Day one with my HEQ5 Pro SyncScan

[AlistairW]

Hi, so I managed to spend about 1 hour on my new mount, that just so happens to be  my first mount - really enjoying it, bit not got very far. Started to look at polar alignment, but realised that I do not have an allen key the correct size to make any adjustments. Then I thought, this is a goto scope, so what is the bare minimum that I need to do once I have my scope balanced to get going and have some fun ? I have set the latitude etc, but am not sure I need to go through the polar alignment stage. I have a good knowledge of the sky, so was thinking of trying the 3 or 2 star alignment. (also I presume that the RA and Dec tightners need to be slackened off before I use goto ?) - Any help appreciated greatly.

Thanks - Alistair

[Yearofthegoat]

I found my HEQ5 polarscope reticule was spot on out of the box. I checked it out in daylight aiming at a nearby TV aerial which presented some straight lines to use (thanks to Dion at astronomyshed for that tip).

I hope I've got this right but I think the tighteners are clutches - if you loosen them the motors won't turn the mount, so tighten them up to use Goto, or to slew round with the arrow keys. Again I  might be wrong but when you leave it alone it tracks at sidereal rate by default so you can slew to something then just stop and look at it - I mean 'observe' of course, I haven't got the lingo yet being a n00b...

Polar alignment was rubbish the first time I tried it at night. I understand what I need to do but couldn't see Polaris for the other stars, and the field of view through the polar scope is limited (cf your eyeballs anyway). So I took a tip from a thread on here that said do polar alignment at dusk because Polaris comes out first on its own.  Worked a treat!

Other top tip is turn down the LED in the polarscope to like 6% or so (maybe less) - makes it a lot easier to see Polaris. It's in the Utility section on the handset menu, near the bottom of the list IIRC.

It seems there's me, you and t0ny on here who've recently got HEQ5s to play with. And it seems we're having similar issues, but the folks on here are great and always have sensible advice.

[Yearofthegoat]

Meant to add that the bare minimum would be seem to be to do a 2-star alignment - that ought to be good enough to get things in the eyepiece. If the polar alignment is at least roughly correct it shouldn't matter if you know your stars.  I don't, so I've been trying to polar align properly and star align accurately so I can use the Goto to learn as well as for ease of use.

[Astro_Baby]

Fastest possible set up......

Point the mount North and set the Altitude for 52'

Align the finderscope to the main optics using a convenient target (any tall tree or mast)

Put the scope into its parked position (ie facing over the weights)

Lock the DEC and RA clutches down.

Set time, Lat and Lon (remember it uses US date format of month-day-year)

Set a two star align....the mount will slew to its firts alignment star, once its stopped get the star centred in the finderscope.  If align the finder to the main scope well then the finder is a big help as it has cross hairs to allow you to gauge when the star is perfectly centred.  Firts slew can be out a bit so you need to nudge the scope on its motors towards the star.  Once done do the second alignment star.

It should run ok, tracking may be a bit wonky without a decent polar alignment but it should work.

My advice with this stuff is read the manual, then read the manual again, run through the process in your house in daylight and get things straight in your head - its a lot easier in a lit room being able to read the manual as you go along.  In a dark and cold field its a lot harder and far more frustrating.

If it doesn't work for you on the first go don't get disheartened, theres a lot to learn with something like a GoTo mount.

[Astro_Baby]

Also - a good polar alignment will help with the mount finding the stars on its goTo alignment procedure and once you are familiar with the polarscope and setting up it will all get quicker. I can unload and set up in about 10-15 minutes including a spot on polar alignment. So it does get better over time.

[AlistairW]

Brilliant - thanks for those suggestions. One further quesiton, just so the penny drops so to speak. If the scope can do alignment via 2/3 star alignment, why is it necessary to do the polar alignment activity ? - Sure I am missing something obvious.

Thanks again ......

[Owmuchonomy]

One hour! Just wait until you've had 7 years of it! Hi, they are designed to do slightly different things. Following on from AB's notes:

3 star alignment is for you the best first choice. So roughly polar align as above then run the 3 star alignment. This maps the sky to allow reasonably good GoTo response AND it tries to eliminate cone error.

2 star alignment is also fine for GoTo but predominantly on whichever side of the meridian you originally choose.

Polar alignment using the polar scope gives you a better alignment on the earth's axis and thus reduces errors that may accumulate and throw off your GoTo and subsequent tracking a bit. Unless your polar scope is way out you don't need your Allen keys.

Polar alignment via the handset is the most accurate and is best left until you fancy imaging.

As AB says, the manual is excellent but takes a few reads.

Remember to align your finder and balance your scope first.

[carastro]

 If the scope can do alignment via 2/3 star alignment, why is it necessary to do the polar alignment activity ? - Sure I am missing something obvious.

If you are just going to do a bit of observing, the polar alignment routine isn't quite so important so long as you're roughly polar aligned.  It's when you want to do long exposure photography that you need to be much more accurate, so just enjoy it and get used to the mount for a few sessions and worry about the PA routine after that.

As said above check the alignment of the polarscope in the polar axis during the daytime by tipping the mount over and looking at an aerial or something through the polarscope, rotate the counterweight bar and if the same place on the aerial stays in the same place, then you won't need to adjust it.  If it moves you'll have to find a small allen key, are there not any included in any of your astro kit?  

Once that is ok, then you can start to learn a proper PA routine.  

Carole 

[Astro_Baby]

I am going to disagree with a three star align.  On Celestron kit the third star is used to refine pointing accuracy and therefore on a Celestron mount each additional alignment star improves the pointing accuracy.  This is not so on a Skywatcher Synscan mount.  The third star is not used for pointing accuracy but to correct cone error.  By the end of the second star alignment the mounts pointing accuracy with regard to GoTo  is as good as its going to get but the third star allows final corrections for any misalignment between the scope and the mount.  Given a rough polar alignment its not worth worrying about cone error - I never bother and only ever use a two star.

You should also make sure the mount is level - at least roughly level if nothing else.  People will always say an EQ mount need not be levelled because the motion of the mount cancels out any incline in the mount BUT that assumes a manual mount, GoTos like level mounts  and its also safer as it keeps everything balanced - less risk of tipping over.

If you get stuck post up - bear in mind GoTo is a learning cycle itself.

[happy-kat]

Ianpwilliams created a step by step setup pdf of using this mount and aligning it. You might find it a helpful.

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/230152-need-help-with-my-step-by-step-instructions-please/page-20#

[Geordie mc]

Hi. Hope you enjoy your new mount. It's great once you get used to it. Check out the videos on YouTube by AstroShed. Very helpful. I replaced the the altitude and azimuth bolts on mine for better quality and easier to use units. Seemed pricey at the time but worth it. Beware bending the altitude bolts they can be a real pain to sort out if you do. Always slacken one before turning the other. You might also want to check out eqmod if you fancy computer control. It's free but you need a cable. First Light Optics sell one for under £30. It works with planetarium software such as Cartes de Ciel to allow you to use the computer to choose and slew to targets. Also helps with polar alignment and many other features. Clear skies.

[AlistairW]

Great information, this really helps. I am starting off slow, and hoping to learn as I go.

[AlistairW]

Hello again - so day 3 - not moving very fast am I - family first - ;-) .... but managed to sneek another hour. So I have my SyncScan connected, I have the Lat \ Lon from an iphone app as (Lat 51,280, Lon -2.489) .... just want to know what I should be entering in to the SyncScan. I guess another piece of knowledge I need to understand. Hopefully going to get more time this weekend :-)

Mind you I got the motor to whirr - and that alone was pretty cool !

Thanks again - Alistair.

[AlistairW]

Looked at a program on the net ..... I got the following

Latitude = 51.2808, Longitude = -2.4877

Lat = 51 degrees, 16.8 minutes North

Long - 2 degrees, 29 minutes West

So do I need to enter 002 29W  51 17N

?

[lensman57]

Looked at a program on the net ..... I got the following

Latitude = 51.2808, Longitude = -2.4877

Lat = 51 degrees, 16.8 minutes North

Long - 2 degrees, 29 minutes West

So do I need to enter 002 29W  51 17N

?

Yes that is correct. A minus means West of the meridian . The new firmware also has an option for altitude but I have not bothered to up date mine.

A.G

[AlistairW]

Thanks again - all good so far

[AlistairW]

Another quick question. When Astro_Baby says "Point the mount North and set the Altitude for 52'" - I presume that means 'True' North. I guess I can get this from an app on my iphone ?

Thanks - Alistair

[MattJenko]

Brilliant - thanks for those suggestions. One further quesiton, just so the penny drops so to speak. If the scope can do alignment via 2/3 star alignment, why is it necessary to do the polar alignment activity ? - Sure I am missing something obvious.

Thanks again ......

Polar aligning gets the mount's DEC axis lined up with the rotational axis of the earth, so that the RA axis can track the stars as the move across the sky.

The 2-star align is for Goto, which allows the mount to know where the stars actually are at any given point of time (ie where the earth is in relation to the rotation along the dec axis). You can have perfect polar alignment, but the mount still doesn't know where the stars are in the sky at your point in time. You need to be decent on both Axis to allow you to find and track celestial objects successfully.

It's a bit of a head spin to start with, but it gets much easier with practice

[sunka]

Hi. Hope you enjoy your new mount. It's great once you get used to it. Check out the videos on YouTube by AstroShed. Very helpful. I replaced the the altitude and azimuth bolts on mine for better quality and easier to use units. Seemed pricey at the time but worth it. Beware bending the altitude bolts they can be a real pain to sort out if you do. Always slacken one before turning the other. You might also want to check out eqmod if you fancy computer control. It's free but you need a cable. First Light Optics sell one for under £30. It works with planetarium software such as Cartes de Ciel to allow you to use the computer to choose and slew to targets. Also helps with polar alignment and many other features. Clear skies.

I agree, eqmod is great, but as Geordie wrote you do need laptop and eqdircable (http://www.firstlightoptics.com/astronomy-cables-leads-accessories/hitecastro-eqdir-adapter.html).

I used hand controler a few weeks than switched to eqmod for imaging + you get easier polar alignment (the scope turns itself to current RA position http://eq-mod.sourceforge.net/docs/PolarScopeAlignment.pdf)

[Astro_Baby]

Technically the NCP is not exactly at true North BUT if you aim the mount North and set its altitude to 52' you will most likely be close enough.  The mount should ideally point at Polaris but as you are so new to this I thought I would spare you the headaches of using the Polarscope and finding Polaris.

The mount will go to without a good Polar fix but tracking will be impaired - that probably wont matter much at the start.

The whole polar alignment process is a deal more complicated (although it become second nature after a short time) and I was trying to spare you

[Geordie mc]

Get your finder scope lined up with the main scope in daylight using a distant object. Then line up your mount by eye with Polaris by just looking through the finder. This should be good enough to then do a 2 star align and get pretty good go to functionality. Use a 25mm eyepiece to give a wide view. Then switch to shorter focal lengths entering the stars each time you switch eyepiece. Trying to find anything with a 5mm eyepiece can be really tough unless the go to is spot on. It's a learning curve but great fun and very rewarding once you get there. I still remember things like first seeing the moon, M13, M42, Jupiter and the Galilean moons etc through my scope. It's such a thrill thinking of how far away these things are and how long the light took to reach us.