Quote:
Originally Posted by Wavytone
Richard, I would suggest finding someone who knows and can teach you to align.
In altaz mode the AZEQ6 should do a 1-star or 2 star alignment well enough - but the key here is to:
a) level the tripod properly - any error will be translated to the same error in every GOTO thereafter.
b) enter the date, time and the site long and lat correctly. Stuff this up (eg DDMMYYY instead of MMDDYYY, or DDMMSS vs decimal degrees) and the consequences are not pretty.
In equatorial mode however you MUST get the polar alignment reasonably close - a few degrees at most. Typically I can align using bright stars and the dec circle to 1 degree, which is good enough to produce good GOTOs thereafter unless you are aiming at something within 10 degrees of the pole (unlikely as theres nothing interesting there anyway).
For this purpose:
1. Do this in daylight - align the dec circle accurately with the OTA in daylight, so it reads correctly and put a dob of silicone glue in place to make sure the damn circle can't rotate accidentally (the glue needs to be removable in case you need to rotate the dovetail 90 degrees - don't use superglue or epoxy).
Why ? because you will need the dec circle at step 4.
2. Use a clinometer app on a smartphone - calibrated - to level the mount better than 1 degree.
3. Align in altitude using a smartphone clinometer to set the altitude equal to your latitude, better than 1 degree. If you have levelled the tripod and use a regular observing site you'll find the setting should be pretty accurate each setup, ie no fiddling.
4. Align azimuth using a bright star near the east/west horizon and the dec circle. I know very few here on IIS understand this, but it beats the crap out of drift aligning.
5. Put the scope precisely in the PARK position - ie pointing at the pole and the dec axis vertically under - before switching on and commencing the alignment process. Use the clinometer to get this right.
6. Switch on and begin a 2-star alignment. If you miss step 5 the alignment process will flap up hopelessly, guaranteed. Be ready to kill the slew if its driving the scope below horizon or into the legs.
Lastly, its also possible your mount is faulty - the first one I received was - powered up pressing buttons looked OK, it slewed and the motors went zzzzz, but it could not perform an alignment. Bintel acknowledged the fault and swapped it.
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By the way, thank you so much for taking the time to provide all this info, Wavytone. It's all a revelation to me and I really read instructions over and over - this is new!
