Jiggy 67

I’m afraid I have to agree with the above. Your setup is a visual one, not an AP one. I am visual only and had an EQ5 which I upgraded to GoTo with the upgrade kit. It’s a bit of a nightmare to fit as the instructions are pitiful though if you search on here you will find assistance. 
The minimum for AP would be an HEQ5 or even NEQ6/EQ6-R-Pro

7 hours ago, Ricky-17 said:

If I buy the sky watcher eq 6 r pro goto, will I need anything else to enable the scope to automatically track my targets?

Nope, the only extra you need to consider is a power supply of which there are endless options 

1 hour ago, matthasboldlygone said:

Looked it up in the dictionary ... doesn't sound like the way I treat my scope 😂

1.turn or slide violently or uncontrollably.

"the Renault slewed from side to side in the snow"

2.(of an electronic device) undergo slewing.

noun: slew; plural noun: slews; noun: slue; plural noun: slues

a violent or uncontrollable sliding movement.

"I was assaulted by the thump and slew of the van"

Sounds pretty accurate to my methods after a bottle of wine!! 🤪..........I mean at the scope.......not in a van!!

Don't mean to be controversial here.....but if you could simulate the view exactly, what would be the point of observing?

This video will show you the best home position and how to save it. The home position is needed so Synscan knows where it is pointing and starting from. Once you have polar aligned place the scope in the home position. Then do a one or two star alignment. The first star will be off, the better your PA and home position the less so but it will be off. Centre the star with the hand controller as you have done before. 

The second star may also be off, centre it again and you should be good to go. You should receive an “alignment successfull” message. It is useful to use a low power eyepiece, illuminated with a crosshair to center the star accurately 

Some people say you don’t need accurate PA for visual but I think the more accurate it is, the more accurate your GoTo will be. The same applies to the home position and even leveling the mount, these things only take a few minutes so my view is, why not do it right. 

The third star is not required. That is designed to correct cone error which is where the scope is not perpendicular to the dovetail (not level with the dovetail if you know what I mean) . This becomes a problem when crossing the meridian to view an object (not a problem if you keep to the same side of the sky) and will throw the GoTo accuracy out, the third star corrects this and your third star in the alignment process should be on the opposite side of the meridian from your first two. There are ways to check for cone error but I wouldn’t worry about that for now 

The only filter that maybe useful is a light pollution filter to assist with seeing the tail but I’m not aware of any other filter that will assist as a comet is just a point of light similar to a star. Someone else may disagree 

7 minutes ago, Maddad said:

and checked main scope and finder scope are centred on Polaris,

What do you mean? After polar alignment you shouldn’t have the scope centered on Polaris. Once polar aligned, ensure you return the scope to the home position and commence 1,2 or 3 star alignment. By the way, there’s no need for a 3 star alignment, the 3 rd star is only for correcting cone error, if you’re not worried about that, then the third star serves no purpose 

Your scope will need regular collimating so tools to do this are crucial. At the very least you need a collimating cap and/or a Cheshire eyepiece 

You can use any make of eyepiece you want as long as you use the correct barrel size for the focuser 

23 minutes ago, John said:

I have one of these:

And one of these:

I like them both and use them frequently. They probably get more use than the other eyepieces I have because they are so flexible.

I've also owned a few of the Baader zooms (a Mk II and a couple of Mk III's) one of the low cost Skywatcher 8-24's and the very expensive Leica 8.9mm - 17.8mm ASPH zoom.

I would not want a zoom as my only eyepiece but I've certainly found that they are very useful to have in the astro "tool box"

John, is that first one a Hyperflex??...I was looking at one on FLO and looks really good for the price!!....added it to my wishlist!!

Welcome back Shane, I took a break for a few years as well, sometimes other things get in the way........still a City fan???

Very impressive!!.......but are they clouds or is your neighbour's house on fire 😆

Bizarrely I wrote this on another thread this morning, so sorry for repeating myself....😀 I love my Baader Zoom and though they are quite expensive, you could look at a Mark 111 rather than a Mark 1V, The only difference between the two is that the Mark 1V is lighter, optically they are the same so the Mark 111 will be cheaper. They are good fun, especially on double stars, great to zoom in and watch the star split

I'm also in Cheshire so welcome to the club!

8 hours ago, Neil H said:

Well done your going to have so many WOW moments with an 8 inch scope ,I am still having them now , have you looked in to a zoom eyepiece 8 to 24 add a Barlow you have 8 eyepieces and are not bad price I just got a Celestron one for £70 on flea bay that may help you out till you get fixed focal eyepieces BST are really nice for the price I have there Barlow 

+1 for the zoom, a great way of obtaining multiple focal lengths in one foul swoop, they are also great fun, zooming in on objects like double stars and actually watching the stars split. I’d recommend the Baader Hyperion Zoom. Although more expensive than the Celestron above, it is great quality and if you can get a Mark 111 rather than the Mark 1V it will be cheaper. The only difference between the two is that the Mark 1V is lighter, there’s no difference in the optics 

I have a copy of the Sky Atlas 2000 Deluxe Edition, spiral bound. I bought it about 10 years ago for around £100 I think. I have just looked on Amazon now and saw that the paperback version was over £400 and the spiral bound version nearly £300!!!! I know they may be cheaper elsewhere but those prices are amazing. It is however a beautiful atlas and I have always been hesitant about using it as I don’t want to mark it....it’s too pretty!!!....but that also makes it pretty useless......I just like to leaf through it now and then.....maybe I’ll look at selling it with those prices.....or just have it shrink wrapped 😀

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sky-Atlas-2000-0-2ed-Deluxe/dp/0521627621#mediamatrixmobile_secondary_view_div_1594055553742

Light pollution (from any source) is never gonna go away and will always be present. It is also unavoidable to produce it yourself with red torches, apps etc. It’s something we all just have to live with, the trick is to minimize it as much as possible.

I use apps at the scope which are red filtered through the app, but I always found it annoying when accessing the app, the phone home screen projected white light before I could get to the app. Someone on this forum pointed out that in the setting of an iPhone you can change the backlight from white light to red so all screens on the phone including the home screen are red

11 hours ago, Uplooker said:

Another short response, Derek?

Yeh, I watched the episode of “Friends” last night where Ross falls asleep reading Rachel’s letter (18 pages, front and back!!).....I did think of Derek 😀

1 hour ago, banjaxed said:

Reading that theory made my head hurt 😀

I did warn you 😀

This will make you scratch your head. About the size of the universe...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2020/01/21/how-far-is-it-to-the-edge-of-the-universe/amp/
 

Hi all,

Unless there is a complete disaster, I strongly suspect that this event will go ahead.....fingers crossed. 
With that in mind and without wanting to put a dampener on anything, do we need to put some basic rules in place??....I’m talking about things like sharing/looking through other people’s scopes and eyepieces. At other star parties I’ve been to it can be quite normal to share/borrow equipment which is obviously a good thing......normally, but may not be appropriate for this occasion.

Whats everyone’s thoughts on this??

1 hour ago, JIm19130 said:

I actually did something slightly different to make the scope's crosshairs "vertical."  Based on some advice, I focused the polar scope on the edge of a far away building, aligning the side of the building with the reticle's vertical crosshair by rotating the mount's RA axis slightly.  Manually.    (The numbers on the scope's reticle were still upside down, but I ignored them.   At least the crosshairs were +, not an x).  I marked the RA axis with a marker to record the axis rotation.  

So, at night when i pull up the Polar Align app and see the position of Polaris around the circle on the app as an X, I simply memorize the position of Polaris, rotate my mount's RA axis to the designated mark (this reorienting the reticle crosshairs to vertical) and then place Polaris around the reticle circle to match the position indicated in the App.   After I'm finished, I unclutch the RA axis and bring it back to the home position.   Then turn the mount off and back on and fast forward the GoTo to star alignment (as my mount is in the home position and polar aligned).

Is this all correct?

Jim

 

 

Yep that’ll do it. I polar align before I do anything, I only switch the mount on to illuminate the polar scope, that way there’s no need to switch off and on and possibly having to re input time, location etc. PA is a mechanical procedure, you don’t need the data etc in the handset . Just return to the home position after PA.

Another useful tip....Polar Align Pro has a daytime PA routine, follow the instructions on the app during daytime setup and it will get you close to the NCP so at night you only have to do a slight and quick adjustment 

58 minutes ago, JIm19130 said:

Well, my particular installed Polar Scope doesn't have constellations like the Big Dipper in it.  My scope's reticle looks like the one featured in Polar Align in the pic.  

Regardless,  I'm told you have to rotate the RA axis manually to align the cross hairs in the reticle such that the vertical one is straight up and down and the horizontal one is parallel with the horizon.  I did that during the day using the side of a building and marked it on my RA axis so at night I can quickly turn the RA axis you make the "x" crosshairs in the reticle look like a "+".   (The 0,3,6,9 numbers on the crosshairs aren't the same, but I ignore them).   That way, the crosshairs align in the same way as what I see in the Polar Align app.  Like a +.  

But regardless, the GoTo HH:MM for Polaris is the a different Hour Angle than the app is telling me.  I guess I'll just disregard the GOTo and use the position of Polaris in the app to align with where I place Polaris in the reticle diagram.   Odd, though  

 

 

 

 

You are correct, the zero vertical line has to be vertical. The easiest way to do it is level the mount (essential) place Polaris at the centre mark of the polar scope and the using the alt adjustment place Polaris at the top of the circle, then rotate in RA to put the 12 o’clock position over Polaris. You can save this in PS Align Pro by setting the zero hour in the app with the RA reading on the handset when you rotate in RA. 
Having said all that, none of it matters, it’s irrelevant where the actual numbers are on the reticle or what HA hours are displayed. This is the best reticle of the lot (and the best app) and as long as you inputted the data correctly in the app all you have to do is replicate the image in the polar scope as you have said 

15 minutes ago, scitmon said:

The Location in your app looks wrong (lat long puts you in China!), I would suggest a manual input of location.

Well spotted!! And the app is GMT minus 4. 

I never take any notice of either of them figures so I couldn’t even tell you if mine has the same difference. Just replicate what you see in the app in the polar scope, that’s all you need to do 

I’ve never seen that site. It looks like an eBay type site but the seller has good reviews and your purchase will be protected by PayPal. It’s a great discount but not too over the top to be dodgy.....I’d go for it