Quote:
Originally Posted by Malcolm
I have never had to point mine to North or South. I use a small spirit level, and I have fitted small screw type leveling feet instead of the rubber stops under the dob base. Once the base is level I fit the tube and do a quick level check again. If the base is not perfectly level, tracking will be out. If your location, altitude, date and time is incorrect, tracking will be out. All these factors will affect the align.
I usually do two star align, and the second star is always a little bit out. If a bright planet is up the handset will choose one if you select three star align. I have even used a daytime align choosing the Moon and then found the align to be reasonably correct later in the evening. Your timezone is +8. Daylight Saving = (N). Date input is month/day/year US style. In the Utility Menu, you will find PAE, clear this data before you align. Under Alignment Menu, you will find Cone error and one other that escapes me right now, these should be at zero. If the scope was second/hand, it is possible that these have an adjustment in place that you may not be aware of, so it's probably a good idea to remove them. Then do the alignment. Regardless of whether or not you have cleared any stored data, the handset still says Previous NPE Applied after a successful align. If the second star is way off, it can only be a date or time error in initial align input.
If after say half an hour of viewing, and you choose a star or planet, selecting PAE will allow you to re-align on said star or planet for a small adjustment in tracking in that zone of sky only. So if you were observing an object in the East, and then slew to an object in the West and it is a bit out, try using PAE to align again. PAE works in Zones for areas of sky. Remember to clear the data before doing another two or three star align.
You do not need to use the Park function, unless your base is permanently fixed or you can accurately place it in exactly the same place each viewing session. Not having used it myself, I think it can recall the last GOTO object, so if the base is not in the same place, it will not find the object.
I have had a lot of trouble myself when I first started with Synscan, and the manual, having been written by a potato is not a great deal of help. Now I use SkySafari Pro with a wifi adapter on the handset and all align issues I had disappeared. I select an object using the app, make a small adjustment if necessary and tap align. Job done. One of the best accessories I have thrown into this money-pit. Which reminds me of my boat, a hole in the water I also throw money into.
Good luck, I'm going camping and fishing for four days. :-)
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+1 to everything Malcolm said, although I do try to get the OTA level and pointing north. As someone else mentioned, make sure you use true rather than magnetic north - I use my iphone and it's automatically set to magnetic - changing it to true makes a noticeable improvement (I think the difference between true and magnetic in brisbane is about 11 degrees, so it's not insignificant). The second star in a two star alignment is always a little bit out I've found, but it should certainly be in the general neighbourhood.