whiiir whiiiiiir buzz beep

ving (David) · #1 11-01-2007, 09:43 AM

yup, that was me last night

adventures in goto.

I set up my tripod first getting it as close to facig the SCP as i could, leveled it, and placed the head on it... all well before sunset. as it started to get dark i put the scope on the mount... darkness set

now turning teh mount on the controller asked me if i want to align (or something similar) and after entering time, date, location, etc and then re entering the date cause the darn americans want it MM/DD/YYYY i was set to do my next step. here it gives me a choice of 1, 2, or 3 star alignment. it took for ever to work this out cause i realised that i dont actually know many star names LOL, and the fact i was being lazy and trying to do a 1 star alignment....
handy hint: do not do a one star alignment!

so after fiddling around with a one star alignment and trying to figure out why the scope wouldnt go where i wanted i decided on a 2 star alignment

this was much better....

finally aligned, cheryl started to make noises (come in type noises) and so armed with cartes du ciel i picked out some objects to find the acuracy was pretty darn good

big thumbs up to both H0ughy and Acropolite for supplying the controller and cables

thanks guys

sejanus (Gavin) · #2 11-01-2007, 10:05 AM

If you do a 3 star with a crosshair reticle it'll be pretty much pinpoint center on objects. Try and pick stars that are a fair distance from each other.

ving (David) · #3 11-01-2007, 10:23 AM

thanks, i'll do that

need reticle EP now

is the purchase of astro gear never ending?

sejanus (Gavin) · #4 11-01-2007, 10:44 AM

Ving something else I forgot to mention - on the v3.11 controller it sorts the stars by brightness - so a couple of times when I've used a alignment star that I'm not familiar with - I just tell the eq6 to use that star then it'll slew to the rough location, then with the telrad I just look for the brightest star in that rough area and chances are it's the one the eq6 wants.

you could prob do the same on yours, just make sure the initial position of the mount is correct.

I just got a cheapy $99 illuminated reticle it does the job.

davidpretorius · #5 11-01-2007, 10:54 AM

start ship vingster is go!!!

love your "come in noises" comment - a classic!!!

sounds great!

ving (David) · #6 11-01-2007, 10:59 AM

i was just looking at a meade 9mm

Quote:

I just tell the eq6 to use that star then it'll slew to the rough location, then with the telrad I just look for the brightest star in that rough area and chances are it's the one the eq6 wants.

thanks

I used cartes to find out where the star was... some of the sugested stars were below the horizon. i used Aldebaran which i knew and some star in carina starting with M

worked fine

could have used canopus i guess

ving (David) · #7 11-01-2007, 11:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidpretorius

start ship vingster is go!!!

love your "come in noises" comment - a classic!!!

sounds great!

yeah it was fun once i had it figured out dave

Astroman (Andrew Wall) · #8 11-01-2007, 11:44 AM

1 star alignment is only accurate if your mount is perfectly aligned, as in setup in an obsrvatory, even then minor mount errors could induce a error in the alignement. Good luck with further testing David, one thing you may find the thing not GOTOing planets properly, this was a common problem with the 2.05 HC although some people have had great success, I guess it depends on if it was made on a wednesday or a friday arvo I guess.

ving (David) · #9 11-01-2007, 11:48 AM

I think mine was teh wednesday version... not sure, how do you check?

hehe!

matt · #10 11-01-2007, 12:33 PM

I was told by Steve Massey the trick with 2-star Vs 3-star is this.

2-star: align on 2 stars the same side of the meridian, more than 3 hours apart in RA and greater than 3 degrees apart in Dec.

3-star: same as above, but the 3rd star on the opposite side of the meridian with a difference in Dec to the first 2 alignment stars of 30-70 degrees.

I mostly use 2-star and it seems to work OK... although the accuracy falls away a little when you cross to the opposite side of the sky. 3-star doesn't seem to help this much.

ving (David) · #11 11-01-2007, 12:54 PM

thanks for the tip matty

erick (Eric) · #12 11-01-2007, 03:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidpretorius

start ship vingster is go!!!

love your "come in noises" comment - a classic!!!

sounds great!

Only one solution, ving, which I use - move further up the backyard, out of hailing range!

ving (David) · #13 11-01-2007, 03:48 PM

dang, i have such a small yard

never mind. this thread is about me finaly geting goto not about "noises"

g__day (Matthew) · #14 11-01-2007, 11:56 PM

As a hint get a star map and learn the names of the brightest 20 stars, it only changes every season, so when it suggests go to Sirus, Canopus, Rigel, Proycon, Pollux, Betelguese, Formahult, Achernar, Alhena, AlderBaran, Capella, Regulus etc you know where they are and whether it has gone there or not!

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #15 12-01-2007, 02:47 AM

Yay! Onya Vingo!!!

The new GoTo King.

I haven't tried my GoTo EQ6 outside yet as I don't get home from work till 11:30pm and I have fallen asleep within 5 mins of getting home each night this week.

And today I find out I don't even get the weekend off

Next week is very early starts so I luck out again.

One day I will get to use my new EQ6

Looks like 19th January will be the first chance.

Enjoy your GoTo

iceman (Mike) · #16 12-01-2007, 07:20 AM

I get mine tomorrow! Can't wait to hear my first buzz whirrr beep beep ringing out in the backyard!

h0ughy (David) · #17 12-01-2007, 07:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iceman

I get mine tomorrow! Can't wait to hear my first buzz whirrr beep beep ringing out in the backyard!

Wearther warning - Severe Squalls, hail, tornados and damaging winds in the central coast area due just after Lunch Saturday ;-)

33South (Chris) · #18 12-01-2007, 08:46 AM

http://www.amateur-astronomy.org/Fil...StarCharts.zip

This is for v2 controller but bright stars are bright stars.

I printed the charts out and using the controller index provided circled all the usable stars with highlighter, I used blue seems to shows up well with a red torch.

Acknowledgments to EQ6 Yahoo Group.

ving (David) · #19 12-01-2007, 12:43 PM

thanks, that will come in use

ballaratdragons (Ken) · #20 13-01-2007, 11:07 PM

Hooray!!!

I have my EQ6 out in the back yard. I have been trying to find the SCP in the PolarScope since just after sunset and it's now 11pm and I still can't find it!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't even find it with Binoculars!

I know where it is, I know what the Asterism looks like, but I'll be blowed if I can find it tonight

Man, this is damn frustrating