Synscan GOTO tracking problem

[Brondie]

Hi All - this is my first post so hello to you all.I recently bought a Skywatcher Skymax 127 SynScan GOTO. I have not yet done star alignment (saying no when is asks if I want to do alighment) but have been viewing manually. I now realise that once I have stopped moving the mount with the hand control that it is supposed to track the object. I have gone into the setup and changed tracking to Sidereal Rate - nothing happenend - and also tried lunar rate - again nothing happened. Then I went into autotracking - and again no movement.

What is the difference between these tracking options and why isn't it doing any of them?

Any ideas welcome! Thanks

[c87]

I can't say for certain as I don't have my scope yet, but I would imagine the tracking will only work once you have aligned the scope.

[RikM]

I don't have an altaz goto but I would think you would need to align it first otherwise it won't know which way to track.

[brantuk]

The tracking will be activated the moment you power up - but movement won't be perceptible except in the eyepiece. It tracks at the same rate as the Earth turns. Even lunar rate isn't quick enough to discern movement.

You need to do a two star alignment so it will go to the objects you choose - any chosen object should remain in the eyepiece as the Earth turns. Make sure you align the finder with the main tube as well - finders have a wide field making it easy to find objects. Do this alignment in the daylight if it's your first attempts

[RikM]

But without aligning, or at least powering up level and facing North, the mount won't know which direction it's pointing so it won't know whether to track up or down. With a GEM you just get a fixed speed on the RA, but this isn't the case for an altaz.

[imarcs]

Hmm. Got to sort of disagree with you there Brant. I have that mount and it really doesn't "seem" to track unless you've done an alignment first. I suppose it might be tracking but if its been moved whilst powered off the mount might think its pointing at the zenith when its actually pointed at the horizon or vice versa and hence be tracking at a different rate to what it should be.

Therefore the only way to get it to track as well as find goto objects is to align it.

[MBJ]

The tracking will be activated the moment you power up - but movement won't be perceptible except in the eyepiece. It tracks at the same rate as the Earth turns. Even lunar rate isn't quick enough to discern movement.

the tracking is activated after an alignment is done and confirmed as successful,the mount doesnt start tracking as soon as its powered up,if it did a lot of people would have a lot of problems.

[brantuk]

Strike what I said - it's an alt/az and I was talking eq - my mistake - thanks for drawing to my attention

[Cjg]

Hi Brondie,

I have that Synscan GOTO mount (with a 102 refractor) the tracking will only work when an alignment has been completed successfully.

I've found that the 2 star alignment option is more useful than the brightest star.

The AZ GoTo works really very well if you can run it from the mains, good luck.

Chris

[Squagnut]

Aye, I have one - it won't track unless you align it. That's not hard, but make sure it's level.

[Capricorn]

Since the idea is that you do not want to really align the scope but have the tracking then just set it up to the start position:- level, north, polaris, time, location and whatever.

Then do the single star/brightest star alignment and do that without a great deal of accuracy, get the brightest star more or less central and say OK.

The scope will then consider itself aligned and will track.

The accuracy of the alignment will be lowish but that is not what you are concerned about too much.

[brucen]

I have the same mount and have just seen this thread which surprised me. I was sure that mine did track so I have just tried pointing it at my neighbours chimney and after a couple of minutes it certainly moved across the finderscope. I have never tried it on an object as I usually do an alignment unless I am just having a quick look at something. The mount is about 7 months old so I am not sure if this is something new?

The manual says:

Auto Tracking -

This feature allows for quick tracking of a celestial object while the hand

control displays the coordinates the telescope is curretnly pointed at. If the star alignment

procedure has already been performed, you can activate the AutoTracking mode any time. If

not, make sure that the location and time have been properly entered. Before choosing the

Auto Tracking mode, position the telescope so that the tube is level and pointed to the North.

[Brondie]

Hi All - thanks for your help. I have since bought a Telrad alignment laser scope so once I get a cloudless night I will align it so that the tracking will kick in. I can see what you mean about it not knowing where to track if it doesn't know where it is.

Cheers!

[Dinoboy]

Hi I to have this problem. I polar aligned my ES ed apo 80mm scope on my eq3-2mount using a fully charged (over night and most of the day) power pack, but it would not track so I changed from sidereal to lunar and solar and back again to sidereal but no difference still no tracking. Playing with the settings on the hand controller I noticed there is a setting for tracking rate, this is sett to =0.25 so I have changed it to =1.25 , I have not yet tried it so I don't know if it is the answer, maybe someone on this forum would let me know.

[Cornelius Varley]

Hi I to have this problem. I polar aligned my ES ed apo 80mm scope on my eq3-2mount using a fully charged (over night and most of the day) power pack, but it would not track so I changed from sidereal to lunar and solar and back again to sidereal but no difference still no tracking. Playing with the settings on the hand controller I noticed there is a setting for tracking rate, this is sett to =0.25 so I have changed it to =1.25 , I have not yet tried it so I don't know if it is the answer, maybe someone on this forum would let me know.

Check that the clutches are engaged, ie the you should not be able to move the telescope by hand. Also it is the mount that should be polar aligned not the telescope. The 0.25x and 1.25x tracking rate adjustments are for guiding , so should not have any affect on the normal sidereal tracking. When the mount is tracking at normal sidereal rate you should be able to hear a quiet chirruping noise coming from the ra drive motor.

Does the mount slew ok at higher rates ?

[Dinoboy]

Hi yes the mount slews at higher rates, I usually set that rate at 8 but does this affect tracking? I think I may have misled when I said I polar aligned my scope, I did in fact polar align the mount then put the scope on. I'm so fed up with everything I try to do just goes wrong, don't get me started on trying to get focus on objects through my canon T3i camera on either of my scopes total waste of time. I wish there was someone close to where I live in Leicester who could set my kit up correctly and show me what I need to do to get focus through my scope so that I can then take some shots. Last night I had a lovely view of the Orion Nebula and then Jupiter and I wished I could have photoed them. But at the monument I'm not able to so I'll just keep on trying.