Synscan help.

[Helite]

Hi folks,

Looking for some help in setting up my new 200p on its EQ5 goto pro mount, I have been struggling this last couple of nights and cant seem to fathom it, hopefully someone has come across it before and has a solution or someone can point out what I am doing wrong. I'll give the run-down of how I set it up and maybe someone can spot something i'm failing to see.

Set up mount with scope on

Polar align mount matching up what I see on Polarfinder program

Fire up Synscan > Ver. 03.27

Start from parked > Yes (Scope pointing roughly towards north, (Ax1= +90 degrees Ax2= +00 Degrees)

Enter location > 004,15 W 57,28 N

Set time zone > +00.00

Date > MM/DD/YYYY (always set in american format and if I reset after midnight remember to change the day on it)

Time > Local UK time is input.

Daylight savings > Yes

Polaris HA = XX:XX (there is numbers here and not XX , I presume its telling me where polaris is?)

Clock = XX:XX

Begin alignment? > Yes

3 star? > Yes (though I have tried with 2 and 1 star also)

1st star > Vega (Needed slight centring but pretty close)

2nd star > (Cant remember as I did it a few times but it was close to centre of eyepiece)

3rd star > ( close to perfect as well )

Alignment successful message displayed.

So I tell it to go to Albireo, Bang, right on the money

Now something easy, Jupiter, goto swings in the general direction but is a mile out, It isn't even in the finderscope, oh oh.

Ok something even easier, the moon, it cant miss the moon, goto swings close but misses the moon, probably by about the same margin it missed Jupiter. So I figured I knocked it off somehow, to check I get it to goto my alignment stars and Albireo, perfect, every one jumps straight into the centre of the eyepiece, so I send the scope back to its Park position (home) it lands perfectly in line, I have this confirmed by the marker lines I marked on the mount for easy reference to its home position.

So I turn it off then on and run through the alignment again, same results, finds the stars i'm looking for no problems but seems to struggle with the planets and moon, so i'm figuring its either me inputting something wrong or setting up wrong (most likely) or a software issue (doubtful)

Hopefully someone with more experience of this system will be able to spot my mistake or give me some guidance as to what the issue may be.

I am a complete and utter beginner with this stuff as well for the record, this is my first real scope, so any advice would be greatly appreciated in layman's terms if possible.

Thanks in advance!

[Mikea]

Are you powering from a tank or from AA batteries? Low voltage makes the Skywatcher electronics do odd things!

[The Sailor]

We are not in Daylight savings, that is a change.

Jim

[DaveGarland]

Ok I had this problem once where the stars and deep space objects were ok but the moon miles off. In my case I had entered the date wrong. For instance if you entered Aug 6 as 6:8:2012 instead of 8:6:2012 the stars would hardly move from their positions but the moon would move a great deal. I know you've checked the date format, but the thing is, so did I. Again and again and again... And then realised I'd got it wrong It really is that simple so have another try. It does sound like a date format error to me.

Hope this helps

Dave.

[Cornelius Varley]

We are not in Daylight savings, that is a change.

Jim

Yes we are. DST is the sane as BST. You enter the current time and then YES to DST untill the end of October when we revert back to GMT.

Peter

[Helite]

Are you powering from a tank or from AA batteries? Low voltage makes the Skywatcher electronics do odd things!

Powering it from a 17 ah tank, I did come across the low voltage issue the first time I fired it up to play with it, caused the handset counter to keep counting as it was trying to slew but the motors weren't turning, definitely not a low voltage issue this time but thanks for the suggestion.

We are not in Daylight savings, that is a change.

Jim

Right, this could be the issue, I actually thought I had said NO to daylight savings to test it on one alignment but it still didn't arrive where I wanted it, I also presumed by inputting the local time and date it would work it out. I thought it was just wanting to know if we were in a daylight saving region and would adjust the time/position accordingly? Thanks though I will give that a bash tonight if the sky's are clear.

Ok I had this problem once where the stars and deep space objects were ok but the moon miles off. In my case I had entered the date wrong. For instance if you entered Aug 6 as 6:8:2012 instead of 8:6:2012 the stars would hardly move from their positions but the moon would move a great deal. I know you've checked the date format, but the thing is, so did I. Again and again and again... And then realised I'd got it wrong It really is that simple so have another try. It does sound like a date format error to me.

Hope this helps

Dave.

I checked this over and over and even got someone else to check it for me as googling and doing my research before I even bought the scope and mount this problem seemed to get just about everyone that bought it, so it was the first thing I thought to check, and checked it every time the scope decided it wanted to look in its own direction and not where I asked it too, you are definitely right that it sounds like a date/time issue, I did make the mistake of re-aligning it after midnight and putting the previous days date in which I spotted after much frustration. Thank you for pointing it out about the date though, I understand everyone seems to make this mistake and it needs checked closely.

Any other things I should be checking for??

[The Sailor]

My apologies, we ARE in daylight saving time, I am so sorry to anyone if I have given out that duff info.

Jim

[DaveGarland]

Oh yes, this might not be anything to do with your problems, but if you are moving your scope each time you set up and doing a 3 star alignment each time you don't need to park it or start from a parked position. That's just for scopes that are left permanently set up in an obsy.

Dave.

[Helite]

Yes we are. DST is the sane as BST. You enter the current time and then YES to DST untill the end of October when we revert back to GMT.

Peter

Thanks for confirming that Peter.

My apologies, we ARE in daylight saving time, I am so sorry to anyone if I have given out that duff info.

Jim

Oh well, I thought that may be the answer but back to the drawing board again, thanks for the input anyway!

Oh yes, this might not be anything to do with your problems, but if you are moving your scope each time you set up and doing a 3 star alignment each time you don't need to park it or start from a parked position. That's just for scopes that are left permanently set up in an obsy.

Dave.

Ah right, I wasn't too sure on this, I have marked the ground where I sit the mount at night and just started using the park function as a habit, but thats good to know, thanks Dave.

Any other suggestions from synscan users out there? I'm hoping to get this one cracked tonight!