First Night polar aligned & up and running! or was I?

[WesB]

Hi, not sure if a similar question has been posted therefore excuse me for the repeat, however, having had some difficulty polar aligning my scope which is a 100 ED Skywatcher with an EQ5 mount with Syncscan on a movable tripod, I was told there were some good information videos on astronomy shed! (sorry) and having watched them numerous times to ensure the information penetrated my otherwise thick skull I have found the information absolutely brilliant. A couple of nights ago I set up my scope in the garden and polar aligned for the first time (using the new information) and it worked. I used the Polar Finder program (free download) and aligned Polaris accordingly then 3 star aligned using Stellarium as a star spotter and as I have already said it worked! Without the polar align info and polar finder also Stellarium I am not sure how a novice could reach this point however I have and its lifted me with renewed interest. So I had a look at a few pre-programmed stars etc checking against Stellarium that the star I chose was indeed what I was looking at all was well............I then felt like a celebration!!

Now with my tail firmly up in the air walking around wondering what all the fuss with polar alignment is all about.............I went into the kitchen got myself a glass of wine and a cigarette and went back outside, a quick look through the eyepiece told me that all was not right, the star which I thought I had left dead centre in the eye piece had traveled slightly off centre. I understand this could be a number of things such as misaligned polar scope (I was given two when I purchased the scope which should have rung an alarm bell...however I was a kid with a (second hand) new toy. By this time the moon had popped its head up so I chose this on the sync scan and off it went and found the moon........perfect! I finished my cigarette and gulped some wine and thought lets go and get my eye pieces etc and have a look around. By the time I got back the mount had stopped tracking and gone to sleep! The battery pack was showing full and green light on, sync scan handset was still alight and indicating the moons position. So I punched in the moon again and set it off........nothing! now the co-ordinates of the moon were 00,00,00!! also when I used the direction keys to adjust the scope nothing happened.....the mount had dropped off like a baby with a cow pol addiction! So I sat for a moment and remembered when all else fails (with a computer) its Big Red Button Time! so I switched it all off ......and on again and it all came to life pressed the adjustment arrow buttons and it moved accordingly.

My question is ........WHY! Clouds has ascended over my garden both metaphorically and in the sky! therefore my night was over (tail not so high).

This has posed a few questions;

1. Has anyone experienced this before and how is this overcome without buying a proper mount such as the EQ6 which I would really like to do?

2. When the telescope is switched off and on again the scope has not moved therefore do I need to three star align again?

3. If I don't need to three star align how does the scope begin tracking? Mine has never tracked until you have finished alignment (even when aligned incorrectly) therefore I assumed that this must be done each time the scope is switched on. However if my scope was fixed on a post and set up in an observatory, polar alignment could be done once as long as the clutches were not opened, but to begin tracking surely you would still need to 3 star align? OR is there a setting in the sync scan which switches the tracking on........................I just haven't found it yet.

P.S. I know a 100ED is a bit small for an EQ6 however I also have an early Luton Instruments 10 3/4" reflector which I would like 'in the future' to get back in use and the EQ6 is the only one that will take the payload. Failing this if I could sell the reflector then perhaps buy a more up to date scope? I know its an antique but its lovely.

I would appreciate your help people best regards.

[Tinker1947]

Most of the info you put in the handset needs to be input again if you reboot, get a power out ect, so the handset loses all it data this then requires the 3 star align, my solution to this has been switch on the mount, set the "Solar tracking" and with the aid of Stellarium and a Telrad, go find all the stuff my self....

[WesB]

Ok Tinker, to be clear, within the set-up mode there are tracking options within the sync scan, they are referenced;

sidereal rate

lunar rate

solar rate

I presume that because the scope has not been moved since initial set up I can just switch the tracking on via one of the options above? I cannot from then on use the object catalogue hence the need for stellarium & the Telrad?

When you say "set the solar tracking" does this mean switch it on or set the rate at which it tracks?............again this is a bit above me.

I am a novice therefore I need things spelling out sorry.

[WesB]

Update: Last night I set up the scope again and to ensure my set up was accurate I viewed some stars & constellations using the Stellarium software as a guide and I was doing this with some degree of accuracy. Then I traversed some distance from northern to southern hemisphere using the direction keys on the sync scan hand set and it was at this stage the mount went to sleep again. This time rather than switch off and on again I briefly set up the scope again (pointing at Polaris) & 3 star aligned and I was up and running.

It would seem that the mount is not designed to traverse across the sky using the direction keys for any great distance. You assume the software knows where it is because you see the co-ordinates race as you traverse. A solution to this is to star hop using the handset catalogue to ensure that the software understands its location at all times. The mount seemed to work fine when I hopped rather than blindly traversing.

I have no idea if this problem is unique to my mount or a common problem with the EQ5. Of course this could just be me using the mount incorrectly, however the star hopping is a good solution given that this is a widely used way of navigating around the stars.

If anyone has experienced this before then please let me know if this is a problem.