Need help with my step by step instructions please

[ianpwilliams]

Ok how's this:

HEQ5 Pro SynScan Setup

Initial Setup

1. Place the tripod down without the mount as high as possible, with the “N” leg facing roughly at the Pole star.
2. Attach the accessory tray to brace the legs
3. Ensure that the tripod is level all three ways using a spirit level, and by adjusting the length of the legs
4. Put the mount on the tripod and secure it using the bolt underneath, centre the mount using the Azimuth bolts

Mounting the Scope

1. Attach the telescope to the mount
2. While supporting the scope, unlock the RA clutch, rotate the RA and feel for imbalance.  Adjust the weights until balance is achieved. Rotate to 90 degrees, and then lock the RA clutch
3. While supporting the scope, unlock the DEC clutch, rotate the DEC so that the scope is roughly parallel to the ground and check for imbalance.  Move the scope in the dovetail until balance is achieved.
4. For imaging, leave the balance with a slight bias towards or away from the camera (depending upon drift in Dec mode)
5. In RA for imaging, leave the balance with a slight bias to achieve East heavy moment
6. Check that the finder scope is aligned with the scope, and make adjustments where necessary
7. Put dew shield on telescope

Polar Alignment by Eye (Observing)

1. Set the mount Latitude to 55.96 by hand (set indoors before going out)
2. Power on the mount, and set the Polar Scope brightness to 10%?
3. Look through polarscope with one eye and turn the RA axis to align the long reticle line with Mizar in the other eye (the long reticule line is the long axis line in the Polar Scope view). The small reticule line should then align with Cassiopeia). Lock the RA axis. Use the ALT and AZ bolts to centre Polaris in the small circle.
4. Return the RA and DEC to the “Home” position by eye from the front of the mount and check by sighting along the scope tube so that Polaris is aligned. Lock RA and Dec
5. Once finished with the Polar Scope, put some gaffer tape over the front hole

Setting up GoTo (Observing)

1. Power up the mount and set up the SynScan
2. Press Enter to skip the main menu and warning
3. Set the Latitude (3.14 W) and Longitude (56 N)
4. Enter the date and time mm/dd/yyyy, and Time Zone (GMT)
5. Enter “No” to Daylight Saving at the moment
6. Use the scroll keys to choose “3-Star Alignment”
7. Centre each star after slewing finishes
8. Alignment complete “successful”.
9. Use M/NGC/IC to access celestial catalogues (e.g. M31)

Polar Alignment Fine Tuning (Imaging only)

1. Power up the mount and set up the SynScan
2. Press Enter to skip the main menu and warning
3. Set the Latitude (3.14 W) and Longitude (56 N)
4. Enter the date and time mm/dd/yyyy, and Time Zone (GMT)
5. Enter “No” to Daylight Saving at the moment
6. Use the scroll keys to choose “2-Star Alignment”
7. Choose 2 stars on the SAME side of the meridian as your imaging activity. E.g., at this time of year for the East choose from Capella, Aldebaran, Alpheratz or Dubhe or for the West choose from Vega, Altair and Deneb.  Use planetarium software to help you. Delta RA should be 3 to 9 hours, Delta Dec should be 10 to 30 deg.
8. Go to Polar Alignment on the Handset and follow Handset instructions using one of the stars you chose above. Repeat 6 to 8 until Mel Maz error is less than 30 arc seconds (SynScan should tell me what the Mel Maz error after each 2-star alignment)

Focus

1. Slew to a bright star, ideally with a similar altitude to the target object (e.g. “Sheat” for M31?)
2. Using the Live View x10 of the camera, focus on the star
3. Hang the Bhatinov mask on the front of the scope
4. There should be three diffraction spikes
5. The centre spike may not be centred
6. Focus the scope until the three spikes are perfectly aligned, and the central spike is dead centre
7. Remove the mask

Camera

Set the camera to the following settings:

1. Exposure length – Bulb
2. ISO - 800
3. NO Live View
4. Remote Timer settings – 10 second delay, 60-second subs (for unguided)
5. Take as many Lights as possible
6. Then take as many Darks as possible (same sub length as lights, with scope cap on)
7. Then take the same number of Bias frames as the Lights (minimum sub length as lights, with scope cap on)

End of Session

1. Put the mount in the “Home” position i.e. scope looking towards Polaris, mount pointing North, with weight pointing to the ground
2. Charge the camera and Tracer batteries to full
3. Put gaffer tape over the Polar Scope hole

Unsurprisingly I also have more questions:

1 - Does anyone know where can i get a replacement polar scope cap?

2 - If I do manage to somehow get to the imaging stage, what should I try doing? Obviously I would like to try the andromeda galaxy if I can, which I hear is good for beginners, and I love it anyway. But should I just try one 60-second shot first, rather than doing 10 or so and discovering at the end that I was aimed at nothing? Would I see anything with one 60-second shot?

3 - Could anyone recommend three stars (for GOTO-setup 3-star alignment and PA fine tune 2-star alignement) that I could use tonight? Like I say if possible I'd like to have a go at aiming at M31 if I can. I may not see anything, but maybe I could take a few shots and see if there's anything at all there, just so I know that I polar aligned correctly etc.

4 - Is that right that the stars should be on different sides of the meridian? Because I thought someone told me there should be on the same side

5 - What does "centre the mount using the Azimuth bolts" mean?

6 - I do have the PolarFinder app on my phone, although I'm not entirely sure how I should be using it. I know it has something to do with the amount of time since Polaris was last in transit (12 'o'clock?), but then one set of instructions say to rotate the RA by that amount of time using the RA Clock, and your instructions say to set it to what it is now (although I'm not sure if that's what PolarFinder displays - what it should be now). But my updated instructions say something else, so I'll try the instructions I have for now, and if that doesn't work out, then it seems that there are many other ways of doing it!

7 - And yes, it does seem that you can move the mount by hand when it comes to latitude. So I'll just do that for now, and hopefully look into buying some new bolts in the future.
 

I have no doubt that once I have my laptop up and running I will dive into the software side and use as much software as I can get away with, but for now I'm really keen to get out there without the laptop so that I can hopefully get a good understanding of what's going on.

[Owmuchonomy]

Put your dew shield and anything else on your set up BEFORE you balance it.

3. I already gave you some options in the previous post for 2 star align (imaging set up). For 3 star alignment to set up your GoTo just go with the stars the handset suggests.  If you can't see a star it suggests just scroll down the list until one pops up.

4. For visual its fine and helps reduce cone error.  For imaging and two star align they should both be on the SAME side of the meridian.

5. What it says on the tin. Use the Az bolts to roughly centre the mount when you put it on the tripod. Its not critical but will give you more adjustment.

6. This is over complicated. It takes 5 seconds to do this step by looking through the Polarscope and aligning with Mizar and Cassiopeia as I described before. 

7. I can only surmise that your bolts are damaged, broken or severely bent.  This can happen if someone is heavy handed.  Mine have been fine for 7 years though.

[carastro]

Does anyone know where can i get a replacement polar scope cap?

Does a 1.25" scope end cap fit, if not try astroboot or ask one of the astro traders.

Could anyone recommend three stars (for GOTO-setup 

this will vary throughout the year.  The handset will give you a selection of the best ones, just choose the one you think is the most convenient for you.

4 - Is that right that the stars should be on different sides of the meridian? Because I thought someone told me there should be on the same side

If you do a 3 star alignment one will be on the opposite side of the Meridian, but can;t quite remember what it does for 2 star.  The idea is that the mount builds up a picture of where you are pointing, so it knows where you are and it will make GOTOs more accurate.  If you choose two stars in the same constellation as you suggested, then it's not going to be so accurate.

Polaris position -  it seems that there are many other ways of doing it!

I used to use the method you are describing and found it overly complicated and it didn't help when the setting circles slipped.  So I changed to using Polar finder to tell me where polaris should be at a given time and it's so much easier.  Yes there are several ways of doing PA.

 If I do manage to somehow get to the imaging stage, what should I try doing? Obviously I would like to try the andromeda galaxy if I can, which I hear is good for beginners,

This is indeed an easy target for beginners because it is bright, and you can get a reasonable image without the need to guide, at least as a beginner.  You should be able to see if you have found the galaxy with even as little as 5 sec shots.   If you're not guiding I'd suggest 30 secs to start with depending on how good your PA is, and then increase it until star trailing becomes unacceptable.  N.B. when imaging this Galaxy in real long exposure i.e. 5mins or more, you also need to do 30secs shots as well to combine as the core will be too bright.

I got my replacement bolts from this chap:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HEQ5-upgraded-Latitude-Adjustment-Bolt-set-skywatcher-/280622609643

Carole 

[ianpwilliams]

Ok l get my instructions updated accordingly.

Would you be able to provide some kind of image of the polar scope view with the line highlighted that you're talking about? I want to leave as little as possible to chance when I'm out there, and I could easily picture myself standing outside wondering exactly I'm supposed to be doing at this step.

[ianpwilliams]

Thanks, hopefully I'm slowly getting to a point where I might end up feeling like I've achieved something when I go out tonight!

[happy-kat]

Camera

You need live view to help get focus but once got focus you won't need it any more.

[ianpwilliams]

Thanks. And the 1.25" cap from my 1.25" 2x Barlow fits the Polar Scope hole perfectly! One less thing to worry about!

[Davey-T]

As it's second hand the internal bit that the bolt pushes against may be worn away, instructions somewhere on the forum for stripping it down, not something you want to do probably but might be best in the long run, you can mod it at the same time.

Dave

[ianpwilliams]

I suspect that I might not have the reticular line in my polar scope. In this link, my reticule is Figure 2 (with the constellations):

http://www.nightskyimages.co.uk/polar_alignment.htm

So I'm not sure how I would line up to Mizar.

[Owmuchonomy]

I suspect that I might not have the reticular line in my polar scope. In this link, my reticule is Figure 2 (with the constellations):

http://www.nightskyimages.co.uk/polar_alignment.htm

So I'm not sure how I would line up to Mizar.

Ok. Well its exactly the same thing.  Yours just has the constellations ready imprinted.  Mine doesn't.  Just align the constellations in the Polarscope with how they look in the night sky at the moment. You are then at the correct hour angle and good to go.  Takes seconds.  Good luck.  My mount is already set up for tonight as it is crystal clear. Yippee.

[ianpwilliams]

Ah ok, thanks, I'll give that a try.

And yeah, I've been keeping an eye on the weather forecast, and it's clear skies all the way tonight!

[ianpwilliams]

Would everyone else agree that 30 second subs would be a good starting point? I believe that a small scope like the 130PDS on a sturdy HEQ5 is a good imaging setup, but I suppose the sub lengths would still come down to how well I polar aligned, like Carole said?

[ianpwilliams]

I'm outside, but stuck. How do I go to the constellations so that I can line them up in my polar reticule (the Mizar bit)? Do I unlock the R and DEC or use the handset?

[Davey-T]

Start at 30secs and work your way up 'till the stars trail, depending where you are in the sky (don't start out too high) you can work out from the direction of drift in relation to Polaris which direction your PA is out.

Dave

Unlock RA and Dec ,you need Dec out of the way to see through the Polar Scope,  and if necessary rotate tripod, when you get the tripod right mark the legs on the ground for next time.

Have a look on Astronomy Shed forum for tutorial on PA HEQ5

[ianpwilliams]

Ah well, another failed attempt!

I got as far as setting up and levelling the mount, and attaching and balancing the scope. But then I could see that The Plough and Polaris were too far off to the left, and I didn't know what to do (hence my earlier post). I didn't want to physically rotate the mount because it wouldn't have been level any more.

But the real issue was that I couldn't see much at all through the polar scope. I had the Dec out of the way, so that wasn't the issue. I tried rotating the polar scope eyepiece (can you focus the polar scope?), but it didn't seem to help much. I could see stars here and there, but they were so faint it was nigh on impossible to recognise anything. And looking at the sky with the naked eye the stars were really clear. So I don't know what I can do about that.

Assuming I can manage to get to the stage where I can see The Plough and Polaris through my polar scope, and i can move the RA/DEC/mount so that they are lined up, then should it be the case that I should be able to rotate the RA until The Plough in the Polar Scope matches the real one, and that Polaris should then be in the right place, in the little circle? Or would I still need to use the Alt Az bolts to get Polaris in the small circle?

Also, if I'm rotating the RA so that the constellations and Polaris match the real ones, then why am I then returning the mount to the "Home" position straight afterwards (which is what my instructions say)?

Real shame I couldn't make progress tonight, it's the clearest night I've ever seen out there.

[Davey-T]

You're only aligning the RA axis with Polaris using the bolts and if necessary rotating the tripod, once done you can loosen the clutches and rotate in all directions, it doesn't affect the Polar alignment.

Polar scope should match Cass' and Ursa Major not fit on them just that way round.

Polar sope can be screwed in and out to focus, stars aren't very bright through it but Polaris should stand out.

Watch the Astronomy Shed video, I wiil try to find a YT link.

Is you're Polar scope illuminated ? if not you can shine a red torch down the top to see better.

Dave

There you go

[ianpwilliams]

Thanks, I'll have a look at the video.

My polar scope is illuminated. I actually went to the polar scope illumination setting, and I set it to 0 to see if I could see any stars and then illuminate it again. But with no illumination the stars are barely visible, and with any illumination at all there is no chance

[ianpwilliams]

That video seems to use one of the other polar alignment methods (polar finder), which would be tricky for me because I can't use the PC polar finder when I'm outside. And I'm getting confused by the various polar alignment methods anyway, which I think is the main problem (apart from the polar scope issue).

I've also noticed on my mount that once I've set the date and time etc, the mount displays two screens, one saying something like "Polaris position" and one saying "Polaris hour. I don't know if they mean anything though, or if they would help.

[Davey-T]

It's only using Polar finder to tell you where Polaris should be on the circle, you can look at this indoors then go out and look through the Polar scope.

Have you managed to see Polaris through the Polar scope yet ?

The hand controller does the same as Polar finder just tells you where Polaris should be in the circle.

Dave

[ianpwilliams]

I couldn't see much through the polar scope unfortunately. I may have to look through it in the daytime and see if there's a problem or something.

[Davey-T]

If you could take a laptop outside you could use EQMod to Polar align.

Dave

[ianpwilliams]

Yeah it's looking more and more like the laptop will be the way to go

[Davey-T]

You'll need one sooner or later

Another way to get an idea of what you're trying to do is, start Stellarium, make sure you've put in your location and put North at the centre bottom, click on Polaris and centre it and zoom in.

If you now press ctrl and + together you will see Polaris circling true north, when Polar aligning you're aiming the circle in the  polar scope at the point where Polaris is shown to be at that time, you can use Stellarium to see where Polaris should be, you just need to remember the Polar scope reverses  the image so if Polaris is at one oclock in Stellarium it will be at seven oclock in the Polar scope.

Dave

[ianpwilliams]

Yeah I understand that Polaris isn't exactly north, which is the reason for the circle with a small circle on the edge, to represent the movement of Polaris. It's when I start looking at PolarFinder (which is different on PC and Android app), and RA and DEC rings on the mount etc that I start getting confused.

Still, I'm having problems seeing stars through the polar scope, and I'm getting a laptop delivered next week anyway, so it seems like the obvious choice is to get as much software as possible onto the laptop and try it that way instead.

[Davey-T]

I think it's best to ignore the setting circles on the mount, I have an iOptron iEQ45  mount and it doesn't even have setting circles, just need to aim the polar scope/ RA axis at Polaris, not even that accurately if only for visual use and if imaging you'll probably have to drift align it anyway, another can of worms 

Dave