Skywatcher AZ GTi mount in Australia.

[octebra (John)]

Hi, I live in Australia and I have a Skywatcher AZ GTi mount and I can't any definite information on initial setup. Do I point it north or south, do I mount it on the left or right and do I level it ?. If anyone could help that would be great. Skywatcher tells me to point it south and level it but does not tell which side.

[Leo.G (Leo)]

I had typed a reply but since I'm not familiar with the mount I went searching for anything and found a Cloudy Nights thread which is by a member in Aus,


https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/6...please-az-gti/


Hopefully it helps until an experienced user comes on.

[JA]

Originally Posted by octebra

Hi, I live in Australia and I have a Skywatcher AZ GTi mount and I can't any definite information on initial setup. Do I point it north or south, do I mount it on the left or right and do I level it ?. If anyone could help that would be great. Skywatcher tells me to point it south and level it but does not tell which side.

In the southern hemisphere you need to ensure that you have good polar alignment with the south celestial pole, i.e: the RA (right ascension) axis needs to point at the South Celestial Pole (a point in the sky) which is in the direction of TRUE (not magnetic) south and at an elevation equal to your local latitude. The right ascension axis of the mount is the axis of rotation around which the mount rotates to counteract the movement of the earth relative to the stars and is coincident and parallel with the optical axis of the polar scope.

Best
JA

[Startrek (Martin)]

John,
If your mount is a SW AZ GTi mini ( with out EQ kit )
See attached below
https://skywatcheraustralia.com.au/w...08/Mini-Az.pdf

Then your mount is a bonafide Azimuth Altitude Mount and does not have an Equatorial, Right ascension (Ra) axis or Declination ( Dec) axis to polar align to the south celestial pole.

If you have the EQ kit with your AZGTi and use it as an equatorial mount then you must polar align to the South Celestial Pole.

Most of the Skywatcher AZ mounts including Goto Dobsonian’s ( I have a SW 12” Goto Dob ) just require the following to align it.

Tripod or base to be perfectly level

Telescope or OTA to point to celestial North ( not magnetic north ) as accurately as possible

If your using your Synscan handcontroller…..
Choose AZ , 2 Star Alignment in the Skywatcher Synscan manual and follow procedures to align your mount.
Alignment stars should be 2 bright stars preferably on the same side of the meridian, at least 35 to 45 degrees in Altitude and roughly 50 to 60 degrees apart in Azimuth.

These little mounts can also be controlled via the Synscan app using Wifi which is handy ( personally I don’t use the wifi method , the good ol fashioned clunky hand controller ( hand paddle ) works just fine.

As a back up, send Skywatcher Australia an email and confirm my AZ alignment procedures

sales@skywatcheraustralia.com.au

I’ve sent them a few emails over the past 6 months to help out other folk and they usually reply within a few days or so

How to find celestial true North / South attached

Hope the above and attached helps

Cheers
Martin

PS: Thoroughly recommend you download “Stellarium” on your laptop or PC to learn the night sky , Paper Star charts and cardboard star wheels and the like whilst provide good information are antiquated and time consuming to learn
Stellarium will provide a good understanding of the night sky in no time