Help!!!! HEQ5

[twelly27]

i am right now sat next to my mount in the garden and im trying to get everything to work properly can anyone guide me through polar alignment please its doing my head in trying to sort this out, i cant even see any stars through the polar scope, should i be able to see stars?

[long_arms]

Hello,

If you take both caps off and look down the hole (on the north side).

Make sure the counterbalance bar is extended and then rotate the mount in declination until the line of sight for the polar scope is completely clear.

If you've done that then I have no idea sorry

Dan

Edit: With my heq5, if I'm just observing or imaging planets/moon...my polar alignment consists of using a compass and plonking the tripod + mount down facing roughly true north. Thats it.

I've never regretted polar aligning this way.

Obviously for deep sky its different.

[twelly27]

thats actually my bad i can see it but its dim, thing the garden lights are not helping, im still struggling with the date circles etc havent a clue what to do with them

[Russe]

Bless!! Don't torture yourself - might be worth practicing inside.

Your scope gotta be in home position, so that when you look through the polar scope, you can see stars. Then download polarfinder to see where in the circle Polaris should be (ie 9 o'clock...)

Adjust alt/Az screws until you have Polaris where it's meant to be (thereabouts).

Then do your alignment. I assume you are using the synscan handset.

[Russe]

And forget about the date circles. You don't need it if you know whereabouts Polaris should be in the circle. Don't worry about the little circle on the ring of the bigger one. Just move your alt/Az screws until Polaris is at the right "time".

[Russe]

With the HEQ5 it might be worth getting into EQMOD and stop using the synscan handset. I've never looked back after stopping. Am using a wifi gamepad. Easy to install. But you need a laptop with you!!

[twelly27]

yep im using synscan, ive got polar finder but havent a clue what it all means :/

[knobby]

Are you just visual or imaging?

If its just for visual, just aim roughly north and set the alt adjustment to your alt (find with phones GPS or polar finder app or Google maps etc.)

[baggywrinkle]

If you are going to do just visual observations then you can set up by getting the weighted axis pointing to True (not Magnetic) North and then setting the Declination to the correct degrees for your latitude. I do dec settings using a little digital spirit level I found in a DIY store, far more accurate than using the dec degrees marked on the mount.

I do this because in the southern hemisphere the SCP star Sigma Octans is a shy beast and at +5 mag on the edge of visibility for me with light polution.

[twelly27]

ive given up for tonight its stressing me out i put polaris in the circle did alignment then got a message says RA off by 45 degrees

[baggywrinkle]

I have had that message too on Syncscan.

Check carefully the inputs you have made for latitude and longitude, sometimes you can key in a wrong number but it is hard to see with the flashing cursor.

I had keyed in 315 E instead of 115E!

[Russe]

Aw man!

I'd suggest, set up your scope in the afternoon and go through the motions u need to do.

Watch all 6 videos from astronomy shed on scope setup on YouTube!

[66mikeg]

I got the "RA off by 45 degrees" message, it was driving me nuts because I knew that I'd done everything correctly (by a process of trial and several errors) I reflashed the firmware in the handset and Surprise surprise everything worked fine. Incidentally forget the date circles on the mount and download a program called "polar finder" it's also available for android phones and probably iphones as well, this shows you where Polaris should be. Also don't overlook centralizing the reticules in you polar scope.

[Daddystu]

Hi. There some good advice in this thread already. All i'd add is don't get stressed out about it. Instead, enjoy it. I could happily tinker around with my setup for hours without even pointing it at a star. I have made some awful mistakes (ie not lowering counterweight shaft, not removing caps etc) but managed to see the funny side eventually.

[Daddystu]

ive given up for tonight its stressing me out i put polaris in the circle did alignment then got a message says RA off by 45 degrees

The RA issue may be caused by the quick and easy polar alignment. To keep it quick but make it more accurate you can; 1) Ensure the mount is level and with the dec axis rotated and counterweight shaft retracted and pointed down 2) centre polaris using the alt az bolts. 3) Adjust Alt bolt to put polaris on the line of the polaris circle 4) Now look at polar finder and slew the mount in RA using handset (important) until the small polaris circle looks to be in the position of polaris in polar finder. 5) Finally adjust the alt az bolts (don't slew) to put polaris back in the little circle. I don't do it this way as I use EQMod but I see no reason why following those steps wouldn't give you a good polar alignment and probably account for your RA issue too.

[astrosathya]

Ok, here is a little thing I learned.

a) Place a small LED bulb on a high place inside the house, say a high corner shelf or something.

Place the mount on the opposite corner of the same room, or if you have clearance place it further away.

c) Play around with the Latitude adjustment and azimuth adjustment bolts until you have the LED bulb (polaris) centered in the polar scope. You do not need to have your Telescope mounted, nor do you need the counterweights, just extend the shaft and turn the Dec axis so that the holes match.

BEWARE! You must Slacken one bolt (latitude or azimuth) before you tighten the other bolt. Else you will tighten one against the other bending one or both of them.

[twelly27]

Right thanks for all that ill be able to read through it all when I'm next out, one more thing, when I'm trying to match to what it says on polar finder do I have to make sure the counterweight bar is not above where the scope would be? Because that's what happened last night, I can't have done a terrible job of it because that RA message I got was the first time I've seen it and when I did alignment on the stars with the syncscan it did slew what looked to be the correct distance between stars but pointing in the wrong direction I'm assuming I can't be far off, and I also noticed that when when I set my other mount up that came with the scope, I've got longitude and latitude the same but the wrong sides I think, so ill swap them next time

Thanks

Chris

[Chuggs]

Sounds like you are getting there, but one other easy error is not inputting the date in the correct format - Synscan wants mm/dd/yyyy I think?

This certainly contributed to my early fails (in front of a couple of friends, who found it hilarious watching my OTA slew in the opposite direction to where I had pointed...)

C.

[twelly27]

Sounds like you are getting there, but one other easy error is not inputting the date in the correct format - Synscan wants mm/dd/yyyy I think?

This certainly contributed to my early fails (in front of a couple of friends, who found it hilarious watching my OTA slew in the opposite direction to where I had pointed...)

C.

ive been ere done that when I first started, I now properly make sure the dates right when I found out that I made that mistake I felt like a proper numpty

[Daddystu]

Right thanks for all that ill be able to read through it all when I'm next out, one more thing, when I'm trying to match to what it says on polar finder do I have to make sure the counterweight bar is not above where the scope would be? Because that's what happened last night, I can't have done a terrible job of it because that RA message I got was the first time I've seen it and when I did alignment on the stars with the syncscan it did slew what looked to be the correct distance between stars but pointing in the wrong direction I'm assuming I can't be far off, and I also noticed that when when I set my other mount up that came with the scope, I've got longitude and latitude the same but the wrong sides I think, so ill swap them next time

Thanks

Chris

With a correct polar alignment your counterweight bar could be at any position and may indeed look quite odd. You do need to be precise with your long/lat, date and time.

[twelly27]

So now I know that it's fine to have it anyway, do I need to get Polaris in the small circle? Once it's in there do I do my alignment?

[Carl Reade]

Hi twelly polar alignment is hard to explain in writing I have found. Place the mount and scope in the parked position as per book then face the mount to north. set your Dec to whatever degrees your location is then lock the screws, you should be close to Polaris. I then level the mount.

When Polaris appears out of the twilight I then phyisicly move the mount and adjust the Dec until Polaris is in or near the big circle (I ignor the small one).

You may have to look at the level again and it can be awkward doing this and looking into the polar scope.

Once you then have put in the information into the handset it should give you a time position for polaris. For example it says 2:00 PM you then loosen your Dec and RA screws and use them to adjust Polaris to the 2:00 PM position on the edge of the Circle. once its in position gently lock the screws off and you are ready to do your star alignment.

Sorry for the poor picture it was taken in a cupboard X marks where Polaris should be at 2:00 PM.

Hopefully this helps Carl.

[twelly27]

I have one more question, because I can't see Polaris in the scope when it's turned on, does it matter if I turn the power off then move Polaris into the time position? It won't mess anyone up will it? And tbh that was actually very clear to me what you have put

Thanks

Chris

[Carl Reade]

I have one more question, because I can't see Polaris in the scope when it's turned on, does it matter if I turn the power off then move Polaris into the time position? It won't mess anyone up will it? And tbh that was actually very clear to me what you have put

Thanks

Chris

I'll try and answer Once you have polar aligned the mount and done a star alignment you do not touch the mount again during your session (and dont bump into it) you then only use the handset to move the scope.

The polar alignment is purely a mechanical procedure for the mount. The crosshair in the centre of the circle is the point where everything in the sky rotates so in a perfect alignment if you were able to watch Polaris in a 24 hour period through the Polar scope it would rotate the circle.The information you enter into the handset then tells the electronics where on the planet you are and what time it is, so it knows where to go when you input an object.

Say for example if you have finished observing and then tell the scope to park up and turn off it will ask you when you turn it on again "Start from previous position" the scope is assuming that you have not moved the mount so you dont have to re Polar align. If you have packed up the scope and mount then you have to go through the polar align procedure again as the next night you will be out at a different time so Polaris could need to be at the 6:00 pm position as it rotates the circle like a clock hand.

If the mount was not moved after Polar aligning say in an observatory then you wouldnt need to Polar align

For visual you dont have to be this accurate as long as Polaris is in or near the circle it is good enough. When using cameras then it needs to be good.

Hopefully this makes sense.

Cheers Carl

[twelly27]

Right so ill just run through, I set everything up, with weights and scope? Then use polar finder to show the position of Polaris I move Polaris into or next to the big circle, once I've done that I put all the information into my hand set, date time long and latitude the it will give me the time at where Polaris is on the "clock" and I move Polaris to that time, then do my alignment? If I do all that should I be ready to go? I'm preferably like to be imaging as that's why I've bought it for webcam and DSLR

Thanks

Chris