HEQ5 Synscan Star Alignment Problem

[Chris M48]

Hi guys,

When I've finished polar alignment and attempt star alignment I get msg WARNING RA Offset > 45 deg. Please check location & time.

This despite Synscan slewing to selected stars within FOV for 1st and 2nd choices.I'm obviously doing something wrong during setup but everything seems alright (obviously not). I've only been using EQ equipment for a few days having AZ goto dob previously.

Can anyone please help. Ta.

[Capricorn]

Suspect that you are going to have to supply all the values that you have entered and supplied.

Lat, Long, Time zone, DST, Time etc.

You should have something like 51 N, 1.5 W (or -1.5), time zone = 0. Plus whatever.

[Chris M48]

Polarscope held Polaris centred on full rotation of RA.

Mount in Home position with RA=0 scope up weight down

Synscan Details Entered:

Date 22042012 Time 00:12 LAT: 50 54' LON:1 19' ZONE: 00:00 DTS: Yes

[JamesM]

Chris I believe the date is entered in the U.S format as MM.DD.YYYY not DD.MM.YYYY as we do in the U.K. This format is detailed here in the manual (Page 5, point 8) Hope that helps.

Clear skies

James

[Cornelius Varley]

The date should be enterd as mm/dd/yyyy ie 04 22 2012. Check the you have the latitude and longitude entered in the correct order. These should entered in the following order 001 19W 50 54N.

Which version of the firmware are you using ? The current version for the EQ mount is EQ3.27 and there is a new beta version EQ3.28 which has a new polar re-alignment feature.

Peter

[Chris M48]

I've checked Synscan and it appears I entered data in correct detail and format.

Firmware has been updated from 3.27 to 3.28 Beta. I hooked up HS with Stellarium for 21.30 tonight and did 3 Star alignment successfully with no warnings or errors.

I'm going to repeat for real tonight at 21.30 (weather permitting) using same info and see what happens.

Really impressed with Beta version. Now I can move away from a smelly part of the garden to a preferred spot as I don't need Polaris in view with this process.