Need help with my step by step instructions please

[Davey-T]

Set scales on 0, do two star alignment not three, set slew speed to something fast 6 /7 to see it moving, should move in all directions, if you want to centre it perfectly you need an illuminated reticle or you can defocus the star to a big donut and centre that as  it's easier to see when it's central.

Out of interest could you see Polaris in the scope ? when mucking about Polar aligning you can centre Polaris and check it's near the centre of the main scope

Dave

Carole beat me to it

[ianpwilliams]

I didn't check Lolaris through the scope - something to add to the list for next time.

When it comes to slewing, I've had this before, where it wouldn't go left and right when outside, but it would when testing it indoors. I'll test it again indoors tonight with higher slew speed settings, but I suspect I may get the same problem.

I also suspect I'll get the same problem of the scope pointing on the wrong directions. Vega was visible through the finderscope after starting from "Home" (albeit near the top left corner), but then if you're saying that I don't need to be in the home position if I'm polar aligned, then there must be something else that I'm going wrong.

[ianpwilliams]

When attempting to slew with the hand controls I was looking through the finderscope, because I'm assuming that I wouldn't be able to see the star through the live view of the camera. I'm assuming that's correct? It may also be that the finderscope isn't properly aligned, so I'll check that later.

I'm also wondering if I should just try the laptop, because it's no fun using the handset, especially when it won't let me go left and right. I'm guessing that the laptop could control pretty much everything once is polar aligned by eye. Maybe I should have a practice indoors with or without the laptop (I know roughly what direction Polaris is in when I'm indoors).

[glowingturnip]

you need to have the scope manually put into home position (on top, pointing at the pole) before starting an align routine.  I've started aligning without it properly homed before, and it ends up pointing all over the place, even risks banging into the tripod legs.  Sounds like you had the same thing.

As for the scope not moving L&R - could you hear the motors working when you pressed the buttons ?  If you can't hear them, and as others say if it still doesn't move when you put the slew speed up, then check the cabling, is everything plugged in tightly ?

Might be an idea just to take the pressure off yourself a bit - forget imaging for a night, just take the scope outside, polar-align it (just do the polar scope align, forget any alignment routines for now), 2-star align it, then just have fun visually observing the stuff that's up there.  Once you've got the hang of that, then you can move on to the AP.

[Owmuchonomy]

As Stuart says, go back to basics. Use the document I posted right at the beginning for a visual GoTo set up and it should work fine. I did images of bright objects without doing the extra Polar Alignment when I first started out and they were quite acceptable. Look at the Pleiades for example on my Flickr page. When you've got the hang of it move on to more rigid Polar Alignment.

[carastro]

I agree with the above.  Just get used to doing an alignment procedure without the camera in the back, it's just making the job more difficult for you at this early stage.

Using a laptop is not as easy as it sounds unless you already have everything already aligned or have a permanent set up as you won't be able to see through the finder scope whilst operating the laptop unless you are a contortionist.  Which means you will need a game pad or similar.  To be honest I think this is the main reason why I gave up on EQMOD.  Though I do still use it sometimes when I feel it would help.  

When I first start imaging, I used to do the alignment without the camera and then when the alignment procedure was done - before I moved to my target and while I still had a bright star in the FOV, I then put the camera in and focussed it.  

Once you've had a bit more practice you can decide what is easiest for you.

Carole 

[ianpwilliams]

Thanks, I'll see what I can do.

On the plus side, I managed to get a great shot of the moon. And a spacy SciFi-like 2-second shot!

[carastro]

Good start Ian.

Carole 

[Carina Lass]

Hi Ian P.

You seem to be having a bit of bother setting up mate?

I've just read through your litany of traumas and am perspiring with the vicarious stress.

Relax, take a deep breath and close your eyes for a moment.

Right.

once you have set up your tripod and marked the feet position, mount your mount.

the cw rod will be at right angles to the pole when you are pointing at it.

so make up a piece of paper with your lattitude angle drawn on it.

fold the paper along the angle.

this piece of paper will have a vertical or horizontal edge when the angle fold is applied to the cw rod. Your eye is so accurate that you barely need to apply a spirit level to get the altitude perfect.

pointing north is a matter of measuring the distances from a known value.

Your house plans have the land/house dimensions: use that to ascertain where the pole is. A decent compass may also accomplish this.

qed.

once you know where on your garden fence the pole is above, mark the fence for future ease of setting up.

[ianpwilliams]

Thanks for that, although I'm fairly confident that I am pointing North now when I set up. The tricky part is getting the mount to point the scope in the right directions, which I believe will be solved by starting from the Home position before aligning. I've noticed that you can tell the mount to return to Home at the end before powering off, and then start again next time, which is a nice touch.

Incidentally, that PolarFinder app is great. I ran that in conjunction with the one that you print, in order to compare them, and they matched perfectly when describing where the small circle should be. So hopefully I can use that instead of having to print four out and then guess where the circle should be if it's between times. PolarFinder also mimics the constellations in my polar scope, and it has options to mimic other polar scope types as well.

Also, that moon photo I uploaded doesn't do it justice at all, it's much bigger and better than that, but for some reason it's a 40kb JPEG (I took RAWs and JPEGs). But when I tried to upload the best RAW it said I didn't have permission to do that. Maybe I can upload it to my gallery?

However, I am having another issue now, which is a power-related one. I powered up the mount indoors from mains power and went through the usual routine, and I went to 3-star algnment, and chose Alceyon. It rotated the RA and Dec to 43 and 24, and everything was fine. I then slewed using the handset (after setting a higher slew speed), and that was fine, both left and right.

But then I tried the same thing when powered from my fully-charged 22Ah Tracer battery, and I had issues. The mount tried to do the same thing, but it was only turning through Dec, not RA. When it stopped I tried the handset, and it would turn through Dec but not RA (i.e. left and right). I tried switching it off and on after exiting the utility, but when I switched it on the mount light flickered on then off again, as though the battery was flat. But the battery is not flat - I checked the charge level and it was only one light short of full. And I've just plugged it into the wall for charging, and the light is already green, which means it's fully charged. Incidentally the battery is brand new, so I would be surprised it there was an issue with it. So it seems that there is some kind of issue with the HEQ5 and the Tracer battery working together.

Does anyone have any suggestions for ways around this? Mains power really isn't an option right now, but even if it was, I need to have this battery working with my mount, because it cost a small fortune!

[glowingturnip]

i had a battery, brand new from the shop, that didn't work.  sounds like the same thing, you probably need to get it replaced.  I just run a long extension cord from the house for everything nowadays, makes life easier.

Also, that moon photo I uploaded doesn't do it justice at all, it's much bigger and better than that, but for some reason it's a 40kb JPEG (I took RAWs and JPEGs). But when I tried to upload the best RAW it said I didn't have permission to do that. Maybe I can upload it to my gallery?

load a full-sized jpeg into your flickr account, click the share-this-photo arrow on bottom right, select bbcode and the size you want, then past it into here

[ianpwilliams]

I'll try the battery again tomorrow. Mains isn't really an option, as I'm on the 2nd floor, and my mount is set up at the bottom of a large garden.

[ianpwilliams]

I tried it again, with weird results.

When using the mains power and selecting Alceyon and Vega, everything was fine. But when doing the same thing with the battery powering the mount, the Dec slewed but the RA didn't. But I also noticed that the handset display wasn't adjusting the RA either, only the Dec.

So it wasn't the case that the mount was trying to do both RA and Dec but the battery wasn't giving it the power, rather it seemed that the mount wasn't even trying to do the RA when powered by the battery.

[glowingturnip]

honestly sounds like the battery not giving enough power to drive both sets of motors and it starts doing funny things.

When I first got my synscan on my mount and got that battery at the same time, it was only just switching on and wouldn't drive the motors at all - had that sickening feeling that something was wrong with the mount, but turns out it was only the battery.

Are you able to lug your mount to the car, and test it by plugging in to the cigarette lighter ?  That's what eventually put my mind at rest/diagnosed a bad battery

[Thalestris24]

I tried it again, with weird results.

When using the mains power and selecting Alceyon and Vega, everything was fine. But when doing the same thing with the battery powering the mount, the Dec slewed but the RA didn't. But I also noticed that the handset display wasn't adjusting the RA either, only the Dec.

So it wasn't the case that the mount was trying to do both RA and Dec but the battery wasn't giving it the power, rather it seemed that the mount wasn't even trying to do the RA when powered by the battery.

Hi

Is your battery power connector tight in the power socket on the mount? Can you check your battery voltage with a meter?

Louise

[ianpwilliams]

I don't have a car so I can't check the cigar lighter connector. I'm sure it is securely connected. And unfortunately I don't have a multimeter for testing it.

I'm comparing the mains power and the battery. The mains is a power block, input 100-240v 1.5A, output 12v 5A, and the battery is input 12-14V-DC, output 12V 1A MAX, so I don't know if that makes a difference or not. But then I know that these Tracer batteries are supposed to work with HEQ5 mounts, because I got mine from FLO.

Maybe I need to buy a multimeter?

I wonder if this might need it's own topic too, because hopefully other people might have had this issue too.

[Thalestris24]

I don't have a car so I can't check the cigar lighter connector. I'm sure it is securely connected. And unfortunately I don't have a multimeter for testing it.

I'm comparing the mains power and the battery. The mains is a power block, input 100-240v 1.5A, output 12v 5A, and the battery is input 12-14V-DC, output 12V 1A MAX, so I don't know if that makes a difference or not. But then I know that these Tracer batteries are supposed to work with HEQ5 mounts, because I got mine from FLO.

Maybe I need to buy a multimeter?

I wonder if this might need it's own topic too, because hopefully other people might have had this issue too.

Ah, I don't think 12V at 1A is enough - you probably need 3 or 4A. It's worth getting yourself a digital multimeter any cheap one will do:http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_13?url=search-alias%3Delectronics&field-keywords=digital%20multimeter&sprefix=digital+multi%2Caps%2C506

Louise

Edit: I'm not sure what the minimum battery current is that you can get away with but it will be more than 1A

[ianpwilliams]

But FLO wouldn't sell them if they couldn't power mounts (because that's the reason they sell them), and I know other people use them with their mounts.

The battery has a battery connector to cigar adaptor cable, and a cigar adaptor to mount plug cable (with the power ratings on this cable), and the mains has a wall plug to power block to mount plug (with an extension). The mains setup also includes a cigar plug to mount plug cable. So I wonder if I could replace the battery's cigar plug/mount plug cable with the mains equivalent? Although it might not make any difference, and for all I know it could void the warranty of the battery if I needed to return it for a replacement.

[glowingturnip]

give FLO a call, describe your symptoms, and see what they suggest

[Davey-T]

I thought the smallest Tracer battery was 4amp.

Dave

[Scott]

Have you got a link to the battery you have? Which tracer is it? Seems odd that it only has a 1Amp output

[Thalestris24]

But FLO wouldn't sell them if they couldn't power mounts (because that's the reason they sell them), and I know other people use them with their mounts.

The battery has a battery connector to cigar adaptor cable, and a cigar adaptor to mount plug cable (with the power ratings on this cable), and the mains has a wall plug to power block to mount plug (with an extension). The mains setup also includes a cigar plug to mount plug cable. So I wonder if I could replace the battery's cigar plug/mount plug cable with the mains equivalent? Although it might not make any difference, and for all I know it could void the warranty of the battery if I needed to return it for a replacement.

Yeah all the Tracers that FLO sell would be fine for powering a mount. But not sure where you got the '1A' from... It sounds more like the battery is flat but you need a meter to check it. However, I'm not familiar with Tracers - maybe they have a level indicator on them?

[ianpwilliams]

It's the 12v 22Ah. The battery itself certainly has the amps, it's the cigar cable that says 1A output max.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/batteries-powerpacks/tracer-12v-22ah-lithium-polymer-battery-pack.html

[Thalestris24]

It's the 12v 22Ah. The battery itself certainly has the amps, it's the cigar cable that says 1A output max.

http://www.firstlightoptics.com/batteries-powerpacks/tracer-12v-22ah-lithium-polymer-battery-pack.html

Does the cable get warm, lol? Do you have a link to it?

Edit: looks like the battery has a 'fuel gauge' via button press so that's something you can easily check

[ianpwilliams]

Here are the power cables