HEQ5 and alignment problems

[mgirdwood]

HI all, i didnt want to hijack the othre OP thread so please excuse what may be a duplicate in some ways.

My first set up with the HEQ5 last night to try get familiar with the setup and alignment. firstly i can not see polaris from my ob site, SO.

1. compass to point as close to north as possible.

2. Level mount

3. set Alt to roughly my location settings.

at this point the scope and mount are where i believe they should be in line looking North. ie everything is squared off, weight pointing towards the ground.

4. turn on the power, set my handset up, i am in germany so +1 hr and yes for daylight saving.

5. 3 star align comes next, using BEOS to get the stars as close as i can to centre. as far as i can tell this should have been fairly okay but neither of the 2nd or 3rd stars on first swing to are anywhere near the centre of the scope.

as a last resort i ran the beta Polar align but even after 4 attempts i couldnt get it to move on to a named star with any kind of accuracy (or Mars for that matter). to run a final check i did a park to Home but it ended up i wold have thought maybe 5 degrees off square.

did i miss something very basic here or am i just not doing something correct. Sorry to say that after 3 hours i gave up and it was the first night we have been even able to see a handful of stars in weeks down here. Frustrating.

Thanks for any sugestions

[Freddie]

Is your date in the correct format, month, day, year and your location entered correctly?

[Cornelius Varley]

If you point the mount to North using a compass (Magnetic North) the mount will not be pointing at Celestial North, which will give you errors. There is a new firmware update for the Synscan EQ handset (in beta form) which allows you to polar align without being able to see Polaris in the polarscope available here.

As always check that you have the correct coordinates entered into the handset entered in the correct format (degrees, minutes), the correct date format mm/dd/yyyy.

Peter

[mgirdwood]

hi - thanks fo the replies, i am pretty sure that the date and log/lat formats are correct. @Peter it was whilst trying the new 2.38Beta with polar re-align that i noticed the most ofshoot to a known object after finishing the set up.

perhaps we will get a clear night tonight and i will have another go, but my original question re what i am doing already - am i missing a step ? (not counting bad usage on my part )

[Macavity]

Whatever the (eminently believable!) theory re. handset multiple-star alignments or even EQmod N-star synch accuracy, I found (as per your original post) trying to get as *many* things "right" beforehand is a "good thing"! I also invested in a "pukka" digital level (from Ebay, anyway). I do level the mount, I set the altitude as best I can, before polar-aligning. If the SUN ever shines (again), I even set up (record!) a North-South line using shadows at local solar noon...

But 5(?) degrees is a fair old error. Sounds more like input data or firmware? Visually, with an HEQ5, I usually get fairly good (go-to etc.) performance on ONE side on the meridian - With quite CASUAL alignment. But, where a "meridian-flip" is involved, at any stage, "every little helps" as they say? Nil desperandum?

[mgirdwood]

i see the clouds are rolling back in already i bought HEQ5 to start to try to get some decent time on tracking for photography so i do hope i can get this right and its not a firmware/hardware issue.

[jgs001]

I have used a compass to align the mount on north for the moon during the summer months, it's rather pleasant being able to view in the warmth ... but... it's never that accurate, and numerous tracking errors are obvious. Much better to do a proper polar alignment procedure first. I'd suggest having a read of

Astro Babys HEQ5 Polar Alignment

as a guide to setting up the HEQ5.

[Cornelius Varley]

You can verify your coordinates from this site Lat - Long Finder: This page helps you find Latitude and Longitude. Enter your town in the box on the right side of the screen and then read the coordinates (in degrees and minutes) below the map. For more accuracy you can pan and zoom the map to find your exact location.

Peter

[Starlight 1]

On Polar Axis Alignment

[mgirdwood]

hi well i am sat ouitside trying again . after alignment i get the readings, Mel = -003 Maz = +006.

would somebody describe the error i guess this idicates ?

thanks

[mgirdwood]

after doing the software polar realign i get Mel=+001 Maz-005 ?

thanks all

[mgirdwood]

attempt no2 - after finishing the polar align i sent it off to mnars but ie ended aprox 1c scope width away tried bac to Arcturus and the same . sent to Parkn and it was pretty square, and of course now the clouds are rolling in - oh well

[mdhardy01]

If you read the thread about the polar re-allignment software some one suggests that after initial 3 star allignment and polar re-alignment you should park in home position switch off then switch on and run another 3 star alignment

Give it a go and see if it helps accuracy

Matt

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mgirdwood]

Thanks to everyone for the ideas and support - although the seeing was reaaly bad tonight i finally seemed to succeed with alignment both 3 star and i think the software polar align.

i dont think i did too much different but i did a, on the first star align use the ra and az bolts to centre rather than the handset , then as norma l for the 2nd and 3rd, then as Matt suggested i parked restarted and did a further 3 star align followed by a polar. this time on slewing to a named start i was getting into the ring with BEOS fairly well. also tried a number of 40 second photo shots and was actually getting a reasonable stability. now if i can repeat this on a good clear night i will be a happy chap indeed.

Again Thanks all,

[Andy P]

Hi Guys... Sorry to butt in and sorry for sounding very thick.... I've a question that i may shouldn't ask.? Well hear goes....

I've just bought a HEQ5 mount secondhand and was wondering if it was necessary to have to do Polar Alignment on the mount as well as doing alignment with the stars.? The only reason i ask is becuase before this mount i had a A-Z Synscan mount which didn't have the Polar alignment feature such as the HEQ5 does, but when i did the two star alignment it worked perfect. So maybe now you can see why ive asked...

[Cornelius Varley]

With equatorial mounts you do need to polar align. The right ascension axis (RA) needs to be aligned with polaris to aid tracking. If the alignment is off objects will drift out of the field of view and star alignment will also suffer. For visual use polar alignment doesn't need to be spot on but it does if you are planning unguided photography.

Peter

[mdhardy01]

The heq5 is an equatorial mount whereas your old mount is alt az

When you do a star allignment on the heq5 you don't slew to the first star the scope does it for you it can only do this if the mount is polar aligned

A rough allignment will work for visual so point north and set your latitude

Then run star alignment 1-2or3 done deal

Matt

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Andy P]

Thanks guys

So I need to do polar alignment every time I take the scope out.?

I,ve just made sure by adjusting the three grub screws that the polar alignment will be spot on which it is now, but when I was doing this I moved the disc around inside showing the polar alignment map. Will this matter when it comes to me doing a proper alignment on the night.?

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[Spikey]

Andy I think you are confusing calibrating the polar scope with polar alignment.

[Andy P]

Hi

No sorry...I moved onto two things... I calibrated it tonight after watching a vid on YouTube but while doing it I moved the map inside, will this matter when it comes to polar alignment .? I now know I've got to polar align every time I use the mount.

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[Extreme Fencer]

Hi re: using a magnetic compass for allignment. You need to be carefully as the mount is a big lump of steel and does effect a magnetic compass. You also need to adjust for magnetic deviation. The magnetic pole is moving very slowly. I think we're I. am. In Sussex from memory the last timei used a real map it's around 4• difference from true north.

I use my iPhone compass in true north setting with the bottom of the phone resting on the top of the north facing leg.