It went something like this!

[JemC]

Hi all,

Well i went outside last night (Thursday) around eight because it looked kind of promising  this was the first time out with scope since SGLX  and seeing as i had just recently installed the goto kit on my Heq5 , i thought i might as well at least see if everything works and because i was itching to have a play around with it (kid with new toy syndrome)
I had to remount onto the pier and polar align (forgot how much of a pain that can be  ) anyway eventually i got it somewhat aligned after much cursing,squinting,neck ache and cold aching knees and  cloud rolling in,Oh the fun of it all :-)

Set up the home position, balanced the 130-Pds with travel scope 70 piggy backed onto it as guide scope(not actually got to that level yet)and to be honest i'm not sure i liked it that way? might have to re-think that setup and maybe go side by side as it seemed to be more of an hindrance than anything? seems a little to big to use as guide scope, need to look for something smaller i think.

Moment of truth with Synscan, plug everything in, connect lead to power, hover finger over On switch,just press it you muppet i tell myself,CLICK it's done open eyes look at hand set and what a lovely red colour it was, it works thats a relief
Right need to set it up now so dig my phone out my pocket and activate Synscanlnit2 (Android app, handy little tool for what information you need to input into the handset)

Now we get to star alignment 1,2,or 3 Hmmm! which should i choose, looks skyward, don't you just love them clouds all pretty and fluffy, i better keep it same as me -Simple, so i choose 1 star
Ha! ha! ha! star names coming up on there that i never knew existed, can't wait to use 2/3 star alignment.
Thank goodness for phone apps, time for SkEye although they are not 100% accurate they get you there or there abouts so i choose Caph seeing as it was not covered by our fluffy friends and away we go motors whir and i'm slewing (quiet aren't they)
well it's pointing in the general direction of Caph so look through eypiece (20mm) and low and behold it's in the fov, not central but it's there over to the right in the eyepiece so i use the buttons to centre it and hit enter-Alignment succesful scrolls onto handset-is it really that simple!

have a look round for another star-Sirius was visible so input to handset and away we go, i just love this goto business :-) again pointing in direction of Sirius and yes it's there in the fov not central but there, i'm a happy man at this point, now i know there is more to it than this and i need to do some more fine tuning and better polar alignment to get things to where they need to be and working correct,but for first time using/setting up i have to say i am impressed,
Now by this point my hands were freezing and even more cloud had rolled in and it was 9:30pm - What! i thought i had only been out there about 20 mins not 90 mins anyway i decided to pack it all away for the night as there was no way i could try a 2 star alignment-not enough clear sky.

I had so much fun and learnt a few new things along the way, can't wait for some decent clear spells so can have a proper mess around with it.
So while i'm waiting for the clear skies i need to re-think how i have  my kit set up.

Thanks for reading, hope i've not waffled on to much

Regards
James

[laudropb]

Very nice report. Reading it I almost felt I was there with you. Hope your sky clears soon.

[Astro Imp]

From reading your very enjoyable report your sense of humour came through, and bygad you're going to need it when you start serious imaging 

Good luck and hope you get some clear skies soon.