Simon128D

Hey folks, Something I have been wondering about recently. For the last 15 years of observing with a scope I have always setup my mount near or just after sunset so I can then polar align quickly as soon as I can. After watching some online videos and looking a star party photos I've noticed that a lot of folks actually set up everything during the day time. How do you go about setting up a mount and scope for being polar aligned during the day light? I did try it once and required me to move the mount a considerable amount and an EQ6 Pro with a 10" Newt on it is not something you go lifting, so to avoid disassembly I have always just setup near dark.

Ah yes, I get you now. I have tried that an it works well but rather useless to me as sometimes during an session I will want to use GOTO on something, usually near the end of the night and am getting tired.

Yes, I've seen the "point and track" option but have no idea what it is or what it does. I assumed it was related to the laser pointer wand they sell...

Just to follow up on this and let this be here to help anyone else that's been having this issue. I did go out Friday night to test the 14" Skyliner again and I found an option in the settings of the app - "Settings - Auxiliary Encoder" - and was just a matter of turning it on and I was able to then do a two start alignment (I did try three star alignments before but the mount doesn't seem to like it much as the accuracy is not good) and every object I did GOTO on was bang on in the eyepiece. I then manually slewed the scope to the opposite side of the sky and then used the phone app to center the object, I also pressed on the "Identify" option in "Utility" and it showed me to be where I pointed the scope. So, I went back to GOTO and it was flawless, just as good, if not slightly better, than the hand controller now. Feeling elated by this I went an got my Chromebook - which I have Stellarium Plus on - and thought I would try connecting that to the WiFi dongle and to my astonishment it connected instantly and was having great fun picking objects and watching it all happen. I used to do this on the EQ6 Pro via Starry Night Pro using a long RS232 to USB cable and it worked really well but all those wires and feeling restricted, I seldom used it. This being all wireless I can flip my Chromebook into tablet mode and just hold it and walk around. This won't be something I use for my own observing sessions but will be a great gimmick and bit of fun for public events and public star parties.

Hey all, I recently purchased the WiFi dongle as a result of one of my SynScan hand controllers dying on me at a star party. I got to test it first on my Skyliner 350p Dob and while it set up just fine, did star alignment and decent GOTO I was really disappointed that I could not manually slew the scope with out killing GOTO tracking. One of the best features of this scope - for me - is being able to setup the GOTO and just manually use the scope for my sessions and have the object tracked in the eyepiece and still have the use of GOTO when I want to use it but it seems the WiFi dongle does not watch or monitor the encoders. Is there anyone else on here who uses one on an Alt Az GOTO with encoders and had any success? I got to test it on my EQ6 on Monday night and it works really well, quite impressed by how good the app is. I still prefer to have a pad with physical buttons to press so I don't have to look at my phone screen all the time but its an obvious negative. Its looking clear for tonight so I will test it again on the 14" and see what happens. It being a full moon weekend testing equipment is about the best thing one can do.