Newbie needs help

[Colin1172]

I have just been given a Skywatcher Skyhawk 1145P SynScan AZ GOTO Telescope as a gift and have no idea how to use it, baby step advice would be much aporeciated

[Floater]

Welcome, Colin. Someone will be along who knows the scope.

No instructions/manual?

[Colin1172]

Thanks Floater,

The manual was very vague ! Got confused about North and true North and how to orientated it, then started on the goto instructions and lost the will to go on lol

[ronin]

Ignoring the goto and such bits if you point it at the sky and slowly move it round can you see anything - just an odd star or two?

Idea is that at least then you have it set up and the eyepiece, scope and focuser are all about right. You will have 2 eyepieces use the longer one likely says 20 or 25 on it somewhere.

As it is goto it needs feeding data first, have you fed it? If not where in Lanarkshire are you ?

What do you know? Can you find Polaris. Have you got a compass otherwise.

Sorry to ask questions but just need to know what you need to know.

[pipnina]

If it's an azimuthal (and not equatorial) then you can just sit it down on the ground and point it where you want to see. If it is equatorial, you need to point the mount towards Polaris (the north star). But given as your telescope has "AZ" in the name, I'd say it's safe to assume it's an azimuthal mount.

GOTO i have no experience in, but I hope you can figure it out & use the scope manually as well as automatically. Sometimes just wondering can bring rewards

Clear skies.

[happy-kat]

A nice telescope these are the main features of what you have and it is not an equatorial. The mount will move in left right up down movements.

Telescope Features
Diameter of Primary Mirror: 114mm   

Telescope Focal Length: 500mm (f/5 parabolic mirror

6x24 Finderscope

SynScan™ AZ GoTo Computerised Alt-Azimuth HD Go-To Mount

Very likely you have a 10mm and 25mm eyepiece. The 10mm is more powerful than the 25mm, the 25mm is the one to start with.

The telescope mount will need to be fed power, it will not work without power. Takes 8 x AA batteries unfortunately these mounts hate rechargeables as they do not carry enough power.

If you have a smart phone there is great free app to help with setting up the handset synscaninit v2.

The handset even if you do not use goto and align it will need to be fed some details on start up where that app mentioned above helps then after that can skip alignment and just use the arrows to move the mount. The Moon will be a wow.

For night sky learning there is a wonderful free app called stellarium you can download.

These are usually great videos to watch, link here.

 

[Cosmic Geoff]

It's a steep learning curve, but if you can master it, the GoTo is a great tool for finding interesting objects in the night sky. Far easier and quicker than trying to find non-obvious objects without it.  Most of these alt-az GoTo mounts will let you align on THREE bright objects (stars) without knowing what they are.  It's possible to align on two (quicker) but you do need to be able to identify the brighter stars to do this. You can align on ONE object if you know what it is (useful for special situations).

You can drive the mount around on the left/right/up/down buttons while figuring out how to focus the scope, set the finder etc but this is not the preferred mode of operation.

The commonest cause of GoTo problems are a failure to enter the date and location in the correct format (can be confusing until mastered) and problems with the power. Most users give up on the batteries and use an external power pack of some sort.

If you can't get on with all this and would rather have a basic mount that you point at the sky by hand, check out the new AZ-5. More money, but better than letting your new scope sit in its box. (Actually it's handy to own both kinds of mount.)

[Geoff Lister]

Once entered, the Synscan handset will remember the latitude and longitude that you enter, and also the date. Each time that you power up, it will return the time to 8pm, so you will need to re-enter this each time that you power-up. For future nights you will need to update the Date and Time.

I would suggest that you go for the "brightest star" alignment. At the moment, at dusk, Arcturus is very bright to the west, about 35 degrees up from the horizon. If you use the bottom left or right buttons to step through the directions, and select "West" it will probably suggest Jupiter, but this may well be too low to see. Again use the same buttons to select Arcturus, and then use the up/down/left/right buttons to get Arcturus in your finder. Press "Enter" and the slew rate will drop (from 9 to 4) so that you can centre Arcturus in the eyepiece. Once done, press Enter again, and the handset will suggest a second star. I would suggest using the bottom left an right buttons to select Vega (nice bright star just east of south, and 70 degrees up) then press enter again and the mount should automatically slew to near Vega. Use the finder and up/down/left/right buttons to centre then centre in eyepiece. Press "Enter" and the handset should respond with "Alignment Successful". You are now good to go.

If you have a good view to the south, press the "Planet" button, and step through to "Saturn". When you press "Enter" the mount should slew to just west of south, and the bright object in your finder (and possibly the eyepiece), should be Saturn. For the final alignment, if you find the up/down/left/right buttons give you too fast a slew, press the "Rate" button, followed by "3" or "4" then "Enter".

Geoff

 

[Colin1172]

I am afraid I an more new to this than u fear.... I have no clue how to even align the mount... have tried to read up on it but get frustrated about North and true North ! I apologise, this is probably not the correct forum to be asking such basic questions. 

[happy-kat]

No question is too small or large.  If you had a local astro club would it be possible to visit one of their open evenings?

[pipnina]

36 minutes ago, Colin1172 said:

I am afraid I an more new to this than u fear.... I have no clue how to even align the mount... have tried to read up on it but get frustrated about North and true North ! I apologise, this is probably not the correct forum to be asking such basic questions. 

No question too basic, no question is stupid either. We're all here to help!

 

If you can, try to upload a picture of your telescope on its mount (if possible) or even just a photo of the telescope and mount separate. We can give you some visual instruction  

[happy-kat]

North as often referred to is north on a compass. True north is astronomical north which is slightly different to north. Knowing where north is from your back garden is useful. If you know where north is you can use that to help you know where the star Polaris is. If you are able to identify the constellation the big dipper also known as the plough you can find the star Polaris. Do you recognise that constellation when you look at the sky?

[Cosmic Geoff]

I'm not familiar with the Synscan GoTo system (don't own one), but with the Celestron alt-az GoTo mounts you do not need to know where North is in order to perform a successful alignment.

The operating concept of these mounts is that it uses your alignment to two or three stars to align its internal sky map  to the night sky. So it's going to figure out where Polaris and North are for itself, if you follow the procedure correctly.

Isn't there a Youtube video of aligning your mount? I'd be surprised if there isn't.

If the procedure is asking you to point the telescope roughly North, don't sweat it. At some point you will need to learn your way around the night sky, so get hold of a star atlas and compare them with what you see. Thee are also Android apps that (when they work properly) will align a sky picture on your smartphone with the night sky.  Popular astronomy magazines, published monthly, or monthly online guides like http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/astronomy/nightsky/ come with a picture of what you will see if you go outside on an August evening. 

If you look up your street on streetmap.co.uk it will become obvious what direction North is.

[Geoff Lister]

I have the Synscan handset on my Skywatcher Skymax 127, and it looks as though the main mount and tripod are also the same. I would suggest that you follow the advice, above, from Cosmic Geoff and happy-kat. The Synscan software will sort out where north is, but it is worthwhile making sure that the tripod is level before you fit the upper section of the mount. If you start with the telescope tube level, and pointing roughly north, this helps in moving to the first star, because the handset will ask you to slew the scope to an azimuth angle (left and right buttons) and an altitude angle (up/down buttons). Again, if the mount is the same as mine, it will have an altitude scale, to help you get the up/down angle about right. A compass will give you the azimuth angle.

You have 2 options for alignment, "Named Star" or "Brightest Star". I would suggest that you go for "Brightest Star" until you are more familiar with the constellations. This is where it is worth following happy-kat's suggestion and downloading "Stellarium". I use it before most observing sessions, to see what is going to be visible from my garden.

http://www.stellarium.org/en_GB/

The program includes a comprehensive user manual as part of the install, but you can get it going quickly by running it with the default settings. The only thing that you will need to change is the "Location". If you move the mouse pointer to the bottom left of the window, it brings up a set of icons. The top left icon is "Location", or you can press the "F6" button. Scroll through the locations until you get to "Glasgow, United Kingdom"; tick this, and the "Set as Default" box, and this will set you up for Lanarkshire whenever you run the program. Along the bottom, select "Constellation Lines", Constellation Labels", and "Azimuthal Grid"; this will show you the various constellations, and their direction and height from your garden. If running during the day, you will not see any stars, but as it gets dark, the brightest stars will start to show up where the constellations' lines join.

The bottom right set of icons adjust time (fast reverse, normal/pause, reset to current, and fast forwards). By selecting a time when it is starting to get dark, the brightest stars will be the first to show up. This is where Stellarium and Synscan work together. By selecting the brightest stars that will not be obscured by roofs, trees, fences, etc. you will be able to select 2 stars, preferably about 90 degrees to left/right and 20 to 40 degrees up/down of each other. This will give Synscan all it needs to work out its alignment. The "brightest Star" alignment divides the sky into 8 segments, North, North-west, West etc., so sort out which of these segments contains your first star. My comments in the earlier post, above, should guide you to get alignment. If you have chosen correctly, if you stand out in the garden, and look in the direction of your chosen star, it should be obvious where to point the scope - go for the bright one.

Please ask, if you need any more clarification.

Geoff

[billyharris72]

My advice to a beginner would be to start by getting a star map or some kind of guide to the night sky. The Synscan alignment is good, but it requires that you know your way around the constellations and can identify at least some of the brighter named stars. Goto can do a lot, but that's one thing you can't get away without learning.

The easiest way (I would say) would be to download a copy of Stellarium and then a phone app that you can just point at the sky and have it tell you what the phone is pointing at. In some ways, the much maligned Google Sky Map might be the best (if you have an Android phone). It's light on detail, but that's a good thing, and it tends to work with almost all phones (I've seen lots of "better" paid apps that don't work with all phone compasses). The fact that it's free is also nice. Once you can identify 5 or 6 bright stars and the main constellations setting up the goto will be very easy.

In the meantime, there are plenty of targets that are quite easy to identify and steer to "by hand". The moon is a great starter object - not hard to find and is a real eye opener the first time through a scope, and will get you used to the mechanics of the scope, moving it around, focussing, how the eyepieces work etc. It's also worth learning to find the easier DSOs (e.g. Andromeda) manually. The book Turn Left at Orion is a useful beginner resource that, if you work through it, will give you a great introduction to what is up there.

Hope this helps.

Billy.

[Ger]

Hi Colin

I picked up the same telescope and equipment last Christmas and as a fellow newbie I did struggle initially with the setup of the 1145P, looking at the replies so far you will find that there are plenty of people here who offer great advice

and will help you through any stage of the process. I ran into plenty of problems and I did not find the manuals provided to be anything more then just ok. As I am using the 1145P myself, ( although taking a break for the summer months

due to time constraints and family commitments ), don't be afraid to ask any question as everybody here is extremely helpful. I am more than happy to share my own knowledge to date of the 1145P so don't be afraid to ask.

 

If you are still struggling to with the setup please let us know, images of your setup allow people to provide better answers to any problem, the book mention by Billy Harris ( and probably a few others ) is a must, I got a copy from my local

library at first and quickly realized that I needed my own copy so I went and bought one. Using the moon and Turn left at Orion will provide excellent results. It will take a little time at first but it is worth the wait,

 

Ger

 

P.S ( Sorry if this is my 2nd response on your thread... not sure if my first one was submitted correctly so I had another go )

[JsMurf]

you may try eyesonthesky.com  they have constellation charts and alot of different videos on telescopes and usage. 

[Geoff Lister]

I'm not sure if your mount comes with an 8-cell battery holder in a little satchel. These take 8 AA-size alkaline batteries. I have found that this is an expensive way to power the mount, so I have alternatives.

The 6V packs were "borrowed" from my radio-controlled model sailing yachts. They give a much more reliable contact than the springs in the 10-cell holder.

I made some current measurements on my mounts, and yours should be similar to the Skymax-127.

The 2600mAh cells have enough capacity for a long evening's observing, with plenty to spare.

Geoff