alignment setup of skywatcher 1145p syn scan

[Triumphos]

Hi All

first time for me so sorry if this sounds stupid.

i have just purchased a skywatcher sky hawk 1145p with syn scan. to align the scope it says just place it pointing to a bright star and then follow the hand set instructions.

my question is , how does it know which direction it is starting from , does it matter? it asks to do a 2 star alignment which then asks to slew the scope to the first star which i don't know where the star is. any tips from current users on an easier setup. 

can't wait to get going with it . just need to understand initial setup and i think i can work out the rest.

thanks in advance

[Cornelius Varley]

Hello and welcome to SGL. The az goto mount doesn't need to know its starting point before alignment begins, unlike the eq mounts. After selecting the first alignment star the handset gives some directional information (azimuth and altitude) for you to locate the star. The star will be the brightest one in that area of the sky so should be easy to find.

[ronin]

The initial position is always a "problem".

Pointing it at a bright star is the "start" position, somewhere you should have to tell it what that bright star is, otherwise it is a bit meaningless, until it goes to a second defined star.

The Skywatchers do (did) tend to start from anywhere, Meades had the initial start of level and North. A Meade then presumes that if the start is as required level+North then Acrcturus should be at x,y and moves to x,y. In effect level and North is a virtual star from which it starts.

You may find that the tripod has a "N" on it, meaning that leg should face North. Check as it could be relevant.

Check the options available, think they added a Polaris alignment option (for want of a better term).

Basically you level the mount and aim the scope at Polaris, and it starts from there.

Equally levelling the mount and aiming the scope at Polaris isn't a bad option in any case.

Level the mount as best you can, a big part of the alignment is determining the errors that needs to be corrected for, this is basically a measure of how level your mount is. So the better levelled, the smaller the errors and the better it will track.

After that I would expect 2 further posts asking "Why won't it align?" :grin:

[Triumphos]

thanks all for the replies, i will take your replies as actions and give it a go when we have some clear sky. fingers crossed

[itmo]

oh. for the alignment stars get stellarium. If you need it on paper, there was a pdf on "skywatcher alignment stars" somewhere on the internet. 

[Triumphos]

yep thanks itmo, just downloaded it to the mac. i will see if tonight i can recognise some stars with it and maybe even do the first alignment, successfully.

[itmo]

in the new stellarium version there is an option to set "limiting magnitude" for stars , try setting it so that you can see the same amount of stars on the screen as you can see with unaided eye outside. This way it is easier to recognize which star is which.