EQ 6 not pointing correctly

[scoobymike]

Last night I managed to nicely polar align my mount, but my goto doesn't appear to be going anywhere near where it should be.

Once it's pointing at an object it keeps it nicely centred with no further input, hence me stating the PA is ok. However, when I try and do a star align, eg Vega, Deneb etc, it points about 60 degress out. Is this normal? I was expecting it to be fairly near with a little centreing to do. I gave up eventually and just used my finder...

Thanks in advance

[ColB]

You need to ensure it is parked correctly before doing the allignment - make sure the mount thinks it is parked and that it is pointed north.

[m.tweedy]

You have said yes to daylight savings? as that can make a massive difference.

[Stephen]

Just to check, you put the date in American format (mm/dd/yyyy) ?

[Psychobilly]

Daylight saving will make a difference of around 15 degrees... getting the month day order wrong on 07/09/11 would have made around 60 degrees...

[scoobymike]

Thanks for the replies!

Definitely have the date entered ok, but sure I put 'no' for daylight saving.

By 'parked', does that only mean pointing North, or do I have to tell the controller it's parked as well?

[ColB]

You need to ensure that when it is parked (via the handset) that the counterweights are pointing down with the scope pointing north - if it's not in this position loosen the clutches and set it so before doing the alignment.

[scoobymike]

Thanks! I'll have another go tonight.

[Cornelius Varley]

Thanks for the replies!

Definitely have the date entered ok, but sure I put 'no' for daylight saving.

By 'parked', does that only mean pointing North, or do I have to tell the controller it's parked as well?

For daylight saving enter "yes" until the the clocks go back one hour at the end of October.

Peter

[carastro]

It's always a good idea to set the park position and always return the scope to park when you switch off as this doesn't confuse it. You can do this through the utilities menu if you are using a handset. You can also do this with EQMod but I have not used my this myself.

I never used to do this when I first started out and had some strange slewing to alignment stars.

It does sound as though you are out in your time or your date though from what is happening. I was miles out the other evening and took it back to park and started again. It turned out I had put the wrong month in which was still on the handset.

Carole

[perfrej]

From tips on this site, I have devised the following and now have perfect slew acuracy.

1) Level mount and find polaris in polar scope.

2) power on, slew in RA to proper polar time, fine adjust polaris in small circle.

3) Park scope, loosen screws and set it in home position, then tighten screws.

4) Slew to a star that is more than 90 deg off in RA and some tens of degrees off in DEC (from home position, that is)

5) Loosen screws and manually (mechanically, not handset or slew control) adjust star to be centered in finder scope

6) Tighten screws and park scope - you now have a perfect home position and can unpark the scope again.

After this, slew to a couple of stars, center them and sync them, one by one. I usually do five, two of whixh are close to my intended object.

When I slew to a DSO after this procedure, I do not even have to check whether it got centered or not - it is always perfectly centered. I do not use a handset a all, but everything can be accomplished with the handset if you just wait with the alignment procedure until you have the perfect home position established as per steps 1-6 above.

Best of luck, and I trust you will get perfect alignment once you try this.

Per

[studio1one]

OK, this sounds like a very long laborious process but I guarantee you will have an unbelievably accurately aligned mount, I never have to drift align if I use this process.

I use a level to make sure my tripod is properly flat and mount the head onto it.

Align polaris in the cross hairs, right in the centre of the polarscope using the Alt/Az bolts.

Move the RA so the circle is at 12 o clock. Use the Alt bolts to move polaris into the circle.

Use EQmod to move the RA axis to the exact right time.

Use the Alt/Az bolts to move polaris into the cirle.

undo the clutches, move the RA to 90 degrees from north, use a level on the weights bar to check it's exact, unlock the RA setting circle and move it to read 90 degrees. Then lock it again and move it to show 0 degrees.

Do the same on the DEC axis.

Mount scope and weights, and move both RA and DEC back to show 0 on the setting circle.

You now have your scope as perfectly aligned to both home position and polar as possible.