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EQ5 NIGHTMARE


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I have had an EQ5 with an 8" Meade Newtonian Reflector attached.

It has been a nightmare from the word go, I bought it second hand and for some reason it very rarely actually GOTO's anything near what I want.

I reset it back to FACTORY SETTINGS last time I used it just before I put it away feeling frustrated and depleted once more. 

I woke early this morning and noticed that the sky was crystal clear. So I set up the mount as I have markers in the ground showing me where to put each leg, got Polaris dead on, swung the scope and it stayed ti the outer circle. As I had already inseted the time, date (the American order), my Long. and Lat. correctly and with Jupiter pretty much over head, I thought this may be a good time to see if the FACTORY REST had done the scope any good. As Polaris was spot on, I missed out the STAR ALLINGMENT, and went straight for the SOLAR SYSTEM on the Synscan GOTO hanset. I searched for JUPITER as it was obvious where it was, clicked for it to search for it and the scope slewed to the horizon in the East. I re-inserted the details ofter parking it home and turning off, then back on again and tried the same and the same thing happened.

I am also finding that while the scope is so say TRACKING while taking exposures via a DSLR the longest I am able to expose for is around 5 -7 seconds, any more than that and I get trails.

I am beginning to wonder if the gears have either been inserted correctly or if they need replacing or worse case skipping the lot.

I am almost at the end of my tether with it, please can anyone help me out here?

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Hi,

You have to do a 2-3 star alignment regardless of the polaris being centered or not. The star alignment is for the mount to triangulate its position. One more thing to wonder is as to why did the previous owner sell you this mount? Other possible factors are Balancing of the mount, proper electric connections etc. If you still have issues then its best you contact OVL who are the distributors of sky-watcher in UK. They are the best folks to solve the problem. (they will most likely direct you to go through a dealer, but that s perfectly fine)

All the best.

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Hi,

You have to do a 2-3 star alignment regardless of the polaris being centered or not. The star alignment is for the mount to triangulate its position. One more thing to wonder is as to why did the previous owner sell you this mount? Other possible factors are Balancing of the mount, proper electric connections etc. If you still have issues then its best you contact OVL who are the distributors of sky-watcher in UK. They are the best folks to solve the problem. (they will most likely direct you to go through a dealer, but that s perfectly fine)

All the best.

Thanks astrosathya, The previous owner sold it due to health issues and  could no longer use the scope. I will give the star alignment a go again the next time I use it, though even when I have tried this in the past and chose Vega as my first star it slews off down South somewhere. I am a novice, this being my first scope in some years, but never one has it directed me towards anything I have asked it to. Just the other night after trying the 3 star alignment and all three being way off and me having to spend around 10 minutes on each star with the handset to get them centred, I tried looking for the Spiral Cluster and the handset said that it was BELOW HORIZON. I really am starting to have concerns about the mount. Thank you so much for your reply and the contact too, I will get in touch with them.

Thank you :)

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Don't stress out with it yet, the EQ5 can be a temperamental beast until you learn your way round it, and I learned at least mine (which was brand new from FLO) had a few quirks that can put it way off and make you think its jiggered.

The mount is only as good as the information you put into it, and I found even though I was certain I had input everything right something was out of whack. There was something odd if I remember correctly about putting a + instead of a - in on of the settings that shouldn't have made a difference but it seemed to have an impact, I will have to look back through my posts as I am sure I asked for help on here about it.

If your polar aligned through the polarscope well, then all the data in the handset is input correctly ( remembering the US format date, daylight savings correct etc) i would just do a 2 star alignment, maybe for the first star you will have to slew in a bit, the second will usually appear in the eyepiece ok then. 

I would also check the tracking rates etc in the handset JUST in case the factory reset didn't work.

It may be worth posting on this thread the exact information your putting into the handset, someone might be able to spot a mistake for you.

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All goto's need to go through their alignment process, otherwise they generally have no single default start position to make any assumption of where to go from and to.

Think Meade's can have a single start no alignment position as the software has the presumption that they start absolutly level and point exactly North. I do not think however that the Skywatchers have similar and even less idea of an EQ mount. The small Meades are good for solar viewing with this Level North single option.

So you will have to read through the alignment procedure and collect your location data.

Hereford (town) is 2 deg 43 min West, 52 deg North. We say Lat/Long BUT the mount expects the order as Long then Lat.

Timezone will be 0 or 00, and when asked DST is OFF or No, will change at end of Oct.

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Don't stress out with it yet, the EQ5 can be a temperamental beast until you learn your way round it, and I learned at least mine (which was brand new from FLO) had a few quirks that can put it way off and make you think its jiggered.

The mount is only as good as the information you put into it, and I found even though I was certain I had input everything right something was out of whack. There was something odd if I remember correctly about putting a + instead of a - in on of the settings that shouldn't have made a difference but it seemed to have an impact, I will have to look back through my posts as I am sure I asked for help on here about it.

If your polar aligned through the polarscope well, then all the data in the handset is input correctly ( remembering the US format date, daylight savings correct etc) i would just do a 2 star alignment, maybe for the first star you will have to slew in a bit, the second will usually appear in the eyepiece ok then. 

I would also check the tracking rates etc in the handset JUST in case the factory reset didn't work.

It may be worth posting on this thread the exact information your putting into the handset, someone might be able to spot a mistake for you.

Thanks Helite, I read somewhere, now I am not sure that this is correct, but I need to insert the + as I am in the same region as USA and so on, I would have  to insert the - if I was East of the line, but I am not 100% I read this correctly or even if the information was correct, butI have been inserting +00.00.00.

Thanks

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All goto's need to go through their alignment process, otherwise they generally have no single default start position to make any assumption of where to go from and to.

Think Meade's can have a single start no alignment position as the software has the presumption that they start absolutly level and point exactly North. I do not think however that the Skywatchers have similar and even less idea of an EQ mount. The small Meades are good for solar viewing with this Level North single option.

So you will have to read through the alignment procedure and collect your location data.

Hereford (town) is 2 deg 43 min West, 52 deg North. We say Lat/Long BUT the mount expects the order as Long then Lat.

Timezone will be 0 or 00, and when asked DST is OFF or No, will change at end of Oct.

Hi Ronin, thank you so much for that. My location is in Hereford, but I am right up in the hills, so my Long. and Lat. reads 52.0043°N 3.0095°W I know that the Synscan expects it W then N. Not sure what to say about the timezone as with my synscan it has to be either - or +, there is no option to leave it blank, and with the BST I have been adding YES, is this my problem do you think? Would you mind if I messaged you with an image of my location with all the details please?

Thanks

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Your coordindates should be entered as 003 00W  52 00N. The timezone can be left as 00 00 , DST is YES until the end of October.

http://www.satsig.net/maps/lat-long-finder.htm is a useful site to obtain your coordinates.

Hi Cornelius, thanks very much, I am not sure how to set my timezone at 00 00 as there does not seem to be an option, what ever I press changes from - or +, it has to be one or the other it seems

Thanks though :)

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The EQ goto mounts automatically to the alignment star, or close to. The operator then uses the directional keys on the handset to centre the star and then presses enter to confirm the star alignment.

The problem I have is when I use the cursor buttons on the hand set, it can sometimes take up to 15 minutes to get the star I have tried to align to is so far away. :(

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Ah brilliant, will this speed the tracking speed too?

No, it will just speed up your slew rate, I usually put it to 9 until I get the target in the eyepiece then back to 2 for centering it. If its taking you 15 mins to lock on to the first alignment star im surprised the alignment doesn't show as failed. This could possibly be why your go to is way off. The first guide star should be close if you are polar aligned correctly and the scope starts in the North position I think, I dont have access to my scope right now if not I would double check for you.

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No, it will just speed up your slew rate, I usually put it to 9 until I get the target in the eyepiece then back to 2 for centering it. If its taking you 15 mins to lock on to the first alignment star im surprised the alignment doesn't show as failed. This could possibly be why your go to is way off. The first guide star should be close if you are polar aligned correctly and the scope starts in the North position I think, I dont have access to my scope right now if not I would double check for you.

Hi Thanks again, I am out now, 1st star aligin I chose Vega which is in the West, it slews to the East???

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Hi Cornelius, thanks very much, I am not sure how to set my timezone at 00 00 as there does not seem to be an option, what ever I press changes from - or +, it has to be one or the other it seems

Thanks though :)

Just double checked as I am out with the scope now ad it is either - or +, it cannot be left blank

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Forgive me if this has been covered but do you manually slew to your first target then hit enter to confirm?  Or are expecting the mount to automatically to find your first target?

Sorry Cosmo, just seen this. No I understand that I have to manually slew to the first target, but just chose Vega (in the West) and the scope slewed in the opposite direction to the East?? Do I slew that far?

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Sounds like the location is not right, I had the same issue when I started and I had the lat and long the wrong way round.

Hope this helps

Hi Cedric, nah, I don't know what was up with it. everything was spot on. I turned it all off, tried factory reset once more and it just worked :) Don't know what was up with it. Thanks all for your help. Cheers :)

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Hi , I was wondering if you have your telescope the right way round on the mount - just with you saying it was pointing to the opposite way. The eye piece should be above the counter weights with the mirror end towards the back of the mount. Hope this helps

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Hi Cedric, nah, I don't know what was up with it. everything was spot on. I turned it all off, tried factory reset once more and it just worked :) Don't know what was up with it. Thanks all for your help. Cheers :)

Glad you got it sorted, In case of any issues in the future there may be some useful info here http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/159324-doing-it-wrong-or-expecting-too-much/  and in this thread I have a rundown of some issues I was having with my mount http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/158566-synscan-help/  Hope it may help.

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When I obtained my HEQ5 second hand I had no end of bother with error messages of one sort and another mainly complaints about things being below the horizon and hour angle > 45 degrees. I got a cable from FLO and re flashed the firmware which sorted it. Prior to this it had been searching for Vega somewhere in my lawn as the prior owner had parked it 180 degrees out.

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