Sky-Watcher Synscan Help Needed Please

[tich]

Hi all

I own a Sky-Watcher 200P with Synscan & I am fairly happy with the scope itself. However I'm still having problems setting up the GOTO so I was wondering if anyone has any hints or tips?

Firstly after I've polar aligned the scope etc I then switch on the sytem enter the date in the correct format, time etc. I then slewed the scope round to Jupiter & all was fine but later that night I saw Mars & the Moon so entered both of these into the handset but it was telling me that both were below the horizon???? Which they clearly weren't as I was staring at both in the night sky. I ended up having to slew the scope manually so I could try & get an image of both. The only thing I can think of is I've miss-entered the coordinates somehow? Sorry if this is sounding like a daft question but on various sites I've been on the numbers they give have more digits than what you can enter on the keypad, so I'm guessing you enter the first few digits from left to right? I have an app on my phone with a compass & coordinates with far less digits & that's the one I've been using.

Sorry for my ramblings but it's early morning plus I'm going to work. I hope somone can make sense of this & of what I'm doing wrong.

Thanks....

[malc-c]

The date, time and location are the three area's people trip up on with these handsets.

Date format has to be in American standard. MM/DD/YYYY

Time: has to be entered in 24 hrs format, and the timezone set to 00:00 for the UK. Then when prompted say NO to daylight saving

Location: This is in HH:MM:SS format for longitude and latitude. Don't use the decimal co-ordinate system.

For example I've just googled Kettering position:

Latitude = 52.3991, Longitude = -0.7251

Lat = 52 degrees, 23.9 minutes North

Long = 0 degrees, 43.5 minutes West

All the above will confuse the handset as it doesn't know what 23.9 minutes is.

Now I used the following URL to get the long / lat for St Mary's Hospital in Kettering:

Latitude:N 52° 23' 36.6565"

Longitude:W 0° 43' 14.593"

So for this example I would enter 52 degree, 23 minutes and 37 seconds N for Lat and 0 degree, 43 min and 14 sec W for long. Here's the URL, just navigate to your observing site and place a pointer Find Latitude and Longitude

Hope that helps

[Tinker1947]

I used a Meade Goto and it worked well after a couple of tries, the NEQ6 i use now i tried a couple of time triple star align and gave up, that's not to say it does work and proberly if i had stuck with it a few minutes and it would be set up, but i find it easier and more fun the star hop/Telrad to the DSO's Planets or what every, all i will say is you are entering the Solar Tracking so the scope follows what every you deciced to lock on to, as by default its turned off..??

[Merlin66]

Hmmm

Sidereal Tracking for Stars

Solar Tracking for the Sun

[Bried]

I had exactly the same problem last night!!! Weird! My NEQ6 is new as well. The only thing that I can see that I was doing wrong from the advice above is I used the day light saving setting.

[tich]

Thanks guys I'll make a note of the coordinates & check mine & not say yes to the daylight settings either I'll let you know how I get on tonight...........

[malc-c]

I had exactly the same problem last night!!! Weird! My NEQ6 is new as well. The only thing that I can see that I was doing wrong from the advice above is I used the day light saving setting.

As we're in GMT this needs to be zero...

[Tinker1947]

The difference for Day Light setting to normal is 15 degrees if i remember a post about this...

[malc-c]

The difference for Day Light setting to normal is 15 degrees if i remember a post about this...

Yeah.. 360 degrees / 24 hrs - 15 degrees per hour.