Mount issues

[RobertC]

I seem to be having more than my fair share of issues at the moment. The very basic issue at the moment is the mount seems to not want to align correctly STILL. My coordinates and time/date are in putted correctly yet the scope still wants to head below the horizon yet the star is very clearly in view high in the sky. I have noticed that when i enter my address to get my geo location i am sometimes noticing that it registers a -2 degrees W instead of a 2 degrees W, this -2 puts me in the North sea. The mount is sat on a permanent pier that i meticulously made level to the 0.1 degree of an accuracy. My polar alignment is pretty much bang on as i can go 5+ minutes of drift aligning without the star moving from the cross hairs. I have pretty much given up now using the synscan handset now as i am connected to a computer in the observatory so have been getting to grips with EQMOD and numerous planetariums. The planetariums i am using at the moment is the well known Stellarium and Cartes du Ciel. Within EQMOD i have been learning to use the align method of slewing to the star using the planetarium and then telling the EQMOD alignment it is at that star and so on, i do this to 3 stars then close the window after it has registered. My other method has been to use the 'sync' option within Cartes du Ciel, both of these seem to work until the point of wanting to actually slew to an object, this bit is my issue.

When i give it the command to slew to a object it slew fine but slews to the wrong area, the can slew to an object that is close to the star i have synced the software to but once it gets further from that point it deviates a lot ! This seems to give me the view that my coordinates are wrong some how.

The mount is a EQ5 with the synscan addition.

Can anyone who uses this method or sees any wrong doings can you give me some much needed advice.

-Rob

[Cornelius Varley]

Check that you have put your coordinates into the handset in the correct order. The centre of Manchester is about 002 15 W, 53 29N so your coordinates will be similar and entered in that order and format. If you installed the Synscan upgrade kit yourself check that the gears have been installed correctly. If you get this wroung the gear ratios are affected and the mount will slew too far.

[RobertC]

The coordinates are like such in the handset and the software, i've taken some images of the motors when i tried to get some help last time and people said they where correct. I'm getting to my wits end really with the issue. I'm out of idea's to the cause.

-Rob

[jambouk]

Rob, this is annoying for you, I am really sorry it's not solved yet.

If you can't get anyone to look at the mount locally (local astro group / society), what you should do is talk through the whole process over the phone with someone else who is setting up their mount at exactly the same time.

I am happy to call you sometime and try this, though it may still point to below the horizon.

I guess an even better way would be to do it on Skype so the "instructor" could see what you were doing.

JD

[Brian Nordstrom]

Did you try the old 'Chestnut' ,, the  American way of imputing the dates is Month-Day-Year  ,  not ! , Day-Month-Year  like the rest of the world , sorry if I am stating the obvious but many have been caught out on this down here .

Good luck .

Brian.

[ronin]

The value for Longitude should be either "2 W" or "-2" but not "-2 W".

Are you entering "-2" or "- 002". Longitude can be from 0 to +-180, sure that in some past post I read that someone had to enter the leading 0's.

May sound stupid but I assume that the pier is in effect an Equitorial, is the software set to Alz/Az. I had one change from Alt/Az to EQ for some unknown reason, that tried to ram the scope at something below the horizon.

As well as Longitude you need to tell the software the timezone, it will I suspect default to West Coast USA, you need it set to 0 or (for some odd reason) -0.

Is there the possibility of getting the time as AM not PM, a 24 hour clock is better.

My half guess is Timezone, or the classic of Lat/Long the wrong way round.

[Tinker1947]

If its going the wrong way i suspect it thinks you in the southern hemisphere, which would mean the clock is 12 hours out or your location is wrong, it might seem a bit, "but i have set it right" , if you had it would slew properly.

[RobertC]

Rob, this is annoying for you, I am really sorry it's not solved yet.

If you can't get anyone to look at the mount locally (local astro group / society), what you should do is talk through the whole process over the phone with someone else who is setting up their mount at exactly the same time.

I am happy to call you sometime and try this, though it may still point to below the horizon.

I guess an even better way would be to do it on Skype so the "instructor" could see what you were doing.

JD

It's really been driving me to the point of just giving up all together, i took it to the club i joined and surprise surprise it worked for them up there. 

Did you try the old 'Chestnut' ,, the  American way of imputing the dates is Month-Day-Year  ,  not ! , Day-Month-Year  like the rest of the world , sorry if I am stating the obvious but many have been caught out on this down here .

Good luck .

Brian.

It says at the top what format it wants me to input it in, American format is the way. Tried it both ways just in case, i did make this mistake when i first got the synscan

The value for Longitude should be either "2 W" or "-2" but not "-2 W".

Are you entering "-2" or "- 002". Longitude can be from 0 to +-180, sure that in some past post I read that someone had to enter the leading 0's.

May sound stupid but I assume that the pier is in effect an Equitorial, is the software set to Alz/Az. I had one change from Alt/Az to EQ for some unknown reason, that tried to ram the scope at something below the horizon.

As well as Longitude you need to tell the software the timezone, it will I suspect default to West Coast USA, you need it set to 0 or (for some odd reason) -0.

Is there the possibility of getting the time as AM not PM, a 24 hour clock is better.

My half guess is Timezone, or the classic of Lat/Long the wrong way round.

I have it entered as 002, i cant enter a negative. This is how it is telling me, i know it shows -2 and 2 but other sites have listed the -2 for both. 

This is how i have it entered in the handset -  002 at the start. The time zone gives me either +/- but i leave it as + as theoretically i don't see an issue with it being a - or + if it is GMT

I really haven't noticed if the software is in alt/az mode but it seems to do the exact same as the mount when it isn't connected to the pc.

-Rob

If its going the wrong way i suspect it thinks you in the southern hemisphere, which would mean the clock is 12 hours out or your location is wrong, it might seem a bit, "but i have set it right" , if you had it would slew properly.

I have the image above of my handset with the coordinates in putted

- Rob

[Cornelius Varley]

Your numbers look OK.

[Owmuchonomy]

Must be very frustrating.  I'm sure you've checked but you have got DST switched off for the moment?  Switch it on, on 30th March.

Chris

[RobertC]

Must be very frustrating.  I'm sure you've checked but you have got DST switched off for the moment?  Switch it on, on 30th March.

Chris

I have it set to 'No' at the moment. Yes it's very annoying as i have done everything to my knowledge correctly and it refuses to want to behave

-Rob

[Owmuchonomy]

Sorry Rob I wish I could come round and help but I'm near Harrogate.  You've checked Sidereal Rate x1 is selected?

Chris

[Tinker1947]

I can't check my handset atm, but assuming that's the right way then that just leaves the "Time" as the error either the PC system time or the EQMod, Ascom time, if thats all checks out a reset to factory defaults if it can be done, or reload the latest firmware to reset the Handset...I can't think of anything else...

[leelee970]

You say it worked at a local club - and I guess you have noted down exactly what they did and have since replicated it on your own with no success.????

The only thing I could suggest is maybe there is an issue with the cable or connector on the handset or mount.

A long shot, but if it worked for the club then maybe there is a loose/ short connection.

[RobertC]

You say it worked at a local club - and I guess you have noted down exactly what they did and have since replicated it on your own with no success.????

The only thing I could suggest is maybe there is an issue with the cable or connector on the handset or mount.

A long shot, but if it worked for the club then maybe there is a loose/ short connection.

All they entered differently was the coordinates, i setup the mount.

Well i've just done a full factory reset of the handset and reset EQMOD an re-entered all my data just to start a fresh. Just got to wait on a clear night now to try and hope it brings good news.

-Rob

[Tinker1947]

You could do a 2 star align one on Polaris " weights down scope pointing North'ish" and take a look at Stellarium and pick something a little to the right, it doesn't have to be to accurate, then do a GoTo to something near your second star and see what happens....

[RobertC]

You could do a 2 star align one on Polaris " weights down scope pointing North'ish" and take a look at Stellarium and pick something a little to the right, it doesn't have to be to accurate, then do a GoTo to something near your second star and see what happens....

Yeah, ill give it a go. Wednesday 12am-2am is clear so looks like i may be able to try it then.

-Rob

[jambouk]

Rob, you should still be able to mimic set up in the day time; just lie to the handset and pretend it is 8pm, then use stars whoch you know roughly where they are such as Castor, procyon, capella, dubhe, whatever you can notmally see, and see what it does, or try diferent options to see what makes it work or not work.

If it worked at the club, it makes me wonder if it is power related (lose connection?), else "operator error" hahha many of these issues are operator error. I'm frustrated for you. Do any members of the club live near you and be willing to pop over and look at it? In the day lught you donmt even need to put the scope on the mount.

Jd

[Tinker1947]

Yeah, ill give it a go. Wednesday 12am-2am is clear so looks like i may be able to try it then.

-Rob

Sorry i should have said, do it now, you don't need to see the stars, just see what happens when you do a GoTo.... 

[RichM63]

A couple of thoughts,

Home and Parked are not neccessarily the same position and could give a different slew.

I would delete the '.ini' files from EQMOD, CDC, and Stellarium having verified that they all have the same coordinates + time and then reload the programs to generate a new ini.

I had to do this (see sig).

+ I have also noticed that if I don't complete a shut down park procedure, then even if I manually reposition the rig, next time out it will be out of squew.

Taking as read that you don't need to reverse Ra/Dec settings.

If you are in Manchester the you have local access to Oily and "Hallo again hero Dion"

Whatever it is, it will be a simple problem, that once sorted will never happen again.

At your successful club showing, were all parameters exactly the same, ie cables, PC, yada yada, if even one of them was club supplied that changes the goal post for trouble shooting.

Chin up and stick with it, you have already seen that it will work, it is just a minor question of getting it to work at your place.

Best wishes,

Richard

[jambouk]

Rob, start a thread here (http://stargazerslounge.com/forum/116-manchester-stargazers/) with the title of the first bit of your postcode (NG2 for me) and then ask if there is anyone local to you you could pop over with the kit, or who might be able to pop over to yours.

When is it going below the horizon, when it is trying to do a star alignment, or after that when you use the goto? If the latter, is the object you are trying to goto above the horizon?

Jd

[RobertC]

Rob, start a thread here (http://stargazerslounge.com/forum/116-manchester-stargazers/) with the title of the first bit of your postcode (NG2 for me) and then ask if there is anyone local to you you could pop over with the kit, or who might be able to pop over to yours.

When is it going below the horizon, when it is trying to do a star alignment, or after that when you use the goto? If the latter, is the object you are trying to goto above the horizon?

Jd

Bolton is pretty much a 10 minute drive away so i shall post a thread if tonights efforts are no further than the other days, shame the club i joined is so far away i can barely ever make the journey to get some more help in person. Well this is the weird bit, say if i am starting from the standard home park of the scope pointing to the NCP and i give it the command to slew to Vega on the first star alignment it is nearish, then the second star it will go all the way to pointing to the ground, well well below the horizon. 

-Rob

[RobertC]

A couple of thoughts,

Home and Parked are not neccessarily the same position and could give a different slew.

I would delete the '.ini' files from EQMOD, CDC, and Stellarium having verified that they all have the same coordinates + time and then reload the programs to generate a new ini.

I had to do this (see sig).

+ I have also noticed that if I don't complete a shut down park procedure, then even if I manually reposition the rig, next time out it will be out of squew.

Taking as read that you don't need to reverse Ra/Dec settings.

If you are in Manchester the you have local access to Oily and "Hallo again hero Dion"

Whatever it is, it will be a simple problem, that once sorted will never happen again.

At your successful club showing, were all parameters exactly the same, ie cables, PC, yada yada, if even one of them was club supplied that changes the goal post for trouble shooting.

Chin up and stick with it, you have already seen that it will work, it is just a minor question of getting it to work at your place.

Best wishes,

Richard

Ah yes i do like to watch Dion and his videos Well i've had this issue now for well over 4 months. When i took it upto the club it was just the mount setup with handset just coords where changed. No computers, it sort of went to the correct place but i really had my doubts about it.

-Rob

[jambouk]

What time are you setting up? I only ask as Vega may be very low, and i wonder if your handset is set up to pick stars which might not necessarily be above the horizon. Are all the stars you are trying to align on well above the horizon?

I still think you should test it in day light, just pretend it is 8pm and lie to the handset, and select two high up stars like castor and capella, then see if it goes below the horizon.

Jd

[RobertC]

Vega is usually around 30 degrees above the horizon, often the first star the handset shows to align to. I'll be giving it a go tonight again as its clear from 6 onwards, i'll go through the full alingment in EQMOD using the 'Append on Sync' method.

-Rob