EQ6 Skyscan - first light

[Saso]

Hello,

I have HQE5 Go-To pro mount. I try to do alignment with 2 stars and with one star also, but when i try to find any object it is far from eyepiece. I didn't do polar alignment before, just roughly point to north. Can anyone help me? What am i doing wrong? I now I correctly enter date, time, my position.

Thanks Saso

[Ant]

I suspect Saso that your polar alignment is part of the issue!

Russ will be along shortly to give more advice, but I'd try and get the polar alignment as close as you can!

Ant

[Saso]

Hi Ant,

thank you for you reply. Problem is that I don't see Polaris from my observing site - at home. Soon as possible (we have quite large quantity of snow now) I drive to alternate site where I can see all sky. But is not much of the problem for now. I enjoy to find objects myself so for now this is not a big issue. I just want to learn about this goto system. First night I spend out 2 hours learning about mount and goto with a very little observing , so I postpone goto for a while.

Saso

[Ant]

thats the trouble with new kit! You get so few clear nights (or at least that's the situation here in the UK) that the last thing you want to do is spend a valuable night trying to get the new equipment under controll.

Ant

[Saso]

That is absolutely true. I didn't have a clear sky almost two weeks, this week is OK but it is a full moon so..!! I observed but it is very difficult to find anything especially for beginner like myself. Today again we have clouds.

Saso

[russ]

Hi Saso,

I'm afraid i'm in the same boat as you. Got my Skyscan on the 8th November and up until Wednesday this week, i've only used it for 2 hours. First night was very much like yours. Second night out, I levelled the mount, did a polar alignment with the polar scope. Went carefully through the menus. Did a 2 star alignment using Pollux and another (can't remember). Then told it to find M1 The Crab. It plonked it smack in the middle of a 26mm eyepiece on the C8. It then did the same with M81. Then told it too find Mars and it missed the eyepiece by miles. M45 was just in the eyepiece and the Eskimo just outside the field of view. :?

Since then we had one really good clear night which was this week and I took the decision not to play with the GOTO and just get on and observe.

Hopefully Andy may pop by with some advice.

Regards

Russ

[Saso]

Hello Russ,

I see that I must do proper polar alignment and then go-to probably work. I see that you level your mount also. How exactly ? I only miss at this mount bubble level - my first mount EQ5 have one and it cost only a fragment of this HEQ5 pro go-to mount.

Thanks

Saso

[russ]

Hi Saso,

I use one of the eyepiece plugs supplied by Telescope House. The have a bubble level on one side and a compass on the other. Put it in the accessory tray and level it like that. Probably not that precise but better than guessing.

Russ

[Saso]

Hello Rus,

I go to their website and i found this item. Thank you.

Saso

[Saso]

Hello,

if anybody need this - this is link for alignment stars with star atlas for SkyScan (SynScan).

http://www.amateur-astronomy.org/Filez/SkyScanStarCharts.zip

Saso

[russ]

Great link Saso. I've now downloaded them and stuck them in a folder ready for the next clear night.

If you come across a good link for setting up Skyscan (Synscan), please post it. I'll certainly be grateful.

Russ

[Saso]

Hello,

I found this link in yahoo EQ6 group.

This star charts I also laminated so I can use them without fear of condensation, tearing etc.. I buy a really cheap laminator but I'm very happy with it.

May be this links are also interesting

http://astro.dhis.org/heq5.html

http://www.astrosurf.org/avex/eclate-eq6/disassembling-eq6.html

or summary chart for skyscan - http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/navstarchart.pdf

Saso

[Saso]

Hello,

Today is clear night with bad seeing so I decide to try one more time with Go-TO on mine HEQ5 Pro mount. Once again I can't do polar alignment from my observing site (at home) because i don't see Polaris so I just point telescope to north. Then I choose two star alignment. I decide to use Sirius and Shedar. O.K. Here we go now. M45-Pleiades. Bingo. Just in the middle of finder and also in the middle of 25mm ocular. I was very happy about that. I decided to try go-to on different knowing objects. M42, M41, M46, M47, M44, Saturn, Mars, two stars Aldebaran and Castor. Everything go very well. I was suprised and happy .

We have here -10 degrees and mount working very well in this temperature. Also Celestron power tank 7Ah. I do a lot of sleeving and power tank work for 2 and half hours. I think that is very well. And of course I'm very happy with this mount for this moment .

Saso

[daz]

Saso

That is good news! Glad to here you have it running well. Russ will be very interested, I'm sure