Heq5 tracking help

[drumsolo]

Set up my skywatcher with heq5 pro earlier tonight then spent 2 hours trying to get it to align properly. I polar aligned as I always do using polar scope and hour angle. Every time I tried to do a 3 star alignment each star was way out when I slewed to it and I had to manually line then up. I tried several times to do this but each time the tracking was off. Any ideas why tonight I am having so much difficulty? Could it be balancing or something else?

Thanks in advance

[Cornelius Varley]

Date wrong ? dd/mm/yyy. Time wrong ? the handset uses 24 hr format, DST is now off. Longitude and latitude correctly inputted ? Home position ? The mounts home position should be counterweight bar pointing straight down and the telescope pointing to the NCP.

Peter

[ollypenrice]

As above. It won't be balance. Set to N Hemisphere?

Olly

[drumsolo]

Hi

I did all of the above, this is why I am so confused.

The other thing I noticed when I tried a few pics of M1 was how much it was moving between frames, only 40 sec subs. It was visibly jumpiing across the camera view finder rather than a slow progression. Does this sound like a fault with the HEQ5?

[Starlight 1]

Hi

I did all of the above, this is why I am so confused.

The other thing I noticed when I tried a few pics of M1 was how much it was moving between frames, only 40 sec subs. It was visibly jumpiing across the camera view finder rather than a slow progression. Does this sound like a fault with the HEQ5?

This may be a gear sliping ,take the side plate off and set it going and have a look at the gears when tracking.

[Spikey]

Could be your not polar aligned on Polaris. I've done that before with similar symptoms.

[terrym2002uk]

Could be your not polar aligned on Polaris. I've done that before with similar symptoms.

I agree. I have had very similar problems with the alignment routine if the polar alignment is not spot on (ish). Make sure you mount is level, and set to the right latitude (the scale on the side is not greatly accurate) then do your polar alignment, then star alignment.

Polaris should stay on the polar scopes outer circle for the rest of your session if you have got setup correct.

Also worth checking is that your polar scope is properly aligned.

As for the "jumps", as recommended unscrew the side and keep an eye on it. Your worm carriers may need to be adjusted if its binding. I always skew the mount left and right with the controller before setting it up.

Another point to check is that you have the clutches nice an tight.

Hope some of that helps