Sorry but help required asap

[Ausrock (Chris)]

Sunday night, clear dark skies and I'm got one of my very rare chances to attempt to stargaze.........like maybe once every few months.

Gear is a C9.25 on an EQ-6. Setup was done with two compasses and an alignment jig plus a digital inclinometer. I'm confident polar alignment is close enought for visual. Over the last couple of years I've usually had few problems but the last couple of times I've had the scope out it's been a bloody nightmare.

I spent time this afternoon making sure everything was balanced, etc., ensure tripod was positioned, blah, blah. Had dinner and started the Synscan setup procedure which I thought was straight forward. NOW TO THE PROBLEM..........first star pick for 3 star align was Achenar.........what does the scope settle on........bloody Canopus.

Can anyone suggest WTF is happening, is it me or is it something I'm overlooking?

[louie_the_fly (Stew)]

Have you got your magnetic declination allowance in the correct direction? Should be about 12.2 degrees for your location. And is the angle of your mount correct? I.e. hasn't somehow been changed since last use?

[The Mekon (John Briggs)]

assuming roughly aligned to the SCP

1. Lat/Long correct?
2. EST correct (I always use EST and answer No to daylight saving)
3. MM/DD/YEAR - unlikely to be problem as 25/01/15 makes no sense in this format
4. Use 2 star alignment - much easier and results are just as good for visual
5 . Park position OK
6. Axis locks on firmly.

should then work just fine

[sheeny (Al)]

I'm always wary of alignments done with a magnetic compass. You need to have you compass probably at least 5m from the mount to eliminate any magnetic effect from the mount itself. You may get away with it if your mount is magnetically unpolarised, but leave your mount in one place for a matter of months, say, and it can be magnetised enough by the earth's magnetic field to upset your compass.

Achernar to Canopus is well within the sort of magnetic anomaly you could get by having the compass too close to a steel/metal object.

Al.

[Ausrock (Chris)]

Thanks for the replies.......I was at our place at Tuncurry and the Lat/Long were correct, declination was close enough for visual, date and time were set correctly.

Sheeny, I appreciate what you are saying but I did my magnetic alignment without the tripod near the compasses (I used two different compasses and the tripod was about 8 mtrs away). I actually staked the timber alignment jig in place once it was correct and then brought the tripod out and positioned it.

The thing that is pithing me off, is that I have used the same preparation at home in N'cle with few issues but the minute I do it elsewhere I have major problems.

Louie, you have me thinking re the direction of the Dec allowance.........the jig I use up north is one I made on the fly when I left my usual one at home but I've just checked the home one and I'm sure they're the same.

When weather allows I'm going to repeat the procedure here at home and see what happens, I'm also going to try and get my head around scrapping the SynScan hand set and link to the laptop......I have the gear but haven't had the confidence to take that leap.

I'll post back here when the weather clears and I have time to play around.

Again guys, many thanks.

ChrisO