Synscan GOTO

[Stevec]

Hi

I recently bought a Skywatcher synscan az goto telescope. I have only had the chance to use it three times but have had problems on each occassion and wonder if I am making any silly mistakes.

On the first two occassions I used Arcturus as the first star in two star alignment mode. When I then asked the telescope to find other stars, such as Mizar as the 2nd star it was missing by some distance. I would correct it and then when I tested it (after being told alignment was successful) by going back to Arcturus it was missing by a long way.

I reset to factory settings and tried again last night. This time it was not even heading in the right direction, instead heading to look for Mizar in the South East skies, even though it was South West of my position.

I take care to input the details correctly - date in correct format, time correct to nearest second, no daylight saving, lat and long as 1 degrees 19.8 mins West and 52degrees 36min North from my position in the countryside of Leicestershire. It is very frustrating so I would appreciate any insights into why this problem is occuring.

[Roy@Aldermaston]

If you have selected no daylight saving that could be the source of the problem. At this time of year we are on BST, which is the same as daylight saving.

Roy

[obscura]

I don't know this mount but it appears to be an alt-az mount rather than equatorial. The equatorial is aligned to pole star first and this is the mount's reference point. In your case when you align on arcturus, this is the first ref point only. I wouldn't be too surprised if you needed to do a 3 star align and repeat as the synscan maps the sky. In other words home into align.

Others here will give you better advice than I.

[Cornelius Varley]

Make sure that you have entered your coordinates correctly. The coordinates should be entered as 001 20W, 51 36N.

Peter

[spaceboy]

Although not directly related to your question I had similar problems when I first bought my CG5-GT. I tweaked the worm gears etc as recommended Astronomy Boy: CG-5 Mount Improvements and found I was still having problems. Done factory reset and this only helped a little. In the end I was sat there one night and realized where the problem was. TIME! If your watch and the universal watch are not synced then you will find the object to be out. All you need do is adjust the hand controller time forward or backward buy a few minutes and the slew to the same star. You will notice the star either comes Central to view or strays further. Just advance or retard the time as required to get it central. Once done you will find the mount accurately finds the alignment stars and GT objects. There may be slight inaccuracies the opposite side of the meridian but I think this only applies to EQ mounts??? If you find it is high or low in the view this with be adjusted with slight tweaks to the altitude adjustment bolts on EQ mounts but AZ I'm guessing is some thing you just have to put up with. As far as I am aware and I'm sure someone will correct me if I am wrong but objects in AZ gt and supatrak mounts naturally drift from view over time anyway unless you have a wedge so there accuracy is negligible and will often require a wide angle ep to initially find objects. While GOTO is a great help to many and invaluable asset under LP skies I do have a love hate relationship with mine. Some people are naturally IT compatible and find it no problem sadly I'm not one of them and sometimes I just prefer the simplicity of my dob. I have another GOTO mount (Celestron Nexstar SLT) and often don't bother with the hassle of alignment and just used the HC to slew to parts of the sky and do it the old fashion way.

Hope this helps or at least gives you some idea of how fussy these mounts can be if your data is entered incorrectly (time, Latitude etc).

SPACEBOY

[hemihaggis]

We are daylight saving just now ,

[Stevec]

Thanks for the quick responses. I have tried with daylight saving and without, so this does not appear to be the problem. I will try to enter the coordinates as suggested in one of the replies.

The device only has options for brightest star alignment or two star so I am unsure how to complete a three star alignment.

Clear skies are so few and far between that it takes an age to be able to test these things. Are there any ways of trying to align during the day or on cloudy nights?

[spaceboy]

Clear skies are so few and far between that it takes an age to be able to test these things. Are there any ways of trying to align during the day or on cloudy nights?

This is what drives me nuts about GT mounts. You get one clear night in a month and all your time seems to be spent messing around aligning and calibrating the mount. Depending on the firmware versions you can do a solar align during the day WITH SUITABLE SOLAR FILTER!!! that is.

[Jiggy 67]

This is what drives me nuts about GT mounts. You get one clear night in a month and all your time seems to be spent messing around aligning and calibrating the mount. .

Absolutely agree, we have few suitable nights as it is without having to mess about with GOTO. I spend most of my time aligning, often without success.....I'm thinking of dismanteling it and going back to star hopping....can be more fun anyway!!!

[spaceboy]

Just think we have all those hardened manual dob and AZ mount owners having a chuckle at us lot wasting our time with these dam GT mounts. Half the time the scope slews to something you can't see in light polluted skies anyway.

[malc-c]

Whats all the fuss about.... before I mounted my GT mount on a fixed pier it wasn't a problem to polar align, select two stars and do a 2 star alignment... some scopes have an even simpler alignment process of simply selecting two or three stars (don't even need to know their names) and it works out where the scope is pointing.

IMO most goto's only go wrong when the user hasn't spent the time to make sure the mount is level, and (in the case of an eq mount) closely polar aligned.

[spaceboy]

Lack of practice is my excuse:clouds1:

[novice123]

I really need help with getting mine set up, I managed to get it aligned first off to say for example polaris, however, it never manages to find the object I want to look at after I have totally align (I use 2 star alignment) last month we had my first proper clear night in over a month, so I tried to start simple by looking at the moon, yet it still didn't find that. HELP!!

[Fumangord]

Hi guys;

I also have a GT mount and also had problems setting up the mount untill I discovered the reason. Nothing to do with settings at all, all to do with how the mount is powered. If the batteries are rubbish or weak or if the power supply is too small the mount will not align. I wasted days/nights trying and even sent the offending mount back for replacement as I had done everything according to the book. Then after the second mount did the exact same thing I swapped out the power supply. Eureka no more worries the mount aligns first time and quickly. Just make sure you level the tripod as accurately as possible amd if you can hang something heavy from the accessory tray to help minimise vibrations.

Good luck.

Gord.

[Stevec]

I'm glad others are feeling my frustrations! I did manage to get out last night and get it working for the first time. I aligned with arcturus and Mizar and it got most alignments pretty much spot on. I tightened the nuts, bolts and screws on the tripod to nearly breaking point and this seemed to do the trick in terms of minimizing vibrations and getting more accurate readings. I also lowered it down to have the extending legs at a height of only 25 cm. I have ordered a plug in power supply to ensure that I do not have to use batteries when I am observing from my garden. Hope this might help any others - i didn't think such simple amendments would help, but they seemed too - fingers crossed I have success next time I go out.

[MorningMajor]

Make sure that you have entered your coordinates correctly. The coordinates should be entered as 001 20W, 51 36N.

I think Peter's hit the nail on the head here - try that - Good luck

[spaceboy]

You may find next time you don't have as much luck Steve. This problem I found even though my scope is pier mounted some nights the accuracy is smack on yet other nights it's not. It was this that led me to the conclusion the time was the problem as each time I was inputting the time it was varying by a few minutes due to my choice of mobile, watch, clock or laptop and so effecting the accuracy by a couple of degrees.

[Mikea]

novice123 - are you still having trouble? Whereabouts are you?

[hemihaggis]

ok as for the time , well try and always use the same timepiece ,if your phone updates the time use that , also try putting a bag of sand (5 kilo i think ) on the accerories tray , works magic on the vibrations .. ,practice getting the alignment object dead center , use the 25mm and center then use the 10mm then center

[g0ibi]

I had trouble with my SW Goto, sorted now by using a mains adaptor instead of batteries. I also 'park' it facing North at 0' and setup using a compass. Still have off nights though!!? I use Daylight saving in the Summer but time input IS critical as is Long & Lat settings. Hope you get it sorted for tonight, looks like a clear one!

[malc-c]

If you think of it logically, the date and time are crucial to good alignment. You are trying to match the position of the target star with that where the computer thinks it is based on the information programmed into it. If you enter the date / time incorrectly, then you are bound to be out of alignment. Remember that the date format on SW handsets are in the American date format, and make sure you use the correct time for GMT and or use the daylight saving option if entering BST.

If you make sure the mount is level, polar aligned (if using an EQ mount this is more critical than an alt/azi mount) and that you've entered the location, time and date in correctly, then you should have a reasonable result when using low power eyepieces.

[wrinkly]

Still haven't thrown the necessary hundred nicker at the GPS Mouse yet myself but as the importers insist it will work with altaz and gems, all problems solved except power source.

[DoctorD]

Hi

If you have an iPhone you can use a free app called Precise Time which syncs to one of the internet time servers.

This will allow you to set the time to the nearest second.

Hope this helps

Paul

[King]

Maybe it used to be free but it's 69p now.

[malc-c]

Maybe it used to be free but it's 69p now.

Hardly going to brake the bank now is it