2 star or brightest star alignment?

[NightSky_Wanderer]

Hi

Got a Skywatcher Skymax 127 with syncscan for Christmas.

I had the chance to observe the moon a few times which my younger brother thought was brilliant.

Just wondering the best alignment to do for the syncscan?

Many Thanks

Adam

[hazegood]

simple answer is the more stars you align on, the more accurate the goto will be,

[chris_suffolk]

Always use 3 star myself, as has been said, the more you use the better the accuracy. Also helps to make sure the mount is set up properly too, else the accuracy drifts off quite quick I have found.

[Owmuchonomy]

As this is an Alt Az set up I would always use the 2 star. I find it more forgiving than the brightest star particularly if your levelling is not spot on. 3 star alignment is not an option with this set up.

[hazegood]

As this is an Alt Az set up I would always use the 2 star. I find it more forgiving than the brightest star particularly if your levelling is not spot on. 3 star alignment is not an option with this set up.

not used it for a while as no time / clear nights but am almost certain my SW AZ will do a 3 star alignment

[NightSky_Wanderer]

Thanks for your advice. I went to attempt the 2 star alignment but while i was preparing one of the leg claps just snapped.

[jimbo747]

With my 127slt the last few times ive been using a 3 star align on rigel, procyom and sirius. Everything then displayed bang in the middle of any eyepiece for a good few hours. 2 star align should be pretty much identical as i think the 3rd star is just used to confirm the locations of the other 2, hence no more than mag 2.5 stars can be used and why under alignment stars only 2 are listed.

[chris_suffolk]

Interesting, always wondered why only two listed when 3 were used - you learn something every day!!

[Paulb3098]

Hi Adam, I use two sat and have no issues. If you have some distance between the two, for example one in the east and one in the south you will get better accuracy. When I first started I when through the list of stars on the handset and marked a dozen or so of the brightest on a planesphere, which helped with setting up, especially when you're choosing your second star. Good luck

[stevend]

I thought 3 star align was for polar mounts and 2 star for Alt/Az.

For a quick session viewing planets I use Solar System Align but most of the time I use 2 star (not auto 2 star) align. Sometimes during a longer session if the GoTo becomes GoNear I then use ALIGN to change one of the initial set up stars (easy to do and well worth investigating).

[NightSky_Wanderer]

I thought 3 star align was for polar mounts and 2 star for Alt/Az.

For a quick session viewing planets I use Solar System Align but most of the time I use 2 star (not auto 2 star) align. Sometimes during a longer session if the GoTo becomes GoNear I then use ALIGN to change one of the initial set up stars (easy to do and well worth investigating).

Thanks for the advice

[lensman57]

Hi

Got a Skywatcher Skymax 127 with syncscan for Christmas.

I had the chance to observe the moon a few times which my younger brother thought was brilliant.

Just wondering the best alignment to do for the syncscan?

Many Thanks

Adam

The Max you can do is 3 stars. The 3rd will take care of the cone error. Once you are properly set and 3 stars aligned, find a star very near your target, go named object, star and find the star on the hand set, command the mount to slew to the star, it will be off centre a bit, do a PAE on the star by pressing the ESC button twice in succession and holding on the second. "Centre the object"  prompt is then displayed on the hand set, use the arrows to centre the star and press enter to accept the PAE. Now you have an almost perfect alignment to within 10 degrees of the sky. Slew to the target and with a bit of luck it will be in the centre or not far off. Make sure that your mount is level and pointing north before you start as instructed by the manual. Hope that this helps.

A.G

PS: When I got my 127 on the GoTo mount I had a lot of pointing errors. It all came to the clutch slipping so make sure the mount is tight but DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN the screws.

[NightSky_Wanderer]

Thanks I will try that next time I'm out