New Question - Alignment AZEQ6GT

[ve1drg]

I heard the other day that once you have your azeq6 aligned meaning that you have done your 1 or 2 or 3 star alignment that if you go to some other star afterwards and find that you have to slew things around to get it into the center of view,  that once there - you can hit a button such as the 'esc' key twice and a little menu will come up and tell you something like that alignment is further adjusted etc etc..

Is this true?  And if so - how is it done.

I am using firmware 3.35..

[Cornelius Varley]

The feature is called Pointing Accuracy Enhancement (PAE)

[ve1drg]

How does that work?  (PAE)..     Do you have to hit some button twice or hold a button down for 2 secs etc..??

And is this a process that will enhance your accuracy of alignment?

[Cornelius Varley]

Taken from the current Synscan manual :-

1. Perform a 1-star alignment, 2-star alignment, or a 3-star alignment.
2. Choose a celestial object in a zone of interest as reference by referring to a sky map or planetarium software. In general, it is a rather bright star, but users can also use other objects. Use the SynScan hand controller to control the mount to point the telescope to the reference object.
3. Use one of the following operations to start the PAE calibration:

       -Press the "UTILITY" shortcut key, access to sub-menu "PAE\PAE Align", and then press the ENTER key.

       -Press and hold the ESC key for two seconds.

  The screen will display "Center Object:" in the first row, and display the name of the reference object in the bottom row. (If the last object is launched from a PC, then instead of the name of the reference object, it will display "The last target".) Now use the direction keys of the hand controller to center the object in the telescope’s FOV, and then press ENTER to confirm. Remember to end the centering operation by pressing the Right and Up direction keys together.

Repeat Step 2 to 5 for viewing different portions of the sky.

Note:

1. Whenever the SynScan hand controller locates an object, it will automatically check whether a PAE calibration data is available, and apply the compensation accordingly. No manual intervention is required.
2. If multiply PAE calibration is performed in the same zone, the previous calibration data will be overwritten.
3. Users can access the menu "UTILITY > PAE > Clear PAE data" to clear all PAE calibration data.
4. The PAE calibration data will be automatically cleared after a 1-star alignment, 2-star alignment or 3-star alignment."

Link to manual  http://www.skywatchertelescope.net/swtinc/customer_support.php?id=147&class1=1&class2=180

[ve1drg]

Taken from the current Synscan manual :-

1. Perform a 1-star alignment, 2-star alignment, or a 3-star alignment.
2. Choose a celestial object in a zone of interest as reference by referring to a sky map or planetarium software. In general, it is a rather bright star, but users can also use other objects. Use the SynScan hand controller to control the mount to point the telescope to the reference object.
3. Use one of the following operations to start the PAE calibration:

       -Press the "UTILITY" shortcut key, access to sub-menu "PAE\PAE Align", and then press the ENTER key.

       -Press and hold the ESC key for two seconds.

  The screen will display "Center Object:" in the first row, and display the name of the reference object in the bottom row. (If the last object is launched from a PC, then instead of the name of the reference object, it will display "The last target".) Now use the direction keys of the hand controller to center the object in the telescope’s FOV, and then press ENTER to confirm. Remember to end the centering operation by pressing the Right and Up direction keys together.

Repeat Step 2 to 5 for viewing different portions of the sky.

Note:

1. Whenever the SynScan hand controller locates an object, it will automatically check whether a PAE calibration data is available, and apply the compensation accordingly. No manual intervention is required.
2. If multiply PAE calibration is performed in the same zone, the previous calibration data will be overwritten.
3. Users can access the menu "UTILITY > PAE > Clear PAE data" to clear all PAE calibration data.
4. The PAE calibration data will be automatically cleared after a 1-star alignment, 2-star alignment or 3-star alignment."

Link to manual  http://www.skywatchertelescope.net/swtinc/customer_support.php?id=147&class1=1&class2=180

Thanks for the section of the manual

I have tried this (last night)  and when I got to the target as the book says,  I than tried to slew a bit to put the image exactly in the middle.  I found that the slewing wouldn't work?  

I kept going back and forth trying various ways of the PAE process - chosing esc again and then 'enter'  and back to 'esc' a couple of times,  and than holding down 'esc' for 2 secs again. etc..

I am using the latest firmware - 3.35.  I wonder if there has been a change .  These instructions were issued against previous versions of the firmware.  Could that be the problem.  Or is it me and I hit the wrong button?

Has anyone else tried this -  and what is their experience.??

[ve1drg]

Here is a quote from the SynScan manual regarding the PAE process.

 The screen will display "Center Object:" in the first row, and display the name of the reference object in the bottom row. (If the last object is launched from a PC, then instead of the name of the reference object, it will display "The last target".) Now use the direction keys of the hand controller to center the object in the telescope’s FOV, and then press ENTER to confirm. Remember to end the centering operation by pressing the Right and Up direction keys together.

My problem starts with the line " Now use the direction keys of the hand controller...."

I can't slew to anything once the PAE process is up.  It says I should be able to do this?

Can anyone else Slew to anything after bringing up PAE??