Avalon Align question EQ6 users can help

[vdb]

Hi,

so I had a first opportunity to test the mount last night but I failed to do any imaging ...

The issue is the alignment fails, it slews to the complete different location.

Here is what I do:

- position RA and dec on the index markers (telescope points to scp)

- power up mount

- give location: 4 E 51 N (I live in Belgium)

- date in: mm/dd/yyyy so I enter 08/10/2012

- timezone +1

- Time in 24H format: I enter 22:00H

- daylightsavings yes

Then I do 1 star alignment on Caph, instead of slewing to the east it goes west ...

I tried:

- set S instead of N, W instead of E

- manual, so release clutches and position telescope on Caph and align, but all goto's are off ...

- if I take dubhe same issue ...

I tried something just now and maybe it's a solution but need to wait till tonight,

instead of putting 22:00H I did put 10:00H now it seems to slew to caph (cannot confirm as it is day light), align, and slew to dubhe ...

it goes to the wright part of the sky, but need to confirm tonight.

Any idea what I'm doing wrong?

It uses the same HC as the EQ6 Synscan v3.27 ...

[The Sailor]

My only observation for the above is:

1. Make sure you are aligned with Polaris

2. Make sure you are putting your location in the correct sequence.

3. Are you in daylight savings, we are still in summer (maybe )

4. Time is 24 hour clock so 2200hrs, 10 PM in 12 hour.

Thats is really all I can say for the moment, others with better knowledge will give a more thorough answer .

Jim

[steppenwolf]

I have an EQ6 and have also used an Avalon M-Uno. Is yours an M-Uno or the Linear Fast?

Assuming that you have the polar alignment reasonably accurate then your settings appear to be correct. With both the EQ6 and Avalon M-uno, I choose my first alignment star, slew to it then unclamp the clutches and manually position the RA and Dec axes to centre the star and then I accept the alignment. For the other two alignment stars, I use the hand controller to centre them.

[ollypenrice]

You say that the scope points to SCP before starting. Is this a typo? Certainly you begin an EQ6 evening with the OTA aimed at Polaris - or rather the NCP.

Olly

[vdb]

Typo ... indeed polaris sorry ... I'm quite sure the mount is polar aligned ...

Anyway it slews the complete wrong direction ... when I enter 22hours as you should. (it slews west for caph, altough caph is in the east)

I just tried 10h which is wrong, but then the it slews to the correct position (should be confirmed tonight)

I just had some great advise so maybe I can bypass the HC tonight if everything else fails ...

Yves

[vdb]

So entering 10 AM instead of the correct 22PM makes the one star align work and goto in that neighbourhood work ... bizar ...

Yves.

[ncjunk]

the only thing similar i had was setting East 8:00:00 for the long/lat instead of West 8:00:00. it is just a + or - sign on my pc and i got it the wrong way around. All slews were then out by a set amount on the eq6

[perfrej]

Some mount manufacturers adhere to the US folklore standard of using positive for west (10Micron, for instance), while anyone with basic knowledge about the planet we live on and its coordinate system knows that west is negative and east is positive... Drove me crazy when I fired up the mount the first time.

/per

[vdb]

My first idea was wright, they swapped the cabling of the dec engine, so they used the same wiring as they use on the m-uno. (where dec movement is reversed due to no flip design)

I just swapped the cables and all is well now ...

Y