Updating Synscan alignment stars

[jambouk]

Modding is all well and good if your targets have lots of hydrogen alpha in them. It would be worth looking at what targets people have imaged with a wide field of view like yours and a modded DSLR. I'd seriously consider saving your money and just jumping a few steps ahead and getting a dedicated [cooled] CCD, but do your homework as lots of the entry ones have very small chips compared to the 1100D you are accustomed to.

James

[Marky1973]

I've been balancing the scope slightly weight heavy as per the tutorial to try and compensate for backlash, but thanks for the other tips! Yeah a CCD is the way to go, but I reckon I need more practice with allignment before I try finding targets with a smaller sensor! And that is before i have even started thinking about OSC vs Mono! When I get a chance I will have a "practice" with the ASI120MM  i have, just to see how I get on framing targets with a smaller sensor... but baby steps - spent 15 minutes on Wednesday night trying to find Jupiter with the ZWO... felt like ages...and a complete fool when I realised it had disappeared behind some houses....

[jambouk]

Get the alignment much tighter, and add in some PAE near Jupiter, and then also do a PAE on Jupiter using a high power eye piece (or illuminated reticle eye piece), then swap over to the ASI.

One thing worth doing in day light is some tests again on a very distant horizon object to:

- ascertain how much change (and in what direction) to the focus you need to make when swapping from an eye piece to the ASi (easy to do in the day but write it down, like 3 half turns towards me).

- also the centre of the FoV for the eyepiece might not fall on the centre of the FoV of the ASI. So again centre a distant object on the horizon (turn tracking off) in an eye piece, then swap to the ASI and work out if you have to do any slewing to get that same object in the centre of the ASI, and again write it down (eg slew rate 2, three short presses of right arrow, one of up arrow)....

Makes the world of difference and makes life so much easier at night.

James

[Marky1973]

So is an illuminated reticule likely to be a lot better than using the reticule overlay in APT or similar, or is the difference marginal? I've marked the focus tube on the ST80 for guiding purposes so I can get into the "sweet spot" a little quicker for a guide star, so can easily mark other positions as required, Have a few days off over half-term, so might be time for a daylight fiddle...if you'll excuse the expression....

[jambouk]

Ah, yes, forgot about the reticle in APT - no, that will do just fine.

James

[Marky1973]

Phew - thought you were trying to get me to spend more money.... after the small dovetail from FLO arrived yesterday and the "You've bought ANOTHER one...?" comment from my wife, I'm thinking I need to keep a low profile for a bit..... 

[Earl]

APT has plate solving in the new version, this combined with eqmod and your cooking with gas as they say... who ever they is mind.

[Earl]

So, just to be clear Earl, you don't like the handset? 

I am planning to go down that route, but having only had the mount for a couple of weeks, i just want to get familiar with the way it works before I complicate things (in my head) will probably switch over in a month or so...

They work i guess but the whole star selection has been a joke for years.

My EM400 has a basic slew control handset all else is done via software.

[Marky1973]

I saw the APT update yesterday and got quite excited about it as I know that software - part of the fear of changing to EQMOD is learning more new software, but if I can do it all via APT and Stellarium, then gas me up! Had original planned to go Syntrek, but then got seduced by a good Synscan price. And that's more money for the cable! 

[Earl]

Unfortunately i dont use the software however i know Yodda (is it) does a grand job so im sure it will do the job, you might just be able to connect the eqmod lead and leave apt to it?

get Cart du ceil though as its far better for scope control than stellarium.

Stellarium is grand for sitting at your desk and mooching through your potential targets prior to the session though.

I imagine it has a solve and sync option so the scope knows where its pointing then you slew to target and redo to refine, no need for an alignment model as all you care about is the target been in the right place on your chip. that is how SGP does it more or less.

[ronin]

If Don reads this far I suspect it was not you that did anything wrong.

This came up about 12-15 weeks back and it is a fault in one version of the Skywatcher software.

You select UTC-6 and the software goes and changes it to UTC+6 and stores that.

As said it was someone in Aus that fell foul of it.

As Orion items are basically Skywatcher there is the chance that this was occuring on your handset.

I would check if there is an update to your handset software, Skywatcher did a fix and made it available so Orion should have followed.

This assumes the software is the problem.

Also I realised that when I said Vega would be more visible to you I was wrong.

Vega is in the North and so you being further south would have made it lower not higher for you - bit more of the planet in the way, natural assumption was that being further south you were better.

The alignment stars were all on http://www.jimscosmos.com/wp-content/plugins/stars/docs/synscan-finder-stars.pdf

However the earlier version I have additionally lists the stars by name and month, which is not on the link, the link appears to have just been updated/changed.

[Tinker1947]

For speed of alignment the list of star isn't so good, but if you were to run Stellarium on a Mobile, then search for the stars it list your be surprised how quick you pick up names and locations of Stars, some that you always see and don't know the names  of soon pop into place and the whole alignment process starts to get very quick.....

[jambouk]

If you know the first star in the alignment routine, say an obvious one like Vega or Deneb, then just select any old star as long as you've got good a open sky as the second and third and the scope will likely slew to a patch of sky with only one really bright star in it, and usually that is the right star, just centre and go again... Easy way to learn the stars too (assuming it does slew to the right star).

James