Synscan and synscaninit

[Craig123]

Hi all

 

Every so often i input the info from the Synscaninit app in to my heq5 pro handset and at the end the position of polaris in polarscope will be 1mn out with the handset and the same with the hour angle.It usually a sign that it is going to end up being a dodgy sesssion.Any ideas why this would happen and if it really will throw eveything out that much?

Many thanks 

[Geoff Lister]

As I understand it, and I hope that others will correct me if I am wrong, time and date are only really important for the software to work out the position of solar system objects with respect to the "background". Some while ago, I reversed the day and month entries; the stars seemed OK, but the Moon was way off. Synscan will also use time and date to suggest alignment stars, and where to find them.

The Synscan "Utility" menu has a "PAE" (Pointing Accuracy Enhancement) section, and I sometimes use this to improve GOTO precision if my initial alignment is a bit off.