Help with HEQ5

[johnst]

Hi anyone, I have recently bought a HEQ5 mount and fitted it to my pillar and I am ready to do the three star alignment. I have got the Synscan controller but I am not sure whether I can control manually. Do I have to set the initial star alignment up first because it mentions the home position. I do have a member in my local group who has a similar mount but he is away on holiday. Can anyone help or advise? Thanks, John

[JamesF]

I guess if you want it to know where "home" is so you can park the mount in that position then you need to do an initial alignment. You don't need to do it if you just want to whizz around the sky manually though.

James

[Pete Presland]

from what i remember setting the mount to the home position will just help the mount to slew nearer to the 1st alignment star.i would not worry about it, select the 1st alignment star and loosen the mount lockings points and manually move it to the star and center vai the handset. from then on use the handset to slew to the next alignment stars

[johnst]

Yes, to start with, I just want to move around using the hand set. Am I just complicating things as I've never had a mount like this before! Thanks, John

[malc-c]

John,

If you want to use the handset to locate objects then you need to run through the alignment routine using the two or three star alignment. Having done some rough polar alignment, select the first star and let the mount slew round to where it thinks it should be. Release the clutches and manually place the target star in the centre of the view with a medium powered eyepiece, and lock the clutches back into place. Confirm the fact that the first target is centred and the scope will slew round to the second target. This time use the direction keys on the handset to centre the second star in the field of view (note that after a slew the default slew speed is 2 so if its way off you can change the slew rate via the handset). Once centred confirm this on the handset and hopefully it will then display successful alignment. You should then be able to slew to most objects and find it within the field of view of a low powered eyepiece.