Star Adventurer Questions.

[Luke.]

Hi all,

I picked up a Skywatcher Star Adventurer a few days ago for my first mount. Unfortunately the weather has been bad and looks like sticking around so I haven't had a chance to use it properly.

Today I set it up inside just to have a play around to see how it works.
I am going to refer to the manual (https://www.skywatcher.com/downloads/Star%20Adventurer-SA-F-100326V1-EN.pdf) a couple of times.

I checked the calibration according to page 28 by centering the polar scope on a part of a house down the street and rotating on the RA axis and the cross hairs stayed on target. I also continued the steps on page 29 and my mount looked like the pictures without any adjusting, so I think the polar scope was aligned properly from the factory.

My questions are about set up and polar alignment.



From what I have read, I need to point the polar scope south, taking in to account the magnetic variation. Set the latitude on the wedge. This should point me in the general direction of the SCP?



Fine tune to align Octans on the polar scope- Do I use any of the following on page 6? The "Knurled ring of polar scope" (15) just spins and I can't see what it changes.
"Date and Time graduation circle" (17 +20) Do I need to set this to the current date and time when I am using the mount?
I am not sure what the "Time meridian Indicator" (21) is.

Some of these dials spin independently and then some spin together. Do I need to touch any of those dials or do I just spin the RA and azimuth axis to orientate the polar scope to the same position as Octans?


Sorry for the probably silly questions :shrug:

[Atmos]

I have heard a lot of good things about this little mount so I'm sure you'll enjoy. As for some of the more generic questions...

From Melbourne the SCP is about 11° west of magnetic south and about 37° above the horizon.
Depending on where you are in Melbourne, you may have a lot of trouble finding them. I am in the northern suburbs and they sit right in the middle of Melbourne sky glow for me, I cannot see them :)

What you may find more accurate is running a drift alignment. Depending on the camera you're using, BYEOS (for Canon) or BYNikon (for Nikon) are two good bits of software for running a DSLR and have drift alignment stuff so that you can use your DSLR.

Is I have never used any of these software packages or used this particular mount, much of what I say can be ignored.

[Luke.]

Thanks Colin. I can just barely see some of the Octans stars with the naked eye from my backyard which is about 45km South East of Melbourne. I am yet to see the Octans stars that are in the polar scope though but hopefully it will allow me to see them.

I just checked out BYnikon but it doesn't support my D3000. I am planning to upgrade the body later this year so BYnikon will be an option then.

[chuckywiz]

For your camera try Digicamcontrol link http://digicamcontrol.com/ its what i use to control my nikon d3200.

My camera doesnt have bulb mode support however i can take up to 30 seconds shots and also live view with this software. Its free also. Not sure what other support for your nikon but for me to do long exposures this software allows me to put into bulbmode then i use an intervalometer to take however long a shot i want. And it dumps directly to the digicamcontrol software. Hope this helps.

Another software i use and relatively cheap is alignmaster. http://www.alignmaster.de/ aligning is actually really easy using this software as well.

Ben

[Luke.]

Thanks for that Ben I will look in to that software. It looks like it is compatible.

I think I want to also learn how to do the alignment manually too.
The main thing that is confusing me is the dials or circles.
In the picture, I set the time and date to midnight May 8th. Comparing the polar scope with Stellarium, the Octans stars are in the correct place.

What confuses me is that when the RA axis is tracking clockwise, the time circle goes backwards in time towards 2300 hours. Is this what is supposed to happen? Or am I doing the complete wrong thing with the circles? Maybe the circles are only useful in the northern hemisphere?

http://i.imgur.com/fTSIvsU.jpg

[AstroJunk]

If you are at a darkish site and align the scope using a compass and clinometer with some reasonable accuracy, you should be able to see the four alignment stars of octans through polar scope. You will notice that the 'octans' in the polar scope may be oriented differently to your view. Simply rotate the RA axis of your mount (the one that moves the counter weight) until they are the same orientation then make your fine adjustments to alignment.

As soon as you are under a clear sky, it will fall into place:)

BTW, with 30 second exposures you may be ok with only a rough alignment.

[Luke.]

That is what I was thinking to do. I think the instructions make it more complicated than it needs to be.
Yeah the polar scope is mirrored which will take a little getting used to.
So I don't really need to worry about the dials? Just rotating the RA axis and fine tuning until alignment?
Once I am aligned can I move the RA and DEC anywhere I want as long as I don't move the mount from the SCP?

[Atmos]

Indeed, as long as the mount is pointed at the SCP you can move the scope around to wherever you want :)