invested in polar alignment the better. If you have the time/patience then doing a drift alignment after you've completed the mounts polar alignment routine (which is adequate but mediocre in terms of accuracy) is worth the effort.

Good advice by eden- I've used that trick of 'moving' the mount into better 'alignment' myself ..

John

[garin (Garin)]

I've had issues with 3.35, mainly with it moving away from the object at the end of a goto, loaded 3.36 and will see if it's better otherwise it's back 3.27 which I found fine.

[Eden (Brett)]

Hi Garin,

According to the Skywatcher documentation, this issue was corrected in v3.36 of the firmware.

[garin (Garin)]

Loaded 3.36 and seems much better than 3.35, gotos all worked as expected with none of the weird hunting at the end of the goto.