AstroMuni

Nice one 🤣

Over and above what has been discussed so far..... I just re-read the manual. Looks like the software does figure out its not properly aligned and it allows you to fix it as well. This is section taken from Synscan manual 11.3 Polar Alignment without Polar Scope The polar alignment function can help users to polar align an equatorial mount accurately. Here are the operating instructions: Complete a 2-star alignment or a 3-star alignment. At the end of the alignment, the Syn- Scan hand control will display the polar alignment error (refer to Section 3.3). Users can use the data to determine whether it is necessary to adjust the polar alignment. Press the “MENU” shortcut key, and then access to sub-menu “Alignment\Polar Alignment ”, press the ENTER key to proceed to the next step. ....... etc.......

Thats an interesting one. 👍 The manual states that you can do alignment using Octans and I thought thats what would be done down south 🙂

I learn something new each day 🙂

Is this the case only while using Syncscan or with EQMOD direct connection (not via the handcontroller) as well?

Beautiful shot, @Trevor N. Love it 👍

That is quite normal (atleast for me ). At higher magnifications I find its harder to find that sweet spot from which I can see clearest. Just takes a matter of time. If you wish to continue as a visual astronomer, you will need to get a comfortable seat and keep looking for the best moments! OR you could invest in a webcam or one of the astronomy cameras and see from the comfort of your PC screen. 🙂

You will need to be a bit more clear about what you mean by blackout - i.e. do you see a black area when you should be seeing a bright spot; does it happen only at higher magnifications? Try and explain by putting more details on when this happens, etc. and then we can try to suggest workarounds 🙂 Here is my interepretation so far ... you need to keep your eye in exactly one spot to get an image, moving it even a little bit causes the image to vanish and you see black. Am I correct?

I agree, go for a good Barlow and a 6mm eyepiece. I personally dont see an advantage in buying a 2" eyepiece at this low focal length. A 1.25" would be less expensive, too.

Dantooine & greg110902 - I have found this site useful https://www.stelvision.com/en/telescope-simulator/ As John has already mentioned its possible in Stellarium but configuring all the parameters is going to be tricky 🙂

Have you tried this site? https://theskylive.com/c2020f3-info

Taff, try this website and change the location to yours https://theskylive.com/c2020f3-info

Taken from Astronomy Hacks book by Robert Bruce Thompson; Barbara Fritchman Thompson. Your eye doctor can measure your fully dark-adapted entrance pupil for you, but you can also determine it for yourself. To do so, you’ll need a set of metric Allen wrenches. Allow yourself to become fully dark adapted, which may take half an hour or more. Look directly at a bright star, and hold one of the smaller metric Allen wrenches along your cheek so that the long portion crosses your eye parallel to and near the eyeball. Move the wrench up and down until it is centered on your pupil. You’ll see the star split into two stars, one on each side of the wrench. Substitute larger Allen wrenches until you reach a point where the star no longer splits, but is visible only as a single star on one side or the other of the Allen wrench. The size of that Allen wrench is the size of your fully dark-adapted entrance pupil. If you observe frequently from a light-polluted site, repeat the experiment there. You may be surprised at the difference light pollution, particularly from nearby local sources, makes to your dark adaptation. For example, if your entrance pupil is a full 7mm at a truly dark site, it may be only 5mm at a brighter site. Your eyes operate on the same principles as any optical instrument. Light gathering ability varies with the square of the aperture. That means a 7mm entrance pupil admits nearly twice as much light (72 versus 52) as a 5mm entrance pupil, which in turn means that you can see nearly one full magnitude deeper from the darker site.

What were the settings for this please?

I have this one https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-mount-accessories/lynx-astro-ftdi-eqdir-usb-adapter-for-sky-watcher-az-gti-mounts.html 🙂

Yes, that would be the case if you are using software that needed the handset's computer. If you are using a driver like EQMOD (as a example) then my guess is that it could be plugged directly into Mount.

There seems to be this alternative http://www.usconverters.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=70&products_id=404

Pics would help others to understand your problem Concretedan

I added an FAQ about this just now 🙂 @Jif001 : Thx for your help. I have quoted from your post

Have you had a go using your phone camera with an adapter? You can get very decent pictures.

In my own journey while learning this process and seeing similar areas of confusion among others, I decided to compile this FAQ. This FAQ has been put together using a combination of information from SkyWatcher manuals, my own experience and suggestions by various contributors on the forums. As most of the confusion is around the newer reticle, this FAQ deals with this in detail. Q: What is Polar alignment and why is it needed? A: Polar alignment refers to the act of aligning the Polar axis of an Equatorial mount telescope, so that it is parallel with the axis that the Earth revolves around. It makes the job of following objects across the sky much easier. Its of minor benefit to the visual astronomer but a necessity to the astrophotographer who is trying to take images of the night sky. Once a telescope is polar aligned and an object centred in the eyepiece, then assuming an RA motor is attached to the telescope, the object will stay centred. The better the polar alignment, the longer it will stay there. If no motor is attached then simply nudging the telescope around one axis will bring the object back to the centre of the eyepiece again. Q: Do I need to accurately do a Polar alignment? A: If you are a visual astronomer then its not that critical and you should be able to manage just doing a simple polar alignment by positioning the mount so that Polaris is in the centre of the reticle. But if you are doing astrophotography with long exposures then accurate polar alignment becomes critical to improve the quality of the images. Q: My reticle looks different to what is shown in the manual. A: There are 2 versions of this – the older one which has a bubble showing the location of Polaris Fig.1 and the newer one which has a clock face Fig.2. Figure 1 Figure 2 Q: How do I Polar align with the new Reticle? A: As Polaris is not located exactly at the North Celestial Pole (NCP), we can see it orbit the North Celestial Pole in a polar scope. The large circle seen in the centre of the pattern in Fig.2 is a representation of the Polaris’ orbit around the North Celestial Pole. When performing the polar alignment process, it is necessary to determine the orientation of the Polaris on the circle. The reticle is marked like a clock face with 0 at the top. Imagine this is the 12 position in a traditional clock. At the end of the initialization of the SynScan hand control, after entering the proper local longitude, latitude, date, time, and daylight-saving time, the SynScan hand controller will display the message: “Polaris Position in P.Scope=HH:MM”. Imagine the larger circle in Fig.2 as a clock’s face with 12:00 at the top, with the current time pointing to the “HH:MM”. The orientation of the hour hand of the clock represents the orientation of Polaris in the polar scope. Put the Polaris to the same orientation on the large circle to finish the polar alignment. In case you don’t use the Synscan hand controller, there are several apps available on Android and IOS which give you the position of Polaris on the clock face (such as SynscanInit for Android and Polar Scope Align for IOS). Skwatcher has their own app as well called Synscan Pro which shows the position of Polaris in the new reticle. The Polaris position also changes as time passes. The reticle displays 3 circles to represent Polaris’s orbit in the year 2012, 2020 and 2028. It also gives sub-dials at 0, 3, 6, and 9 o’clock position for year 2016, 2024 and 2032. An engraving labeled with the above years is also displayed on the right of the FOV for memo purpose. When doing polar alignment in the Northern hemisphere, the user should put Polaris on the correct circle corresponding to the present year for better alignment precision. This reticle is also covered in the SW EQ6-R manual. Q: When I position my mount in the Home position with the counterweight at its lowest point, the 0 mark on the reticle is not at the top. Is this a fault and how can I fix it? A: There is nothing wrong with your mount You just need to rotate the mount in the RA axis till the 0 is at its highest position. Now lock the RA axis and continue with the alignment process. Q: How can I ensure that the 0 is accurately positioned at the very top? A: 1) Firstly, level the mount and set it up pointing north as if making it ready for polar alignment. 2) Next use the Alt and Az bolts to centre Polaris in the reticle - i.e. put Polaris right in the centre of the cross-hairs, not on any circle. Be as accurate as you can. 3) Now using ONLY the Alt bolts, move Polaris vertically upward in the reticle from its central position until it reaches any of the circles. 4) Because you started with Polaris dead centre and moved it only vertically, Polaris is now exactly in the zero (12 o’clock) position on the circle. Now rotate the RA axis to put the reticle zero mark in exactly the same position as Polaris. Again, be as accurate as you can. 5) Lock the RA axis in this position and using a marker pen put alignment marks on the mount housing so that you can find this position again without the need to use Polaris. [Courtesy Jif001 on SGL] Q: How do I Polar align with the older reticle? A: Here is a good article http://www.astro-baby.com/astrobaby/help/polar-aligning-the-skywatcher-heq5orion-sirius-mount/ Q: How can I check if my polarscope reticle is aligned with the RA axis of the mount? A: Before using the polar scope for polar alignment, the polar scope itself must be calibrated to ensure the pattern in the polar scope is aligned to the mount’s R.A. axis. The following steps will outline how to calibrate the polar scope: This process is best done during daytime. Choose a fixed object (eg. a faraway object such as the tip of a TV antenna). Centre the reticle on the object by adjusting the two azimuth adjustment knobs and the two elevation adjustment bolts. Rotate the mount in R.A. axis for half a turn (180 degrees). Tighten the R.A. clutch after the rotation. If the object remains at the centre of the reticle in the polar scope after the rotation, then it means the polar scope has been aligned to the R.A. axis and no calibration is needed. If its not aligned, read this article which explains how to recalibrate https://www.myastroscience.com/polarscopecalibration There are also videos on YouTube that explain this process. Hope this helps. 🙂 Do let me know if you have other questions (and answers) and I can add to this.

Thats partly because when they search for this topic they end up reading a confusing set of well meaning 'helpful' answers from various folk with their own interpretations and experience. And to make matters worse the SW manual for HEQ5 is rubbish and doesnt even match with the new reticle. Having said that the EQ6-R manual describes the new reticle.

Getting multi star alignment is not critical for visual observation. I have the same issue with limited visibility but I can get quite decent go-to functionality and tracking. Most of the mounts can be controlled from a PC, so there is less reliance on handsets. And I must admit its a lot easier to manage my mount using software such as Stellarium or Cartes du Ciel 🙂

Hi Bego, A GO-TO gives you the luxury of telling the hand controller or PC to point to an object and it will do it. In the manual mode ofcourse you have to find the object in the sky and then point to it. 2nd advantage is it can track the object so you dont have to keep making manual adjustments to your scope. Disadvantages for Go-To are mainly price and you need a source of power to connect to it. If you decide to buy a manual mount, not all manual mount models allow you to add on motors at a later stage to help do the tracking. So bear that in mind. When you buy a scope get the one with the largest aperature (as that increases its light gathering power) and the sturdiest mount. Remember you maybe able to buy these separately! Dont splash out all your £450 on the scope+mount. Set aside money to buy good eyepieces. Look at the second hand market for deals on both scope and eyepieces.

Agreed it would have been a nice to have if it was setup so that 0 is on top when counterweight arm is pointed downwards. But as its a clock face on the reticle, you just need to rotate the mount in RA axis until the 0 is on top, hence you could say there is no right side up.. Simples 🙂 The main alignment that one needs to need to worry about is whether the reticle is centred. If this is not the case then the focussed object will wobble around the reticle when you rotate the mount in RA axis. Totally agree about the poor English and confusion created by not having the updated reticle diagram in the manual. I had to trawl around to find the new version.