Skymax goto 127 eq3 pro

[Willows1]

Hi to everyone,

I've just received my first telescope....I'm very excited at the thought of exploring the skies Obote and beyond.....my problem is this:

I've successfully balanced my telescope and mount, the trouble I'm having now is aligning and setting up the telescope for my first viewing ( weather permitting )

pis there an idiots guide to aligning and setting up the scope? I cannot seem to find a GPS fix to key into the syncscan?

Can anyone help me at all, even a simple step by step guide to get me started would be greatly appreciated.

happy gazing

paul

[JamesF]

I use google earth to find lat/long for programming the synscan. For Kettering you're going to be 0 degree 43 seconds west and 52 degrees 23 minutes 35 seconds north. You may not even need the seconds. You want a time zone of 00:00, the date is in US format, mm/dd/yy, and at the moment we are on daylight savings time. Hopefully that should be enough information to get you through the setup.

You'll need to do some sort of alignment to use the GOTO. If you point the north leg of the tripod roughly north and set the mount up so the latitude scale reads correctly for Kettering (52 degrees) that should be good enough for the alignment to work. I go for a three-star alignment if I can, but you might get by with two stars.

James

[Willows1]

Thanks James

I will certainly put those into the goto and hopefully I'll start to enjoy the night sky...it's a real shame as I've just looked out of the window and still pretty much cloudy, oh well, there's always tomorrow to look forward to,

I have another question to ask if you don't mind?

I've heard of some kind of power pack to run the scope off batteries instead of plugging into the mains, do you know where I could buy one from, apparently they last far longer than ordinary batteries do,.

Have you been sky watching long? You seem to be quite knowledgable within this field, As I've already stated, I'm very new to this and I'm pretty much hooked already,

Thanks again James, look forward to talking again soon.

Paul

[JamesF]

I only seem knowledgeable because I'm one of the few people still awake

Skywatcher produce powertanks that you can run the mount from, but they're not exactly cheap for what they are. FLO sell them here:

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/power.html

I think some people use car jump-start units for the same purpose. It's also possible to just use a leisure battery stored in a plastic box to keep the damp off (and kept charged when not in use), but I usually have my kit plugged into the mains using the Maplin power suppy on that same FLO page above so I'm not sure what the recommended options are. I'd suggest posting a separate thread asking for advice on batteries and power.

James

[Willows1]

Hi again James

Thank you again for your help, there's just one more question to ask you if I may?

I'm all set for my first viewing tonight, like I've stated before, it's all balanced, the only steps now are to align it ( which I will follow your advice )

There is an angle on the bottom of the mount, I've read a lot about setting it to your altitude or something like that?

Can you shed any light on this at all? ( pardon the pun

[JamesF]

The scale on the side of the mount should have the pointer set to your latititude, so just a bit over 52 degrees. It's so that the RA axis of the mount is aligned with the axis of rotation of the Earth.

James

[JamesF]

If you do a three star alignment you don't have to get this too close. The closer it is the easier things will get, but there's time for practice

James

[Willows1]

Hello again

Really sorry for all these questions, I've just set it to that angle, I work as an electrical engineer, who'd of thought I'd be asking questions on the set up of something electrical!!

[bradfrankshaw]

Hi Paul - am in your shoes right now so would be interested to hear your experiences. To power mine I use a garden extension cable and the Maplin 12v plug to cigarertte adaptor.

Cheers

Frank

[Willows1]

Hi frank

i like you just use my ex lead and plug straight in to it that way,

my firsts nights veiling was a bit of a let down....I think I punched in the wrong GPS fix to the sync scan, I then didn't align the scope very accurately, I've now spoken to another member on here who's kindly given me a heads up with regards to the GPS coordinates I have to input, hopefully now I can both align my scope and align it properly this time.

my experience so far is very limited, as I've only just brought my scope.

so where a outs are you in the country? What kind of telescope etc do you use?

It would be good to swap information and between us all I think we're on the way to a very interesting and rewarding hobby,

( weather permitting of course )

i think the one good thing about my first nights viewing is that whilst I didn't get to watch the night sky, I did in fact enjoy a couple of glasses of my 18 yr old glenfidich!!! ......I slept we'll that night.

my set up is a sky max 127 syncscan on an EQ3 mount, I've brought some Velcro strip that I've cut to size and secured the power unit and syncscan to the legs, very secure and leaves room on the tripod tray for my bits and pieces etc.

well that's about it from me for now, hope I've been of some help?

Speak soon

paul