Synscan question.

[Malcolm]

I have SkyPortal on an Android phone, and Stellarium on a laptop. Both return the same information on a selected object. ie: Alt/Az.
Last night I attempted a two star alignment. First star chosen was Acrux. Found, centered ok. The second star chosen was Spica. The Synscan hand-piece said it was at Alt 33. SkyPortal placed it at 55. So I aligned it on what I thought was Spica, returned an alignment successful. I then asked for Mars. The tube went to -2, pointing below the horizon, but I could clearly see Mars, well above the horizon. I'd guess around 20 degrees alt. Saturn was also just visible, appearing over the crest of the hill which is west of the house. So I spat the dummy and packed it up.
What went wrong? I realise that to do an alignment you need to know the sky. I'm at a pretty dark site here, I can clearly see the Milky Way, and using the phone app isn't too hard. However trying to find something under magnification, the finder or the eyepiece is not so easy.

[raymo]

I have no idea of your level of experience, so will assume that you are a newbie. Firstly, you can set the Synscan hand controller to display all the
stars in its database that are above the horizon at the time that you are using it. In other words you don't have to use only the stars that it offers.
Secondly, as soon as you choose your two stars [say Canopus and Acrux]
forget Stellarium and your phone. Level your mount, and place the counterweight shaft in a vertical position. Switch on and go through the set up procedure. Start a 2 star alignment and select Canopus. The scope will slew to somewhere in the vicinity of Canopus. Centre Canopus using the motors
and press enter. Scroll through the star list to Acrux, press enter; scope
slews to vicinity of Acrux. Centre it with motors and press enter. the hand
controller should show "alignment successful". Try that for a start.
raymo

[Malcolm]

Thanks for the reply. On looking through the manual to find where I can set the controller to display all the stars above the horizon, (not found). I discovered that the date input format is mm/dd/yy, not dd/mm/yy. How did I miss that?
I'll give it another go tonight, hopefully it will stay clear.

[raymo]

I forgot to mention the date thing, and so many people have been caught out by it. I suggest that you download the manual from the SW site, and print it out, and get a plastic binder from a stationers for less than a dollar.
There is a lot of useful stuff in there. Page 26 is "Alignment Star Filter."
raymo

[Malcolm]

Thanks, I'll do just that. :-)