SkyWatcher SynScan GOTO - what the Manual doesn't tell you!

[Fypunky]

I love mine now. Goto has given us back the interest in astronomy, don't get me wrong, I still like to star hop using the telrad and then having the auto tracking on instead twisting the old knobs is better.

The Synscan as mentioned was a headache to start with, but this was more the duff info in manual, a quick email to the shop I bought it from and they provided better info on alignment. I also bought a sealed battery from a local alarm company, cost me £10, its works fantastic on it.

I use mine now a lot to plan my session, using stellarium I will work out which targets I plan to view, enter them RA/DEC into the handset and that is it, when out I can just go through them. I love the planning/ research as much as the viewing.

In my opinion, as a noobie, the goto is something worth getting from the start, I agree with learning the sky however as in our case we were very quickly loosing interest because of a number of factors, the image is not as is mentioned a lot like the books/ hubble images, a lot of DSO are just grey smudges in the sky, any amount of light pol and they are gone ( spent months trying to  find M81), I have a 5 inch reflector as a starter scope which we thought would be really really good, sadly as is often the case it wasn't as we thought. The synscan has now made this scope 100x's better than it was, the first time we had it hitting the stars and I choose M81, straight away it was there, a small faint spoldge but we found it and observed.

If anyone was to ask me about a goto when starting out, I would say get one based on my experience, you dont have to use it to take you to your target and you can still star jump, but there will be times when the faint DSO's are tricky to find for what ever reason and this is when they come into their own and keep your interest, more so with kids and the tracking is a great part of them.

Back on thread about the SynScan.....There is a few issues I have wth the synscan, SAO cat is not complete, take WZ CAS ( SAO 21002) it is not listed! I am currently due to intense light pol from the illuminations viewing doubles ( really enjoying it), I have downloaded several doubles list, I went through them and half the SAO's are not in the handset! I had a blip with a the last session a few weeks back, I hit Alberio in the hand set and it told me it was below the horizon! Had to pull the plug and start over (not the first time this has happened but is a rare one).

As mentoned the positives out number the negs, I love the tracking side of it, I like the ability to plan and enter my viewing session, now I understand how to align, it is done in no time with ease and the targets are nearly always in the centre.

 

 

 

[Teletom]

Great thread, extremely useful. I have just bought a SkyWatcher SkyMax 127 AZ-GTI. Some years ago I had a Celestron NextStar but got fed up wasting valuable observing time trying to master the set-up procedure. I 'reverted' to a 200mm Dob with no tech aids and have never spent so much time actually observing. But finding many DSOS has been problematic so I am trying again with GOTO. I have considered adding StarSense (still hoping for a fully self-setting scope) but am thinking more than twice having done a little searching on the forums. Anyway, just wanted to say thanks to NC for his very valuable post and all the resulting discussion. Wish me luck! ?

[Miggz]

The Sky-Watcher AZ-GTI manual has been pretty pants really. Goes into detail about aligning the red-dot finder and nothing on aligning the mount!! 2 nights in and I think I may be getting somewhat a handle on it, though it’s not been 100% yet. 1st night I tried to align it using Arcturus, and it pointed in the complete opposite direction! Lol

 

My issue is that where I can see one bright star by eye and 5 stars through the scope...

[OregonEAA]

I have both systems (Celestron and Syscan, and a hybred Celestron StarSense for Skywatcher) and most issues are because folks get excited and don't read the manual. If you have a limited sky, then do sync the finder SkySense scope and your scope, then for me, do a manual alignment and save it so it is specific to your location and you can then do a Auto user alignment (assuming you mark where you scope is setup) everytime and have no issues. Trouble with the Celestron alignment process often comes from trying the all-star alignment instead of an auto two star or manual two star (assuming one has setup the scope up pointing north and leveling the tube before you start.

I love my AZ-EQ for various reasons, one being the second set of encoders so you can actually try and starhop and save yourself if you screw up. If you take the time to do a bit of reading on the next and very carefully follow the manual the first few times modern goto systems are amazing. Adding Starsense and GPS works so well for me that my wife said "you don't have to do any the scope does it all for you (once I add remote focus that will be true).

Don't give up on using goto, just be patient and write a check list until it becomes second nature.

 

[wookie1965]

I would like to add a couple of things I have learned 

1 Make sure you have a good power supply drops in voltage mess with the goto.

2 Download this app best thing since sliced bread😃  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.RapidoDroid.synscaninit2&gl=GB

3 Do not think the bubble level on the mount is accurate my EQ5 was way off.

Make a list up of what you want to view, from my house with light pollution I look for objects no more than 8 mag depending on seeing I have tried more but that was for double stars no use on DSO`s.

Also look for objects in your viewing position I can see mostly East a bit of North and a bit of South so I pick objects in those parameter`s.

when you do your star align use the right and top key last this takes backlash out I have been told and for me it works.

 4 Once you have aligned when you go to your first object if it is not in the centre of FOV press esc then press and hold esc not the handset will show centre which ever object you where looking at same again finish with right and top.

5 Pick alignment stars that are where you are going to view pick two halfway up the sky opposite ends of the sky you will get much more accurate alignments for your objects.

6 If you set up in nearly the same place every time and you bring your kit in for whatever reasons  and you can once you have set up and had a great night mark where your tripod legs are and if possible drill a hole for the legs to fit into next time. 

7 Adjust your objects to view depending on your sky`s I was trying to find galaxies all the time a very good friend told me go for double and multiple stars and clusters totally transformed my viewing pleasure.

Hope this helps people.

[Geoff Lister]

I too found that the suggested 2nd star was behind house/fence/tree, so I spent some time with Stellarium and produced a table of the brightest stars visible from my back garden, at dusk and an hour before dawn, for the middle of each month of the year. I added compass direction and altitude for the best ones in each month, and try to select a pair with 90 degrees azimuth difference and about 30 degrees altitude difference.

Polaris is also visible, but is not one of the brightest stars - it makes a good 2nd star for AzAlt. At the moment Jupiter is visible to the south, so I tend to do a planet + 2-star (it gives auto-slew to both stars, so faster than manual).

Geoff

[Seelive]

I also suffer from very limited sky visibility due to houses and trees. I normally use 3 star alignment on my EQ mount and found myself spending a frustratingly long time finding alignment stars that I could actually see, so last year I created an Excel spreadsheet to enable me to determine what alignment stars were visible from my observing location prior to starting the imaging session. Using it allows me to pre-select 3 suggested alignment stars that I know won't be obstructed when I come to do the alignment. If anyone is interested it can be found on OneDrive here:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ai8Fm1S8maX_gmZWjhpV9ePWopMO?e=k89UBk