Synscan AZ fine tuning

[DeepThought]

Hi

Hopefully a very quick question here.

Once you have aligned your Synscan AZ mount, is there a way to fine tune the alignment without beginning the process again?

So for example, if I slewed to an object, and it was a little off centre, could I bring it into the centre of the FOV and hit a button to re-centre the alignment?

I've looked about but can't see it as an obvious option.

Cheers

[DeepThought]

If anyone is interested (either now, or when finding this thread through a search in the future) I have found the answer to my own question in the manual which I shall paste below:

Pointing Accuracy Enhancement

Both the star alignment methods provide alignment adequate for any visual observing purpose. For applications that require extra high precision in a particular part of the sky, the SynScanTM AZ provides a Pointing Accuracy Enhancement (PAE) function to further improve the accuracy. The PAE can be performed in up to 85 zones to cover the whole sky. The area(s) where the chosen alignment star(s) is located should be already mapped out accurately by the SynScanTM AZ. Further accuracy enhancement is not necessary. The following provides a step-by-step procedure on how to perform PAE:

1. Use the direction keys to center the last go-to object, then go to the next step. (This step may be skipped.)

2. Press and hold down the ESC key for 2 seconds. The hand control will display "Re-center" and the name of the reference object will appear in a blinking mode (3 times). If the go-to command is sent from the planetarium software, instead of the name of the object, the hand control will display "Last goto object".

3. Make sure that the reference object is still in the center of the view and press ENTER. If you do not wish to record the result, press ESC to abort the operation. After pressing ENTER, the SynScanTM will record the amount of pointing inaccuracy and recalculate the model of the sky. Now the pointing accuracy of this particular part of the sky should be greatly improved.

Cheers

[breezy]

Very handy . thanks mate

[cotterless45]

Anyone aaccidents knocking, nudging or kicking the ota or tripod can easily reset the alignment. Get into the set up menu and go to Alignment. 2 star works very well visually. Think you'll be pleasantly surprised how accurate it can be,

Nick.

[ve1drg]

If anyone is interested (either now, or when finding this thread through a search in the future) I have found the answer to my own question in the manual which I shall paste below:

Pointing Accuracy Enhancement

Both the star alignment methods provide alignment adequate for any visual observing purpose. For applications that require extra high precision in a particular part of the sky, the SynScanTM AZ provides a Pointing Accuracy Enhancement (PAE) function to further improve the accuracy. The PAE can be performed in up to 85 zones to cover the whole sky. The area(s) where the chosen alignment star(s) is located should be already mapped out accurately by the SynScanTM AZ. Further accuracy enhancement is not necessary. The following provides a step-by-step procedure on how to perform PAE:

1. Use the direction keys to center the last go-to object, then go to the next step. (This step may be skipped.)

2. Press and hold down the ESC key for 2 seconds. The hand control will display "Re-center" and the name of the reference object will appear in a blinking mode (3 times). If the go-to command is sent from the planetarium software, instead of the name of the object, the hand control will display "Last goto object".

3. Make sure that the reference object is still in the center of the view and press ENTER. If you do not wish to record the result, press ESC to abort the operation. After pressing ENTER, the SynScanTM will record the amount of pointing inaccuracy and recalculate the model of the sky. Now the pointing accuracy of this particular part of the sky should be greatly improved.

Cheers

Hey...  Thanks for your note on using PAE..  I am trying to use it and had a problem.  I just posted a note saying my problem.

I wonder if you could see what I am doing wrong.

After reaching the new star or object, I tried to slew things a bit to be as accurate as possible. The books says to do this.  It wouldn't slew.  Nothing happened.  I see you don't mention anything about slewing after reaching this new target.

Perhaps you slew to the new target BEFORE going to the PAE utility?  That makes sense.  Which means that once you bring up the PAE process you just hit enter (as you said)  and things are saved??

Does that make any sense.?

[DeepThought]

I've not had any trouble slewing once the mount is centred as far as I can recall.

A couple of times I have thought it wouldn't move but it turned out that it just hadn't finished finding the target yet, now I always make sure I wait for the "finished" beep before trying to adjust further.

It could be worth checking the rate you are set to, I normally use setting 4 for rough adjustments and 3 for fine, if it is set to 1 then you may not notice it moving with a low magnification.