AZ-EQ6 Setup - Help Needed

[wornish]

I feel embarrassed to ask this question but here goes.

 

I recently got an AZ-EQ6 mount and I really am impressed with it.  But setting it up is driving me mad.

 

At the time in the evening when I do my Polar alignment Polaris is usually around the 9 o clock  position on the display (+ or - 5 or minutes) so I position it there on the left of the display.

 

Then when I start the 2-star alignment process and select the first star the scope almost always sets off and tries to point about 90 degrees  or more from where it should be pointing.  I have to stop it slewing and send the mount to its home position and start the alignment process again.

 

Is this because I am selecting a star that is across the meridian and the goto is doing a flip ? or something I am doing wrong.

 

One thing I do notice when looking through the polar scope that  display is upside down which I understand is normal.  (So I am effectively putting Polaris at the 3 o'clock position on the actual display)  Should I rotate the scope so the weights are upmost to get the polar scope display to be the right way up?

 

Feel like a bit of a wally asking these questions but its driving mad.  

 

Can someone please help.

[Cornelius Varley]

Where Polaris is should affect the goto alignment. Check all your settings, date (mm/dd/yyyy) , time (24 hr, DST off) and location.

[wornish]

7 minutes ago, Cornelius Varley said:

Where Polaris is should affect the goto alignment. Check all your settings, date (mm/dd/yyyy) , time (24 hr, DST off) and location.

Thanks, but I have done all that multiple times thats why asking this question is my last resort.  

[Owmuchonomy]

I think Peter meant to say 'shouldn't'.

[Owmuchonomy]

I suggest you park the polarscope routine for another time and let's get your GoTo sorted. So, before you switch anything on I assume you have your mount and scope weights down and pointing roughly in the direction of Polaris? Next switch on and enter the details exactly as Peter said above particularly the date data. Make sure you answer NO for Start from Park and NO to the BST question. Choose 2 star alignment and make sure you pick 2 stars on the SAME side of the meridian. Follow the routine and it should work fine.

Once you are happy with this go to the Polar alignment routine on the handset and run that. You should only need to run the whole process twice including the 2 star alignment to get good polar alignment. No polarscope needed.

[wimvb]

You should check the app "SynscanInit" from google play. It uses the gps function on your (android) mobile to give the correct settings for the Synscan. I don't know if it is available for iPhone as well. It makes life a lot easier, and easier to correct mistakes.

[wornish]

50 minutes ago, Owmuchonomy said:

I suggest you park the polarscope routine for another time and let's get your GoTo sorted. So, before you switch anything on I assume you have your mount and scope weights down and pointing roughly in the direction of Polaris? Next switch on and enter the details exactly as Peter said above particularly the date data. Make sure you answer NO for Start from Park and NO to the BST question. Choose 2 star alignment and make sure you pick 2 stars on the SAME side of the meridian. Follow the routine and it should work fine.

Once you are happy with this go to the Polar alignment routine on the handset and run that. You should only need to run the whole process twice including the 2 star alignment to get good polar alignment. No polarscope needed.

Thanks.  I do set up with weights down roughly pointing at Polaris.   I will give it a go, I normally select start from park so that might be the issue.  Will get back.

[Owmuchonomy]

2 minutes ago, wornish said:

Thanks.  I do set up with weights down roughly pointing at Polaris.   I will give it a go, I normally select start from park so that might be the issue.  Will get back.

Ok, that may well be the reason. You can only use 'Start from Park' if you have previously set up your mount and scope accurately and then used the Park function before you switched off. As long as the scope and mount remains untouched you can then 'Start from Park'. This is the procedure I use in the obsy because I have permanent set up.

[wornish]

Just tried it again indoors and it worked.  Did not start from parked.  Skipped the polar alignment bit.    

I think the issue was I was choosing two stars one of which was across the meridian and the synscan was trying to do a flip.   

Thanks for the input I was starting to worry something was wrong with my mount.   

[Owmuchonomy]

The star choice is not critical enough to cause your error, its the Park choice that did it. If you really want to nail your GoTo in preference to PA then do the 3 Star alignment instead. This forces your star choice to be both sides of the meridian and sorts out your cone error.

[Ouroboros]

Wornish.  One recommended solution to this well known and rather annoying "feature" with the AZEQ6 mount is to switch off the mount after polar alignment and switch on again before proceeding with star alignment. This resets the processor in the handset. 

The procedure I used when I used the hand set with my mount was as follows:

1. Before switching on, manually set the mount at the Home position - weights down, scope pointing at the celestial pole.  There are procedures describing how to find the home position and mark it on the mount so can be returned to at any time. Astronomy Shed has some useful videos on this.

2. Switch on mount, input details into hand set.  Follow the process through polar alignment. 

3. Switch off the mount. Quickly reset the mount manually to the Home position. Switch on mount, re-input details in handset, skipping polar alignment of course because you've done that. 

4. Carry out 2 or 3 star alignment, with the scope (hopefully) pointing in the right direction now. 

Quite possibly returning to the Parked 'Home' position does the same thing, even without switching off and back on again. However, since I set up my mount from scratch each time, I found that manually resetting the mount to the home position was more reliable than parking it. 

Incidentally, since driving my mount from my laptop using ASCOM and Carte du Ciel planetarium software I have never had the problem with the scope pointing the wrong way when I begin aligning the scope to the stars. 

 

 

[triton1]

+1 for the above I couldn't remember the thread but they had the same problem in a article in S&N magazine.

[Owmuchonomy]

I have never encountered the above issues so cannot comment specifically but there should be no need to run a workaround if you follow the procedures correctly in the manual.  For example, the aux encoders should be OFF when running your star alignments.  Once you have set up your mount and scope you can turn them back on again to guard against accidental 'nudging' or worse.

[msh1]

if you are using a computer ditch the handset get eqmod and use cdc not used my handset ever but that maybe for another lesson 

[wornish]

3 hours ago, Ouroboros said:

Wornish.  One recommended solution to this well known and rather annoying "feature" with the AZEQ6 mount is to switch off the mount after polar alignment and switch on again before proceeding with star alignment. This resets the processor in the handset. 

The procedure I used when I used the hand set with my mount was as follows:

1. Before switching on, manually set the mount at the Home position - weights down, scope pointing at the celestial pole.  There are procedures describing how to find the home position and mark it on the mount so can be returned to at any time. Astronomy Shed has some useful videos on this.

2. Switch on mount, input details into hand set.  Follow the process through polar alignment. 

3. Switch off the mount. Quickly reset the mount manually to the Home position. Switch on mount, re-input details in handset, skipping polar alignment of course because you've done that. 

4. Carry out 2 or 3 star alignment, with the scope (hopefully) pointing in the right direction now. 

Quite possibly returning to the Parked 'Home' position does the same thing, even without switching off and back on again. However, since I set up my mount from scratch each time, I found that manually resetting the mount to the home position was more reliable than parking it. 

Incidentally, since driving my mount from my laptop using ASCOM and Carte du Ciel planetarium software I have never had the problem with the scope pointing the wrong way when I begin aligning the scope to the stars. 

 

 

Thank you very much for this.  So I am not the only one who has seen this problem , and it certainly is annoying.

 I am going to try it again tonight and will follow your suggested procedure.  

 

55 minutes ago, Owmuchonomy said:

I have never encountered the above issues so cannot comment specifically but there should be no need to run a workaround if you follow the procedures correctly in the manual.  For example, the aux encoders should be OFF when running your star alignments.  Once you have set up your mount and scope you can turn them back on again to guard against accidental 'nudging' or worse.

I think I am following the procedures as per the manual, but I haven't seen anything that says turn off the auxiliary encoders during star alignment, I will do that as well

 

If it happens again after all this I will resort to EQMOD control.

[wimvb]

+1 for Owmuchonomy's suggestion. I've never had this issue either, but have the encoders switched off most of the time. I used to switch off the mount after goto + polar align. But nowadays I just can't be bothered with this anymore.

[russp]

I have the same issue on my EQAZ6GT - because I use it connected to a pc rather than the handset the only reason I turn it on is for the light in the polar scope - polar align - repark at zero then start - if you use the phone app to tell you where polaris should be in the scope (and it's so much easier than using the handset) then it's really no extra work other than the switch on and off - apparently it's related to the function that you can release clutches and swing without losing alignment - you can have one or the other but not both and personally I love the fact if can work out where it's pointing after the clutches have been released.

 

[wornish]

Tried it last night using the suggested procedures, also switched off auxiliary encoders and it worked fine.  

Now I hope it behaves itself everyttime.

 

Back to astrophotography 

 

[Ouroboros]

I'm glad you're sorted.  I was re-reading the AZ-EQ6 manual yesterday. I don't often look at it these days.  It's not actually very well put together is it, especially for someone coming to this for the first time. I've seen worse manuals, but I've also seen better. We all in the end seem to find our way with this mount. But that's probably by using forums like this one.