Still struggling with GOTO alignment

[DaveGarland]

Ah it works that way Wonder what could be causing the problem then? I'll reload the old firmware anyway and see where that gets me. Obviously I'll have to wait for a clear night for testing so it may be a long stressful wait!

[broadsword]

Well, as promised the update on progress. And the news is not good, pretty awful actually.

Tried a lot of things last night under great clear sky. Nothing seemed to work any better or worse than anything else. Got a fairly good polar alignment, and then tried the traditional 3 star alignment using handset only to find stars, with previous result, only 2nd star close, first and third way off together with subsequent targets. Repeated using clutch off and hand centreing first star, handset for 2nd and 3 rd, no better. Then tried de clutch and hand centre on 1st, returned to park position on handset menu, switched off and restarted, all 3 stars still well off with handset alignment. When I tried using an alignment Star low down in the sky (Rigel, my horizon is blocked with houses, trees) it wasn't even in the finder!

I then noticed some movement between the mount head and the tripod, which I've seen before and tracked it down to the metal stop on the top of the tripod coming loose, this being in my view a poor design. In fact, along with the terrible alt and as bolts I'm wondering if some play in the mount is causing the problem, although I tend to screw the blot which holds the mount on the tripod pretty tightly.

To cap off a great night, as the clouds came in my cold fingers let the weights slip as I was disassembling, catching end of middle finger between them and the safety screw head on the end of the shaft. No guitar playing for a few days ( see pic).

Seriously, I'm close to giving up. Anyone know any meets in North Cheshire I could get to for a hands on lesson?

[Jessun]

Sorry to hear about your struggle and the busted finger!!

Either of all methods you tried should have worked just fine. (But parking from an unsuccessful alignment will only bring that error back to the next time you power up and try to find star one).

Rattling bolts wherever they are can't be good... Your images didn't quite attach, try again. Do you mean the stop that sticks up between the AZ adjustment screws?

I don't think you need a lesson, you seem to do everything right, but have equipment with some kind of issue... Don't give up!!

/Jesper

[broadsword]

Hi Jesper,

Yes, it's the stop that sits between the azimuth bolts.

Trying to load images on the iPad for the first, here's another. Just trying for the sympathy vote....

[knobby]

Ouch!

keep at it, try a meeting where a few people can bang heads together.

good luck

[jezhughes]

Ive just read this thread, sorry to see your troubles i've been there too.

No one seems to have asked / suggested yet but what's your routine pre-home? i.e. your polar alignment its self? Sorry if it comes off patronising but if there's something you're doing wrong when you're actually aligning on polaris, or if your polar finder is mis aligned or even something simple like using the wrong RA scale, this will ultimate have a considerable impact on alignment. And i only say that because i've done it before. If its cold and 2am and you've spent 5 hours wanting to take your mount to a scrap yard we all do silly things in desperation, me included..

[nmoushon]

Not try to sound like a douche but are you sure you are aligning to polaris? I know the first couple weeks I kept aligning to the wrong star and kept having similar problems your having. When looking through the alignment scope there are actually several stars about the same brightness as polaris the are near by. This would not effect accuracy very much near polaris but when you move farther away the inaccuracy increases a lot. A way I found to make sure I'm on the right star is to go out just as dusk is setting in and have my scope all set up and ready and wait till it gets dark enough to only see the brighter stars. This is when I polar aligned until I got to know the sky more and accurately pick the right stars. Even on alignment make sure you are targeting to right stars. Are you looking through the EP in the telescope to align to your alignment stars or through your finderguider? You should use the finder first to get the rough alignment then the EP for more accuracy.

If its not the above then I would suggest doing a 1 start alignment first. Then go back and do a 2 star alignment and pick different stars then go back and do 3 star alignment and pick different stars. By the time you get to the 3 star alignment if the stars are close my then there is something else wrong.

[broadsword]

Thanks for those alternative thoughts, Jez and American friend. Must admit I've questioned whether the polar scope is out of alignment and even thought sometimes I might not even be centred on

Polaris. But when I go back and check later on it, it has usually, but not always, moved round and is still on the circle. Will look into this carefully if the skies ever get clear here.

One thing I'm waiting to try is something I saw on a thread on Cloudy Nights. Someone stated that every alignment routine is cumulatively sorted by the mount, even after switching off, so if some bad alignment history has got embedded it can cause issues, and the answer is to do a factory reset.

[Jessun]

You can test your polar scope during the day, just aim it at something reasonably distant and rotate the RA axis.

Did you manage to fix the loose Az pin?

I personally doubt that alignments are stored in any shape or form between sessions in that handset - some do though but the tell tale sign is that when you power it on its clock is running and showing the right time. But hey, electrons do get stuck sometimes so worth a go for sure!

It's not obvious what's going on here...

/Jesper

[broadsword]

Finally managed to get out on a clear night on Friday and got a result. First try met with usual alignment failure, with the 3 stars in the same configuration as described above. Then I did a factory reset of the handset, as suggested in an old cloudy nights post, and it worked. First star pretty close, second spot on, third was still a bit off but all objects I went to were close enough to be in the eyepiece, and after a couple of corrections everything was spot on. Now, this may have just been a fluke, but I wasn't going to try it again - instead, had a go at imaging M81, M1 and M97 using flats for the first time, which will be the subject of the next Broadsword post.....

Weather looks good for tonight, hope I'm not back to square one.

[Northern Soul man]

Nice to hear this Neil - glad you've got it sorted mate - I've not used the cg5 much as of late - I tend to stick to certain areas of the sky for observing and try and look for each object - say in the east - the mount seems pretty accurate even with a rough PA, but as you say your imaging, a really accurate alignment is needed - well done mate and thanks for sharing with us - clear skies to you. Paul

[Tinker1947]

My this thread has grown, i am in the loosen the clutches camp having a NEQ6, my Polar alignment is very close and to get the home position, i use a Terad to centre Polaris, then move Polaris in the Telrad to the same position as it would be when viewed through the polar Scope, so today at this time Polaris would be close to 07:00 and that's where i would place Polaris in the Telrad, then Slew to the first star, adjust the scope via loosening the clutches, that's it i don't normally bother with a 2nd star, just pick a object and its normally in the EP....

[broadsword]

Nice. What's a Telrad?

[Tinker1947]

This is a Terad, you can download free "Telrad Maps" and also if you us Stellarium (Its a Free Downlaod) have the Telrad Circles display on the screen while you search for object to view,,,,,makes find DSO's so easy,,,,

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/finders/telrad-finder-astronomy.html

[Tinker1947]

This is mine attached the rubber bands are for a Dew shield, my stock of Velcro Pads has diminished.....

Home made Dew shield.....

[broadsword]

Thought I would give an update as this thread provoked such a lot of heated debate. Have been out about four times since I did the factory reset on the handset and the alignment has been identical every time with spot on positioning of objects in the eyepiece. So I think this was a result.

There were some comments this wouldn't work as the handset has no memory ability when the power is turned off, however that didn't make sense as the lat and long coordinates are saved and so is the last date when using the Skywatcher Synscan. Guess the only way of knowing for sure would be vis the manufacturer, wonder if the ever read these blogs. Anyway hope this is of use to anyone in the future.