Hi all,
I recently bought a new SynScan hand controller (as my old one was pre-v3 firmware so I couldn't upgrade it or control it through my computer), and I updated the firmware on the new controller to the latest version (v3.32) as a friend of mine had done so recently and recommended the new Polar Alignment procedure available in the Setup>Alignment menu.
My friend and I are using HEQ5 Pro mounts and the same version firmware on the SynScan controller... so you'd think they'd behave identically.
The new Polar Alignment procedure (for those who haven't seen it yet) is designed to tell you how far off (in elevation and azimuth) your polar alignment is. The idea is you do a three-star alignment first, then the mount is pointed at a reference star, you then move it using the hand controller so that it is centered in the eyepiece properly, then the mount moves in Az/Elev. by the margin of error previously calculated. You're then supposed to use the elevation and azimuth knobs to manually re-centre the mount on the reference star, thereby making the polar alignment error = zero.
Unfortunately, it seems that my mount is miscalculating the polar alignment...
e.g. if it's 1deg off in Az., then when you re-centre the star, it becomes 2deg off in Az. Same in elevation. (It should actually be zero deg off as I move the mount manually to compensate and eliminate that error).
Ergo, I cannot achieve a polar alignment. When I re-try, it of course then says I'm 2deg off, and so I move another 2deg to make it now 4deg out!
Has anyone else noticed this issue?
Cheers,
Dave
