re tracking with Goto

[mgirdwood]

hi. just spent 2 days snowboarding in Austria so with a lot of hope as the clouds were thick at home i popped the SW102 goto into the car as well just in case. Glad i did as 1000metres up on a clear night in the austrian mountains was stunning to view (freezing but fun, about 9pm local time).

my question is regarding Tracking, my alignment was reasonable but i need to work on it a bit, goto was at least taking me to close to where i wanted to go. i placed M42 in view, and selected Sid tracking on the handset. i expected that this would keep it centred in view for at least a wee while but after a minute or so i could see the drift quite clearly.

anybody with the goto mount who can give me some pointers as to how to get tracking to function ?

Thanks All and Clear Skies for the New Year

[Demonperformer]

This is really an issue in which time spent at the start of the session pays massive dividends during the session.

Forgive me if I state the obvious:

Make sure the tripod is level - as level as you can get it - get a small level from a hardware store rather than rely on a circular level (mine was £2.50 from Wilkinsons) - check it in several directions to ensure it is fully level. I really cannot stress the importance of this too much. Whenever I have problems it is almost always because I have skimped on this aspect thinking "it'll do" - and it usually won't!

Setting date, time and location - make these as accurate as possible - do you have access to GPS (particularly if viewing from somewhere new)? Timing to the second is good.

Not sure how the alignment works on your scope, but avoiding the temptation of using the moon and brighter planets can help improve accuracy. They move in relation to the sky and so timing and location become even more important.

If your mount is Alt-az, try and use alignment stars that are far apart in Azimuth, rather than altitude.

Have you got a reticle e/p to centre your alignment stars? If not, start with a low-powered e/p and then swap to a higher power and centre it there as well.

I know the temptation is to want to observe as rapidly as possible, but I can easily align my scope during the 'cooling down' time, and so I may as well take that time to get it right. And, as I said at the start, it really pays dividends.

HTH

[todd8137]

hi there has stated below take time to level every thing i have a meade ds 2000 goto eq now if i do not level the mount 1st before getting the tube level it throws its dummy out with in seconds

i never center on Polaris just a fraction below when i pick the two star align i go for one in the east and one in the west this always works the best do you have the option with yours to pick your own alignment stars ?

once a get the ok from the hand set it will stay on target down to a 9 mm ep for around 10 mins, ( rember also to align at higher power if that`s what you are going to use a lot) the target will stay in the 32 mm ep for ages maybe 20 mins

some times i do have to set the speed to track but that's only with the higher mag eps keep a eye on the level,never think "o that's good enough",it never is it takes a few duff nights to get it right and some times my goto just nevers aligns and some times will not track other nights its all mega tracks brill

[Capricorn]

May be a bit obvious but you did change the location, the Lat, Long, Timezone etc?

Just wondering if it still thought it was in the UK.