1st night with EQ6- not so good

[DJDD]

Originally Posted by Stephen65

Do a three star alignment and even if the first star is way off use the arrow keys to centre it. Then move to the second star, this is where you see if it's properly aligned because even if the mount was way off the first star it should now move accurately to the second because the movement from the first to the second is just a relative movement. Once you've shown the scope where the first star is it should be able to move to the second reasonably accurately.

thanks, Stephen.
everyone has said that 1-star alignment is ok for visual stuff so, yes, once that is aligned then I should expect to get the second star in a 2-star alignment pretty close.

thanks for the offer for assistance if I i need it. hopefully that will not come to pass with all of the great assistance rendered by members!

regards,
DJDD

[Stephen65]

I always do a three star alignment for all uses. A one star alignment is much more dependant on the accuracy of your polar alignment because you're only giving the scope one reference point and the scope won't know if a pointing error is due to inaccurate polar alignment or due to incorrect data.

If you do a three star alignment the scope gets three reference points and it can operate much more accurately. It only takes a few minutes longer and if you have decent polar alignment you can get hours of accurate goto's.

[AlexN]

Also, a 1 star alignment will not compensate for any cone error you may have, where as a 3 star will provided one or two of the stars is on the western side of the meridian, and one or two are on the eastern side.

Three star alignment is THE way to go...

Using EQMOD last week I set up 8 alignment stars and GOTO was FLAWLESS! Landed Canopus on the chip of the DBK31 in the C11 @ F/6.3...

[DJDD]

Originally Posted by AlexN

Using EQMOD last week I set up 8 alignment stars and GOTO was FLAWLESS! Landed Canopus on the chip of the DBK31 in the C11 @ F/6.3...

maybe next clear skies night...

thanks, Steven and Alex.

well, getting one star in the west may be hard with a building on my western side (3 feet away from the telescope). I can get two on the eastern side and maybe Achenar or Fomalhaut.

or, I could just try to lay a big sheet over the ants nest where i could get stars everywhere except maybe the pole itself.
hmmm...or, perhaps pull down the clothes line that blocks my view of ...

as you can see my backyard is a bit chaotic!

thanks again,
DJDD

[Jeff]

Ditto ... 3 star alignment is the way to go. Compensates for various setup errors, and allows mount to recalculate a much more accurate home position.

[DJDD]

Originally Posted by Jeff

Ditto ... 3 star alignment is the way to go. Compensates for various setup errors, and allows mount to recalculate a much more accurate home position.

right, time to get out the 'Ant Rid'.

thanks, Jeff.

[DJDD]

Hey all,

just updating the thread. Had a good night observing last night, even with a bright moon, Southland shopping centre nearby and the need to finish before midnight (something about a pumpkin? ).

After setting my latitude position to 52 degrees from vertical, facing roughly south with the jig and levelling the mount better, I got some decent GOTO accuracy!

First, 2-star alignment: Canopus and Rigel. I did not drift align.
Both stars were way out initially but i eventually got them in the view finder. Once both were aligned i found Named Stars (Sirius), M42, NGC 104 (47 Tuc) and M41 without any trouble.

In the SynScan setup I needed to Sort the Alignment Stars by Magnitude rather than by Auto-Sort.

The 30mm Superview (68 degrees AFOV) eyepiece worked a treat. What a difference a wide field makes...


next, i should try drift alignment, although i am tempted to just get some observing in rather than fiddling about.

Thanks to everyone for their assistance!

cheers,
DJDD

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

Its a great feeling to get everything working just the way it should Welcome to the great exploration of space

[DJDD]

was all set for last night but the clouds rolled in. well, next clears kies are at least 1 week away...just gives me more time to look at extra gear.

cheers,
DJDD

[AlexN]

DJDD, I hear you on that... I've had storms for nearly a month straight, I have spent HEAPS on gear in that time....

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

hahaha you guys make me laugh

[DJDD]

Originally Posted by AlexN

DJDD, I hear you on that... I've had storms for nearly a month straight, I have spent HEAPS on gear in that time....

sorry, i forgot about Brisbane's woes...
our cloudy skies do not compare, although those lightning strikes looked awesome (saw the shots on Courier Mail's website).

(shhhh...tempted to buy the Orion Starshoot autoguider now...)

[AlexN]

You'll get the QHY5 cheaper than the Orion Starshoot autoguider, and they are the same product... You'll also likely get better after sales support from the Australian QHY dealer than from Orion.

The QHY5 is on my shopping list.

[AlexN]

Oh, the brisbane weather... heh.. 13000 recorded lightning strikes in 4 hours last night....

Crazy.

[Kal (Andrew)]

Great to hear you had a much better experience with the EQ6

[DJDD]

Originally Posted by AlexN

Oh, the brisbane weather... heh.. 13000 recorded lightning strikes in 4 hours last night....

Crazy.

amazing!

thanks for the tip on the QHY5- i had forgotten about that model.

cheers,
DJDD

[Tandum (Robin)]

Originally Posted by AlexN

DJDD, I hear you on that... I've had storms for nearly a month straight, I have spent HEAPS on gear in that time....

Knew it, stop spending ... That's why we've had one clear night since October

[AlexN]

Lol... I go to spend-a-holics anonymous meetings weekly..

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

... university has suppressed my purchasing clout. though my partner knows that once i start getting some rods flowing in, ill be purchasing the Dome with that nice 160 odd mm tak with all the trimmings! :ED yay! 3 years to go