EQ8 Mel & Maz

[ngwillym]

OK, EQ8 on its pier and very roughly aligned.

The handset tells me that Maz is ~ +14arcmin and Mel is ~+50arcmin.

Question :- given that the offsets are +  does that mean I go up or down for Alt and left or right for az to align the mount?

Thanks in advance

Neil

 

 

 

[jambouk]

I'd read somewhere that a positive Mel meant the RA axis was too high, and a positive Maz meant the RA axis was too far east, but I've never seen this in any formal Skywatcher publication, but it might exist somewhere.

Make sure you are only using the Mel and Maz errors after a two star alignment using two stars on the same side of the meridian. If you are using stars on either side of the meridian you'll get a very different set of Mel and Maz errors.

If you do the handset routine to refine polar alignment, it becomes clear which way you need to move in elevation and/or azimuth as you'll be centring the star in the FoV. I think blindly adjusting either altitude or azimuth is unlikely to result in getting this spot on, even if you do know in which direction to turn the knobs. Hopefully the EQ8 allows finer adjustments in elevation and azimuth than the AZEQ6 does. It is though Skywatcher want to make accurate polar alignment as difficult as possible for us

James

 

[ngwillym]

Jambouk - thanks - there's only one way to find out - I'll go and twiddle some knobs later - weather permitting

[ngwillym]

And using a GEM like the EQ8 is certainly very different from when my C11 was fork mounted on a wedge - for a start I have to keep an eye out for the counterweight bar as it slews

[libraryman]

I use an eq8 and pull it apart after every session....try to use phd2 to pa if you can see due South and an east or west horizon,

pits so intuitive when you get used to it, never used the handset.

i also use the homing tool on the yahoo site and just downloaded driver ver 29a it has the auto select for the eq8.

Ray

[ngwillym]

I'll upgrade toPHD2 shortly - was just using the handset to get somewhere near close to polar aligned - at the moment - sufficient for planetary imaging and also short exposure video imaging. Next step will be PHD or Metaguide to get it accurate enough to stick my Sony DSLR on it.

EQMOD & ASCOM already installed & already have my USB control cable - will upgrade to latest driver tonight

I've got a good S horizon, poor E (trees) and W gets down to about 5 deg altitude, but will be looking over houses so the seeing will not be too good.

Neil

 

[libraryman]

Sounds like a plan...you don't need to get lower than  20 degs altitude in the west for pa so your fine.

Ray