8SE solar tracking

[JonnyK]

I'm really excited about the transit on the 9th, I've done plenty of solar imaging with my SE but have never set the mount up to track, any idiot guides about for solar tracking?

[ronin]

In the Set Up menu of the 8SE will be a tracking rate option, in there is Solar, you would simply select that and then centre the sun and leave it to go.

Not sure how you would initially set the scope up however as I am not aware of a default start position, there may be but just not aware of one and if so what. Remember you will not have stars to perform an alignment on. So some Start/Default is really necessary - at least I would expect one to be. Finding an 8SE manual is proving a bit difficul, and I thought I had one on the PC, seems not.

You may find it a lot simpler to just leave it on Sidereal rate as that is very very close to Solar. Last year I had a small scope tracking the sun and I have no Solar rate option, so it was Sidereal or nothing, on a Meade the sun doesn not exist in any form, have to set RA+Dec as a custom object for that day. The sun remained in view for three to four hours before we called it a day and packed up, it was still in view then without any adjustment having been made.

I think that the difference in rate is 1 degree a day, so 11:00 to 19:00 would mean the sun drifts by 1/3 of a degree - not a lot, and unless the scope is very well set up you are likely to get that drift anyway.

 

[Peter Drew]

Like Ronin said.

[JonnyK]

thankyou Ronin, I'll give it a go, I was wondering about an initial start position as I'm struggling to see how the mount can track without any start position or reference stars.

[Peter Drew]

Polaris is always in the same place and you can trick your 8se into thinking it's nightime. To set it up, do a one star alignment at night time using Polaris as the alignment star then mark the elevation mark on the fork. Also mark the position of the tripod on the ground so that you can point North again. Subsequently you can use these settings to do an imaginary one star alignment on Polaris during the day. This will initiate the tracking and you can slew from there to the Sun and track at sidereal rate which is plenty good enough for solar imaging. Plenty of time to practic.

[JonnyK]

brilliant, thanks Peter

[baggywrinkle]

I cannot recall but does the handset have a hibernate function? This allows a restart without alignment. The AVX handsets do have this.

[JonnyK]

I'm not sure I'll have a look, would be handy if it did