synscan goto issue

[ICR_2019]

Hi I am a total newbie.

Threads similar to this have been thrashed out before but I have not located my issue.

I'm based in Ipswich UK and purchased a SW 130p on a goto with v3 handset.

I have tried various times over the last 12 months to set it up but never have I got to complete the set up stage.

If I select brightest star it never chooses something in view. e.g last night Mars (below horizon)

When I try 2 star align I input the first star and but cannot locate a second star e.g last night I chose Vega but none of the other stars were visible. I particularly wanted Arcturus as there were only a few stars visible. I am using a star map app on an iPad to identify the stars.

This is the same result time after time. Lights go out around here around midnight allowing many more stars to try, but by then I've given up on the mount scanned around a bit and am packing up as gotta go to work.

My location lat/long is listed as 52.056736 and 1.148220 the handset after much trial and error will only accept this as 114 00 E 52 00 N. Is this the cause?

I have read some people align N first I tried this with no change. 

I'm getting to the point of giving up and buying bins :-)

Thanks in advance if anyone has an idea

Ian

[Cornelius Varley]

Hello and welcome to SGL. The coordinates for the centre of Ipswich are 001 09 E , 52 03 N. These numbers must be entered in that order and format.

https://www.latlong.net/

[Cosmic Geoff]

Your problems clearly stem from entering the longitude wrongly. Do what Cornelius says and you should be on your way.

You should probably start with the scope roughly north aligned, so that any prompting for alignment stars will work as intended.

[Cornelius Varley]

PS the corrodinates you entered would put you somewhere near the Mongolian / N Korean border.

[ICR_2019]

Thanks so much for the swift replies. I will use coordinates you posted.

What did I do wrong here?

 

 

 

 

 

[ICR_2019]

24 minutes ago, Cornelius Varley said:

PS the corrodinates you entered would put you somewhere near the Mongolian / N Korean border.

This did make me laugh... :-)

[Cornelius Varley]

2 minutes ago, loft_boarding said:

Thanks so much for the swift replies. I will use coordinates you posted.

What did I do wrong here?

 

 

 

 

 

The numbers shown are in decimal format. The Synscan handset requires the numbers to be in mapping units ( degrees and minutes ) 

[ICR_2019]

Ah thank you. I knew not to use decimal but the sites I visited all have this format so I figured this was the correct one to use. Ignorance maybe bliss but it's not an excuse. 

Thanks again 

[wimvb]

If you have an android phone, you can install the app SynscanInit. It will use gps to determine your location, then show a screen with everything you need to enter in the correct order, including hemisphere and daylight saving time. Finally it can also show the expected position of polaris in the polar scope of an eq mount.

Good luck

[ICR_2019]

Thanks to all of you that posted. With clear skies I got the message of alignment successful. First time ever!

The deep sky tour was amazing (even if many of the targets were obscured) Its hard to believe what such a small scope can "see"

Thanks again Ian

[wookie1965]

If you have a Android phone download his app shows you everything you have to put in when setting up.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.RapidoDroid.synscaninit2