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Showing results for tags 'alignment'.
Found 31 results
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Hello guys, I recently got into astronomy so I bought my first telescope. I've read through several articles and the recommendation for a beginner's telescope (value/price) was Celestron Astromaster 130EQ-MD. I bought this from someone who was not really using it and it is in a very good condition. Prior to actually purchasing this, I've watched countless videos on how the telescope works, what needs to be done - latitude, RA/DEC alignment, polar alignment, etc.. After reading through all available manuals and videos, I finally brought it home from the seller (they've had it for around 5 years but it wasn't used much). After setting up the tripod, mounting the telescope and familiarising myself with all the different knobs, I pointed the mount/telescope towards north. The first thing I had to do was setting up the latitude. Since I am based in London, the latitude is around 52 degrees. Afterwards, I had to align the declination axis so the telescope can be balanced. As I understand it, you should be able to move it to any position on the axis and it should stay in that position. If the front or rear was heavier, I would either pushing or pulling the telescope after unlocking the brackets holding it together. This is where the issues began, I could balance the telescope so it doesn't move while in the horizontal position, however, when pointing it towards north, it would exclusively lean towards one direction - to the left. If the telescope was pointing to north, north-east or east, it would pull towards the west all the time. It is probably easier to show it in the video. I've spent three days trying to balance the telescope by using different methods and it just would not work. I've also tried balancing the RA axis first. This could be somehow done, but the declination axis would still pull the telescope to the left. It is extremely frustrating as I don't know what could be causing this. Balancing the telescope should be relatively easy from what I have heard - either push it or pull it depending on where the weight is. However, I have been really struggling to get it set-up. I would be thankful for any suggestions and please feel free to ask any questions so I can help with finding out what is wrong. Thank you. VID_20190918_202940.mp4 -
Complete beginner question regarding using this mount. When I have tried to set up and align the mount , the goto targeting is off by many degrees. Here's what I do - can someone tell me what I'm doing wrong!? With the power off: Align the tripod and mount to North and, with the clutches released, set the declination to my latitude (52deg 28' N). and the mount in the weights-down home position. Lock the clutches and fine tune the alignment on Polaris using the mechanical adjustments on the mount. Turn the power on: Set up the date, time and location, elevation etc. in the handset (noting the American Date format and Longitude first (set to W 1deg 48') DST = Yes Select 1 Star align Pick a star, I usually try Procyon or Betelguese depending on the time. The scope slews to vaguely the right direction but actually nowhere near. It can take 2 or 3 minutes of manual slewing to centre the star in the eyepiece. Finishing, of course, with an up and right movement. Finally, press Enter to complete the alignment ==> Alignment Successful says the handset optimistically. Now from the object menu pick another target. Try, say, Polaris which was where I started and ... nowhere near it. It's the same regardless of the selected target. I have tried 2 star alignment and 3 star alignment, a factory reset before starting, but nothing seems to work. Once i'm lined up on a target the mount tracks nicely - it just won't go where I want it to! Not yet at my wits end but - Help! Mark -
Hi all! Yesterday good weather, so had my first go at drift alignment with my new reticulated eyepiece. I took my time to figure out well the various steps in the right order, etc... At one time, pointing a star in the east, I think I overdid the correction on the Altitude, because the star started drifting a lot, so I started again from the beginning... As always a learning curve! :-) But I had fun doing it. It took me a lot of time, but finally I got to shooting some subs, and these are the results: M57 @ 38 second subs: M13 @ 63 second subs: The usual coma problem is visible, but I am nevertheless quite satisfied with this first try... The stars look pretty good, if not enlarged too much ;-) Opins? Any feedback would be appreciated! Gerhard.
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29/01/2015 - 30/01/2015 New toy day - laser alignment tool.
jefrs posted a blog entry in jefrs' Blog
29/01/2015 - 30/01/2015 New toy day - laser alignment tool. I thought the 130SLT was working pretty well until I checked the collimation: way out. There should be a warning that your new scope will be off focus until a laser alignment tool is used and the collimation corrected. So that done I got the scope outside only to have the batteries die. Then I found that my 12V PSU is the wrong polarity. So I got the NiMH fast-charged, and of course the skies clouded over 8/8 with some heavy stuff from the west for the rest of the foreseeable. -
The struggles of a beginner learning how to use the equipment. :-) Pointed mount North and Levelled EQ6 pro mount 8:30 pm Attached wireless release, 2" nose and UHC filter to Nikon DSLR Attached scope and camera, balanced scope for camera use Collimated the telescope -took 40 minutes of messing around Waited until dark. Took the dogs for a walk around the field to pass the time Polar aligned using the mobile app and sighting against Ursa major. Rebalanced DEC for eyepiece rather than camera 3 star alignment. 1st star was way off and took ages to get it in the eyepiece Restarted 3 star alignment. - Selected a star behind a house. Restarted 3 star alignment -complete. Checked collimation using a bright star - perfect (should bloody be after 40 minutes!) Tried to fine adjust polar alignment using a method discovered online (not drift- I don't think I have the patience.) Didn't work. Restarted 3 star alignment then used the polar alignment on SynScan Took a look at Jupiter was great to look at but not what I set out to do, I want DS images... Attached camera Used live view (LV) to try to focus stars Pointed the scope at M3 and took a 2 minute exposure Tried again with a 4 minute exposure SD card failed. Lost some family pics, grrr Now I have to explain to my partner that it wasn't because of Astronomy, these things just happen. Replaced SD card Took some cautious 1 minute exposures of M90 expecting the camera to explode Pictures were faint so moved to 4 minute with a little more confidence telling myself SD card failures can just happen. Noticed star trails Located a bright star Decided to give PEC training a try. Couldn't do it with an eyepiece. Tried with the camera in LV but noticed some gradual movement in the DEC axis. Hoped PEC training would sort this. Moved onto the Spiral Galaxy Took some 2 minute exposures of the whirlpool galaxy. Wireless timer worked flawlessly. Still a little faint so up'd the ISO and took some more. More detail but more noise. Took some darks with the same settings. Packed away while the camera did its thing. Viewed the pics briefly on laptop. There was star trails (DEC axis again and blurring) Went to bed 1:30 am Summary: So what have I learned? Well DEC error was probably due to the balance of the scope being off. I never did re-balance for the camera. I've also learnt today that I should bias the balance slightly East so the gears engage better. PEC training is a waste of time without an illuminated reticule which I don't have the desire to buy. I'd rather save for a guide scope and guide camera. I've learned I can refine the polar alignment after the 3 start alignment process. I've also read on forums that perhaps I should manually move the scope to the first alignment start then continue with the usual process. I've also seen that two star may be the way forward for EQ6. So perhaps next time I'll start with a 2 star, polar align using the SynScan handset then back to 3 star with the first manual adjustment. I should also purchase a few SD cards that are dedicated for Astrophotography and upload them ASAP after the session. The Astronomik UHC Deep Sky Filter worked wonders with the images for where I live. I can now take longer exposures. Assuming I sort out DEC errors and invest in guiding rig.
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Hi - Was wondering if anyone could help me? I've recieved a second hand Orange C8 but it has a rotating secondary. It just spins around in the corrector plate with about .5 mm wiggle room. To make things worse I think the previous owner has attempted to remove the corrector at some stage so I'm not sure what to do. I know I have to align all 3 optical elements but not the foggest where to start. The corrector appears to have two lines etched on the edge at right angles. Say 12 and 3 O'clock - but dont know if this is 11 or 2 O'clock or what ever configuration. I can not discern an corresponding marks on the tube body or down at bottom on the mirror. Ant
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Hi In my quest to identify a mount, I would like advice on the Losmandy G8 - the basic unit without add ones is $1500 +tax and shipping, and this is somewhat beyond my budget. However, the reviews I have read seem to suggest that it is a far superior mount than the usual Celestron, Orion, Sirius, atlas etc. Is that true that Losmandy G8 is a better mount. I will be using the mount for AP (upto three minutes), is it a feasible with a basic G8 unit without the Gemini unit. Telescope is 5" MAK (8 lb) thanks Rajeev
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This planetary conjunction forms a triangle with Jupiter(left), Mercury(top) & Venus(right) Pentax 645D Pentax 500mm lens @ f8 Exp. 1/4 sec. ISO 200 26th May 2013 Pentax Digital Camera Utility 4 Conjunction of Jupiter Mercury & Venus 26th May 2013 from Kelso by mikeyscope, on Flickr
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I had a pretty successful session last night capturing 390 x 10 sec subs of asteroid Florence through patchy thin cloud with my Atik 460EX camera I want to now turn these into an animation. My thought is to convert the FITS files into TIFF files, align them, batch process them in Photoshop or Lightroom, then convert the resulting aligned, processed TIFF files into an animation. Is there software that will automatically align (but not stack) FITS files and save the aligned subs as TIFF files? If not, what is the best way of batch converting 390 x FITS files to TIFFs? Thanks -
Hi Guys, Desperately need help here. I have recently got a setup Skywatcher 200 with EQ5 so a newbiee me. Anyway I am setting up Polar alignment perfect. Using compas, mount bolts and lat is spot on. GPS and time is also spot on. Using 3 star alignment as well as 2 star alignment. Synscan goes to the first star which is not even in FOV of the finder scope, Then I use hand held to get it in view and alligned. Second star nearly is on target and with handheld I align using the handheld. 3 rd star is also way out. Once aligned I go to an object which does not center at all and is in the top left of the FOV. I have to keep re-aligning every 15 min to see anything. However Polaris remains where it should be using polar alignment scope. What am I missing? Pls help
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Hi guys, Okay so I have a few questions regarding my AVX mount that have basically generated from me reading up on setting up my mount. Please don’t think I’m lazy, I have read up a lot regarding my new mount (hence the questions) and learned a lot so far but as I’ve only had the mount a week and due to work and time constraints I have been unable to do any more than literally unpack the mount and put it together. I should mention it took 30 minutes to flatten all the cardboard ready for Mr Recycling Man but the more packaging the better so no complaints there at all!! So, my questions are so I can have a one stop shop answer reference rather than trying to remember where all the tips were on this wealth of knowledge forum. Please excuse my ignorance, I’ve had my trusty Sky Watcher 130p AZ2 for 6 years so I’ve not just jumped in blind ..... 1) Why is there a necessity to ensure the mount is facing the correct direction when setting up the scope? 2) I’ve heard similar comments made with regard to members permanent piers in their observatories, again, what is being referred to here and how would you ensure a circular steel pier IS facing a correct direction? 3) Does the peg on the tripod Base plate need to be directly over one of the legs or is it fine where it is positioned? (In between two legs) 4) Is there anything I should do during daylight hours other than align the (finderscope) in preparation for the alignment process? 5) Do I need to update my mount with the latest firmware (?) Software upgrade or can I assume as I bought it 3 weeks ago it will come up to date? 6) HOW do I update my firmware software? 7) How accurate does the declination need to be? Can I work off the (slightly crude) scale on the mong or should I be looking at getting a digital spirit level for accuracy? 8) With vibration in mind, until I sort out a permanent pier my scope will be on the tripod in the observatory, should I allow the tripod legs to stand on the soft flooring foam tiles or should it be on the wooden floor of the shed? 9) Do I need to worry about leaving my spanking new scope and mount exposed to the elements, all be it under a waterproof bike cover in the obs and secure? Slightly nervous ? I really appreciate your time in both reading and hopefully replying with some useful guidance! All the best, looking forwards to those clear skies!
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Hey guys, Pretty new to the forums, so hello everyone! I have been using a Vixen Super Polaris EQ mount with a Vixen 80m refractor for many, many years. During this period I was not caring too much about polar alignment at all, but instead just to whip it out and have a look around. Recently I have purchased myself a SkyWatcher 200 P reflector with a HEQ5 SynScan mount which together is extremely heavy in a bid to start learning some astrophotography as in East Anglia light pollution isn't too common. My garden does have 'some' solid ground but this is not in an ideal location and so I will most definitely have to use my gardens boggy grass. I am worried due to the weight and the boggy grass, my scope will slowly sink down whilst taking shots. Do any of you guys have any proven solutions or mods that you have come up with in a similar situation to eradicate your set up sinking on loose ground? Just curious if this has been dealt with before in a smart manor. Cheers! -
I've just recently flashed to the new EQ 3.32 handset firmware. However, there are still a few things i'm still unsure of - big shock there When I set-up each time - i cant have a permanent fixture unfortunately - I often get confused as to how exactly I should go about aligning the mount. I have heard people say to set the lat for my area (ie 52) , and occasionally its been referred to as a seperate step to getting polaris in the polarscope. This is likely my mistake, but, to my way of thinking, wouldn't getting polaris in the crosshairs of the pol-scope do the same thing as setting my lattitude correctly? The goal being in both cases to get accurately polar-aligned.? Which brings me to the other query. After levelling mount and aiming 'N' leg North, then roughly sighting polaris in the P/scope - how would I adjust things to get polaris at the right 'hour' in the reticule? So far I use a combination of adjusting the lat/az bolts and nudging the actual tripod a bit by grabbing the rear two legs while looking through p/scope. This seems a tad sloppy to me, as the two different ways of adjusting the pole star's position in the reticule might leave room for error, or rather more error than necessary. Ive not yet tried the new firmware - could anyone be nice and explain the steps so an idiot - thats me btw - can follow them? Skywatcher actually have quite a good instruction manual for this update on their site, highly recommended, but after a few reads I still need a little clarification. Regards Aenima
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From the album: Attachments
Result from alignment using PhotoPolarAlign by Themos. -
Hi all. after receiving my scope yesterday I went outside for about half an hour with it and was quite impressed on how easy everything is to set up and use. However I have two questions that I would like answered. When viewing at the moon using my 25mm eyepiece I could see a blue and orange haze around the left and right side of the moon. Was this because I didn’t have eyepeice focused probably or is there another reason? And also while focusing I had a lot of vibration is there a way to reduce it. Today I tried to get my red dot focused aligned with my telescope and I think I’ve managed o do it correctly but was concerned that my target was to close. My target was the Ariel on the roof top as I didn’t have any clear targets that were far away I had to choose that. I managed to get it aligned probably but heard that the targets were supposed to me further away? Man Thanks
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Hey guys, I couldn't find an solid answer within the forums, so asking here... Has anyone successfully used Sky Safari 5 Pro to do plate solving/mount alignment? I have no problem connecting and controlling my mount (AVX) with Sky Safari on my Mac, but is there a way to do alignment in the program? So far, it looks like I'm forced to do the Nexstar 2 star alignment on the hand controller. If I try to click on Polaris for example (it won't let me actually click on or select the NCP), when I click "align to polaris", it just says it can't execute the command because the scope is "too far" from Polaris. Only way it'll do it is if I first do 2-star align on the hand controller. Thoughts? Thanks! - Josh
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Hi Folks My 6 month old (used 4 times) Celestron Nexstar SLT 127 Matsukov Cassegrain has always given alignment problems. It is difficult to align and once aligned, quickly goes out of alignment. Just this evening after using the Solar system align using Venus, I selected Mars (which is very close to Venus these days). The scope went about 5 degrees south of Mars. When I sent it back to Venus, it didn't go there either. I have had problems with the two star align as well. Once aligned, it held Saturn for about 15 minutes before going out of the field of view, but when asked to go to a different star, it gets quite lost. Sometimes it goes below the horizon looking for things ! I don't know what to do. Returning is not easy given that I am not in US regards Rajeev Kingston Jamaica -
I have been reading a bit about true north and magnetic north and how aligning my mount taking magnetic declination into account will help. So my declination is 1.41 degrees west. Two questions. If I was to set my compass to this magnetic declination, I need to rotate the red arrow 1.4 degrees to the left and then light that up with the compass pointer and point my north tripod leg in that direction? Is 1.41 degrees going to make that much difference? Not sure I can adjust my compass with that degree (sorry) of accuracy. I may be approaching this all the wrong way. I can see how a mag dec of 10 degrees might make a bit of difference, but we seem quite close here in Gloucester! I used this site to check. http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/geomag-web/#declination Cheers Mark
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Hi all, just posting some new pics I took the other night in Saint Barthélemy, at 1633 meters above sea level (very good seeing): M27: M31: IC1396: The usual problems arise: guiding, coma, and noise from the camera (especially visible in the M31, I think). These are pics from 30 73secs exposures at 800 ISO with darks and bias. I did not take flats... Do you think that would improve the noise problem? I'm hoping to construct a flatbox some time... And maybe acquiring a laptop to use for serious guiding. A guide scope would already be available from my astro club... Any thoughts, suggestions would be very welcome! :-) Gerhard.
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A very simple question - should I be able to see Polaris in my main scope in the Home position once it is polar aligned? I seem to have a lot of cone error. I have adjusted the polar scope reticule and that looks ok. I centre Polaris in the fov of the polarscope but in the home position Polaris is way out of the fov of both the finder and the main scope. I am planning a daytime cone error correction but the question I asked is simply to make sure this is what I should be expecting. Scope is 8” f5.6 Newtonian, guide scope is 60mm and the mount an HEQ5 pro. I’m struggling as I want to be able to use sharpcap polar alignment routine with my ZWO 120 colour camera. Any advice welcomed.
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Hello , I am physics student in Turkey . I have used telescopes but they were manual mount because of that I do not have any experiences with GO TO mounts . I upload photos and I pressed alignment button before finding 3 or 2 stars . Still ı did not find any stars from catalog . I really watched many videos but I did not do it well my process still not continue . 12 photos I upload , first photo teleskop , last photo is the my last step , which button should I have press? -
Hi all, I was just wondering... I've been looking for eyepieces to do drift alignment with, and as per this video: http://www.andysshot...tAlignment.html and after trying out with my own 5mm eyepiece (without reticle), I wanted a 5mm reticle eyepiece. But searching it turns out there are practically only 12,5mm illuminated reticle eyepieces... The 5mm Orion seems to have been discontinued... Anybody have any idea why this is? Did the 5mm cost too much? As I see it a 5 mm would do nicely, because one easily sees the direction a star goes, when turning off the motor drive, and I'm guessing it would also be better for detecting the drift. More so than with a 12,5mm... Thanks for any ideas, thoughts! Gerhard.
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Hi there. I'm a planetary guy with a Meade LT6 ACF Alt/Az mounted. No problems... The issue is happened to a friend of mine with his new AVX Advance + C9.25. I have minimal experience using EQ mounted scopes. Here is what we do to setup: Level tripod with one leg pointed north.Add scope align the notches on the mount. Set latitude to our position. No polar scope so we just roughly centre Polaris through the 'hole'Perform either a 2 star alignment or use the Star Sense. After this we slew to Saturn. It's towards the left of the FOV.Now we use ASPA. It tells us we have a slight error. We choose a star and it slews to it. The slews to the place it ought to be if polar alignment was correct.We are now supposed to adjust the Alt and AZ of the mount to centre the star, in first NS and EW. This is where we seem to stuggle. I manage to centre the first and second part. Then the scope loses the plot. Alignment reads XXX XXX. Trying to slew to Saturn again will move the scope into very peculiar positions! Looking at the latitude dial now reads something completely different to our actually location.... Any obvious errors that I am making? Thanks for any input. Skips -
Hi All, I know this is a pretty beat up subject, and I truly apologize for offending anyone, I need clarification of my cone error correction process. Right now I have the very rare for me opportunity to see polaris from my back yard. In the next few days the security lights will be fixed and polaris will be gone for me. I checked both my SN10 and LX200 and the scopes or off bad enough so that if I center polaris with the ota on the east side of the mount it will be out of the field of view on a 20mm 70degree eyepiece. I would like to correct that if at all possible and I would like to take advantage of polaris being visible to do it. I watched the astronomy shed video's and decided based on my comfort level on following his methodology. The problem is at a crucial point in his video I don't quite understand what he is saying. So below is my process I only use reticle eyepieces and everything that came stock with an IEQ45pro. Would someone please look this over and tell me if this will work. Please forgive the cross-post I posted the procedure elsewhere and haven't gotten an answer I am running out of time. The park people are quick to respond when their security lights are out, after katrina I think they fixed those before they fixed the townhouses! Based on what I thought I heard this is the procedure I am following, I just need someone to look it over and say yes you got that correct or that will work either one works for me 1. Level your mount 2. Align Polaris in the center of the polar scope reticle using the altitude and alt-az knobs this is an Ioptron polar scope so there are no crosshairs on the polar scope itself. Which is a shame I would like to use them to find zero point. 3. Swing the OTA to the eastern horizon using a level on the weight bar 4. Use DEC to center Polaris on the eye piece reticle horizontal line. 5. Use the alt-az knobs to bring Polaris to the center of the reticle, don’t touch the dovetail adjustment screws when the OTA is on the east side. 6. Loosen the RA clutch knobs then flip the OTA to the western side of the mount, using a leveler on the weight bar. 7. Use the Dec axis to center Polaris on the reticle horizontal line. 8. Use the adjuster screws to on your dovetail plate to take out about half the offset of Polaris from the reticle center point, do not use your alt-az knobs at all. (here is where I get confused on the YouTube video it sounds like he says "then center using your alt-az knobs" but I can't be certain) 9. loosen the ra clutch knobs and swing the tube back to the east side of the mount. 10. Use DEC to center Polaris on the eye piece reticle horizontal line. 11. use the alt-az knobs to bring Polaris to the center of the reticle. 12. repeat steps 4 - 8 until Polaris stays pretty much so centered in eyepiece on the western and eastern sides of the mount. As an added bonus if you own and IEQ45Pro and have a good easy way of find zero point on this thing I would appreciate any insight. Thank You in Advance Troy
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I was discussing with a fellow stargazer, during a cloud induced intermission over a few drams the other evening, the merits of the QHY Polemaster and an interesting question popped up. Would it be in QHY's interest to collaborate with a mount vendor and package their Polemaster product with that vendor's mounts? Their is a key argument against such a move that being that QHY could probably make more selling individual units to the market than via such a collaborative effort. Would be interested to hear fellow forum members views on this topic. Kind Regards Paul.
