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ALL THE GEAR NO IDEA

adamw

By adamw
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adamw

adamw

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Hi Everyone

I am a newcomer to astronomy and have never owned a telescope until now.For a number of years I have on and off thought about getting one but for various reasons never got around to it.Around 12 months ago I decided I would buy one and in March booked to go to the Keilder star camp this October with a view that I would have to buy one before I went.Since then have hum’d and hah’d about what to get.Eventually I decided what I wanted and after getting the green light from the wife (HOW MUCH!) I went out on Saturday and bought it.

Skywatcher Equinox 120ed Pro

Neq6 Pro Synscan

Star diagonal, a few eyepieces and various bits and bobs.

I am now in the process of working out how to set up the goto mount.I have found a series of very informative videos on youtube from atronomyshed.I have watched these 5 videos a couple of times made some basic notes and my first step will be to attempt polar scope calibration in the daylight in my back garden.Hopefully I plan to try this evening if it is not raining.Then on the next clearish night I will attempt to polar align it and get it up and running.

I have already thought of 2 questions.How do I get my longitude and latitude position to put into the sysnscan? Is there an android app for my phone or is a sat nav any good? What stars would you recommend I use for alignment (easiest for me to find)?

Many Thanks

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badgers

badgers

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Just find your house on google maps and right click, then select 'Whats Here'.

That should flag up your latitude and longitude for you.

Alignment stars, I tend to just scroll through the ones presented to me and I double check that they are visible from my location with the stellarium app on my phone.

I tend to do a 2 star alignment on bright stars, e.g Arcturus, Capella etc etc.

The initial slew to the first star is usually pretty far off, but the stars tend to be extremely bright and easy to centre. I tend to setup my goto at sundown so that the alignment stars are extremely obvious as they are not surrounded by dimmer stars.

You should also calibrate your polar scope for your location, see here:

http://www.astro-bab...HEQ5/HEQ5-2.htm

There is also a new feature on the Synscan beta firmware called "Polar Realign" that will help you get slightly better polar alignment after using the polar scope.

Hope this helps

Anton

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JamesF

JamesF

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I usually get lat and long settings from google earth. The tricky bit comes when some applications want them as degrees, minutes and seconds and others want them as degrees and decimal minutes.

James

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TheNorthernMonkey

TheNorthernMonkey

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If you try to allign on a bright star when its really dark, it will be very difficult as dozens of non-visible stars will appear in the eyepiece when your trying to allign.

I find it really rather difficult on my 80ED on a 120ED it will be even more difficult. I've been told it gets easier with practice, but be prepared to be more than a little frustrated the first few times you try.

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Chris

Chris

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I have no advice when it comes to Goto, not used it for a decade and its probably changed a lot since then. But I just have to say congratulations on your kit choice, thats one amazing setup to begin your adventure into Astronomy with:)

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x6gas

x6gas

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Just find your house on google maps and right click, then select 'Whats Here'.

That should flag up your latitude and longitude for you.

Alignment stars, I tend to just scroll through the ones presented to me and I double check that they are visible from my location with the stellarium app on my phone.

I tend to do a 2 star alignment on bright stars, e.g Arcturus, Capella etc etc.

The initial slew to the first star is usually pretty far off, but the stars tend to be extremely bright and easy to centre. I tend to setup my goto at sundown so that the alignment stars are extremely obvious as they are not surrounded by dimmer stars.

You should also calibrate your polar scope for your location, see here:

http://www.astro-bab...HEQ5/HEQ5-2.htm

There is also a new feature on the Synscan beta firmware called "Polar Realign" that will help you get slightly better polar alignment after using the polar scope.

Hope this helps

Anton

This is really good advice - especially the bit about setting up at dusk. If your mount has a non-illuminated polar scope then it is much easier to get Polaris in the right place at dusk when you can see both the star and the cross hairs of the polar scope against a still relatively bright sky. And as said above, at dusk you'll only see the brighter stars which hopefully means you calibrate the goto against the right star! I tend to use the same stars for alignment (though they change through the seasons) and you get to know the colour to expect, for example.

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lex

lex

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Hi and welcome :)

After doing the 2 star alignment i use GOTO to go back to the first alignment star, if it's not centered then i've mis-identified the 2nd star and i start over again.

If it is centered then great, i've done it right and i'm all set to go. :)

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adamw

adamw

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Thanks for the advise everyone!

I know it’s tempting fate but Thursday night is looking promising at the moment and i do not have to get up for work the next day.Hopefully Friday I will be letting you know how I have gone on.

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Sirius Bizness

Sirius Bizness

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Hi mate, good choice on the scope :smiley: . I have absolutely loved mine since I got it and find it really easy to use. I had to laugh at your topic title as that is often the way I feel. It has taken me about 3 nights to get to grips with the GoTo. One tip I have is not to get too hung up on the Polar Alignment. I watched the Astronomyshed videos over and over but I still struggle to know if what I have done is right. I then decided to just get on with the star alignment and found this very smple. I always go for just 2 stars and from my location I go for Arcturus and Vega as they are nice and bright. To be honest I am still learning the sky so I use an iphone app to hold up to the sky and identify the star to be sure. The first star is usually way out but don't dispair. Just slew the scope round and I find that looking down the scope length from about 30cm from the focuser helps get it in nearly the right direction. The star is usually then in the finder FOV. I haven't struggled with identifying the brightest star I was looking for yet but I suppose it is not yet really that dark. Once its aligned the GoTo is awesome. This rough set up is fine for visual observing and gets you going for what you bought it for. Go straight for M13 and M57 to wet your appetite. The scope performs amazingly well on Saturn and Jupiter although you will have to start early for Saturn and stay up late for Jupiter at the moment.

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dmahon

dmahon

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If you want to get your GOTO spot on, first use a low magnification eyepiece and gradually increase the mag, recentring every time. Or get a cross-hair eyepiece. I'd recommend the 2 star alignment.

It gets even easier connected to a laptop instead of the hand piece. An old netbook is ideal. You can even control it wirelessly via Bluetooth with an EQTOOTH module.

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