EQ6 Pro with Synscan V3 First Light

[Tamtarn]

We purchased our EQ6 Pro with Synscan V3 from Bintel Melbourne last week.

We have a Skywatcher 8" f5 Newtonian mounted

Spent time getting our magnetic deviation and settings OK. Tried for a 3 star alignment on Thursday night and failed then the clouds rolled in again. Did a few more adjustments and then had cloud every night since.

Tonight was our first time to try again. Unfortunately we couldn't do a polarscope alignment because of the moonlight :mad2:

Did a 3 star alignment and "alignment successful" :D Spent a bit of time doing goto's and targets were almost in the centre.

So now we have to wait for a moonless night so we can see Octans and align with the polarscope

Very impressed with the mount it's very sturdy and moves effortlessly and is remarkably quiet.

[ballaratdragons]

They sure are a good mount. Your in for some great astrophotography now :thumbsup:

[Tamtarn]

Hope we can do longer exposures Ken and improve our images ... still got a lot to learn :)

[h0ughy]

nice going - good value for the money.

[Tamtarn]

Sure was a bargain houghy for a mount with it's capabilities :thumbsup:

[DeanoNZL]

Hi Barb and David,
Great to see the acquisition of the new mount.
Personally, I would ignore the polar scope and go straight to learning to drift align.
Reason is that quite often the polar scope is not aligned with the axis of the mount. This can cause frustration, trust me...
Secondly, the altitude scale is only a sticker, may not be accurate.
Drift aligning sounds hard, but once you have done it a few times, it is like falling out of bed, and the results will speak volumes.
Hope this helps.:D
CS

[Tamtarn]

Hi Adrian

Thanks for the advice
We have done some basic daytime tests and the polar scope seems to be aligned okay, only time will tell when we get out on a clear dark night to test it.
I agree that the altitude scale can only be used as a guide only as it is not always accurate.

We know of others using the polar scope very successfully and would still like to test out this means of aligning. But if need be we will drift align as you have mentioned.

Thanks again

David

[Terry B]

I have only been using the polar scope to align. It is remarkably accurate. I have only had very slow drift north, something like 1/2 to 1 arcsec/min. I could improve this with a drift align but it easily guides out. I now have 3 divots in my lawn where the scope goes each night and the alignment only needs tweaking each time I use it. Having said that my lawn is currently under water so I'm not too sure about the life of my current divots.

[ballaratdragons]

Since I put my mount permanently into it's cubby observatory, I have only Polar aligned it once. And that was when I first put it in there. My Polar scope is spot-on.

I check it occasionally and it hasn't moved :)
I still get dead accurate GoTo's. :thumbsup:

I have never drift aligned it as I haven't needed to. But if it was packed away each night I could see why it may need to be done.

[[1ponders]]

Great to hear you've got it up and running straight out of the box Barb and Dave. :clap: Really looking forward to some Looooong exposure stuff from you now ;)

Polar scope or drift align. It is the eternal question. I love to drift align. It looks so impressive to newbies when you are drift aligning using a laptop. :lol: "This is real astronomy" :lol: Plus it gets me out of doing the dishes if I have to drift align first, even if I don't need it :D


Oh and I wouldn't know the first thing about using a polar alignment scope.

[Tamtarn]

Thanks for the input Terry.

We hope you can help us with this question.

One thing we are not sure about regarding the polar scope, after following all the instructions every thing is okay until we get to page 13 in the instruction book.

Preliminary Step : Determining the Zero Point on the Longitude Scale.
This is meant to put the reticle into proper orientation.

Do we have to do this procedure or is it only for the Northern Hemisphere?

Some say YES and others say NO .

When we look in to the reticle the overlay for Octans at the moment is completely upside down.

We don't want to touch the polar scope unless it is necessary.

Did you have to do this originally with your polar scope ?

Thanks

David

[ballaratdragons]

David, to fix the 'upside down' image, just turn the mount in R.A. until the pattern matches the stars in the sky :thumbsup:

[Tamtarn]

Hey Ken

I guess my post above re Zero Point doesn't mean anything to you seeing that you are set up so perfectly. :lol:

[ballaratdragons]

No, I ignore the Latitude and Azimuth scales as they aren't extremely accurate anyway. The Polarscope is though.

Once you have turned the mount in R.A. and can see the stars line up with the markers, just tweak both R.A. and dec until the stars and the marker circles perfectly overlay each other. Then you are done :)

[Tamtarn]

Tried that Ken and it doesn't work, the Octans overlay in the reticle is completely upside down it looks like we have to orientate the reticle in the polar scope first. Then we can do adjustments in ra or dec to align Octans into the circles on the overlay

[ballaratdragons]

This is how it should look. The 4 main Octans Stars exactly inside the four marker circles:

[ballaratdragons]

NOOOOOO :scared: don't move the polarscope.

Turn the R.A. around until they match.

If you move the polarscope it might go out of alignment.

Depending on the time, and month, sometimes the R.A. is completely rotated upside down until they match.

[Tamtarn]

Does that mean if I use the polar scope I have to do the dishes :lol:

David

[ballaratdragons]

:rofl: Yes

And once you permanently mount it, and don't have to polar align any more, you can do the vacuuming too :lol:

[Tamtarn]

Thanks for the call Ken :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO you've scared us enough :scared: that we won't touch it :lol:

[[1ponders]]

Of course! It will also mean that you will have to wait for it to get dark enough to see Octans. In that time you will be able to get a couple of loads of washing in as well ;)

[ballaratdragons]

That's OK. Much easier than trying to explain it in posts :lol:

[Terry B]

Dear David
I found this to be a problem initially as well. The first thing to note is that you need to do the polar align before you attach the scope to the mount because you will need to pivot the RA axis around to make the reticule align with the stars in Octans.
Take no notice of the zero point thing. It is only for polaris in the north.
My method is.
1. Plonk the mount down aiming it roughly south. No telescope or counterweights attached.
2. Level using the bubble.
3. Connect power but leave it turned off.
4. Find the 4 stars in octans and move the adjustments to put them one side of the centre.
5. Turn the mount on and orient the reticule as near to the stars as practical. I don't lock the RA clutch but let it sit. It is reasonably balanced with no counterweight and the bar extended. You then move both the mount and the reticle unti lthey line up nicely. Then tighten the bolt under the scope to stop any play.
This ss now pretty close. To impove it further I attach the scope and counterweights and aim the scope at the pole. I have almost no cone error so I just spin the scope on its axis adjusting the dec until the stas just spin in the eyepiece. It should then be aiming pretty much at the south pole. I have made a chart of the south pole and now know where the surrounding stars are. I then fine adjust the orientation of the mount. It will now be within a few arcmins of correct. Then lock the clutches and power it up. All done in about 3 minutes.

Hope this helps.

[Tamtarn]

Thanks a lot Terry

Just the info we needed. We will follow your instructions, sounds much simpler in your words than in the instruction manual.
Together with the advice from Ken we should be right now.

Thanks for getting back to the thread. :thumbsup:

[Terry B]

Yor welcome.
I just read my own post. Shame about the typos.:rofl:

[DaveO]

I was always terrified of the complexities of dift alignment, until one of my fellow club members showed me the following simple rules:

Alignment in Azimuth
Pick a star on the meridan, near celestical equator:
- If star drifts North, scope too far East
- If star drifts South, scope too far West

Alignment in Altitude
Pick a star near Eastern horizon:
- If star drifts North, scope too low
- If star drifts South, scope too high

(or) Pick a star near Western horizon:
- If star drifts South, scope too low
- If star drifts North, scope too high

I did this at Astrofest, and had the scope aligned beautifully after a few minutes. I won't ever try getting on my knees for the polar scope again, regardless of how accurate it is!

[Tamtarn]

Thanks David

We are keen to use the polar scope as it seems to be the easiest way at this stage. Our previous attempts at drift aligning were frustrating as we spent hours each night to get it right. If we need to further fine tune our settings then we can re try drift aligning with the new mount.

Thanks for your input.

David

[[1ponders]]

I have a solution to your drift aligning problem David. Head on up to the Qld Astrofest next year and you can join the "[1ponders] School of Drift Aligning".

I'm expecting at least one of this years students to apply for the advanced course next year. Especially if he buys another new brand of mount or two. I don't think he's had a Vixen or Astrophysics or Paramount ME yet, 'eh Mister "h". :poke: :lol:.

[Alchemy]

Tamtarn. i see you made that mount desicion quickly... its all go from here.

[Tamtarn]

Not sure about enrolling in the "I Ponders School of Drift Aligning this year", but maybe one year.
In the meantime might have to check out if there is a corespondance course available.
A degree in Advanced Alignment sounds impressive Mister "h".:whistle:

[[1ponders]]

I reacon if he practices each weekend he'll be just about ready for it :lol:

[Tamtarn]

Hi Alchemy

The main decision was if I would be able carry the heavier mount outside until we can build a roll of roof observatory for permanent mounting.( without the weights there was no problem at all )

The general advise from all including yourself was to go for the heavier mount and we are glad we did. Quite impressed with it so far. :thumbsup:

David

[h0ughy]

yes wouldn't I have a best friend if it was a ME or a astrophysics;):whistle:. I will admit that K3ccdtools made it look easy, but its the operators skills that tendered the false evidence there.... yet to do that myself. its been raining ever since I bought astro goodies when I got home. I have bought K3ccdtools and dslr focus, oh and a baader MPCC, and have on order a DUP bar and a losmandy side by side bar - need to get a smaller weight though:whistle:

I do however fully recommend Mr Ponders School:help::P;)

[h0ughy]

I heard that:P

[[1ponders]]

:lol:

[john.pullen1]

Love my EQ6, my only complaint is that the red led that liguts up the polarscope is far too dull, I use a red torch to provide a little red illumination.

[g__day]

Don't you just wish the first folk to polar align could fire a powerful green laser down the tube, then everyone else just aim their mount's finderscopes for the end point of the light beam and they'd be kinda close! :)

[Tamtarn]

John we're still waiting for a night where we can test the polar scope out,but will keep the little red torch in mind

[Tamtarn]

g-day sounds like a good idea. Maybe at asto gatherings someone could be a nominated scp finder :thumbsup:

[danielsun]

Congrats on the new mount guys!! :thumbsup:

[Tamtarn]

Thanks Daniel. Mainly decided on EQ6 for it's capacity to allow for additional add ons that we have in mind.

[danielsun]

Yes, a wise choice i think.;)