Incorrect P.scope and Hour angle in goto?

[msacco]

Hello, I still haven't had enough opportunities to do it, but so far I couldn't manage to successfully align my goto(Skywatcher EQ5), maybe its something I'm doing wrong, but one thing I noticed recently is that when setting everything in the goto the P.scope and Hour angle are incorrect, they're close..but not 100% correct. Im using this app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.RapidoDroid.synscaninit2

I am setting all the details correctly as displayed in the app, I also tried setting from another app, but they both show the same info. First of all, could that be the reason for the star align failing? P.scope and Hour angle would sound something critical to me for the goto to calculate objects, and it is really weird that it does not match. If I set the time around 15 minutes ahead of the actual time, the P.scope and Hour angle seems to match, but it probably still won't work.

I updated the firmware to the latest one, so I doubt that the problem.

Any insight regarding this? Feel kinda lost. Thanks!

[msacco]

Anyone? ?

[happy-kat]

In what way is the star align failing?

[Owmuchonomy]

Polar Alignment and GoTo are two different things.  You don't need to Polar Align accurately to use and set up GoTo.  Set your latitude correctly on your mount adjustment then put the scope in the HOME position on your mount so that the counterweight bar is facing down.  Point the axis of your mount and thus your scope toward the North Celestial pole (Polaris).  This is sufficient for GoTo set up and you don't need to be concerned about your polarscope or hour angle.  Next run the GoTo set up procedure using a two star alignment procedure.  Let us know how you get on.  Remember to use the American format for date entry mm:dd:yyyy.

[msacco]

On 30/12/2018 at 17:22, Owmuchonomy said:

Polar Alignment and GoTo are two different things.  You don't need to Polar Align accurately to use and set up GoTo.  Set your latitude correctly on your mount adjustment then put the scope in the HOME position on your mount so that the counterweight bar is facing down.  Point the axis of your mount and thus your scope toward the North Celestial pole (Polaris).  This is sufficient for GoTo set up and you don't need to be concerned about your polarscope or hour angle.  Next run the GoTo set up procedure using a two star alignment procedure.  Let us know how you get on.  Remember to use the American format for date entry mm:dd:yyyy.

Sorry for the delayed reply, wasn't home, so your saying I don't need to do polar alignment in order to align my goto? Wouldn't that cause the goto to be less accurate?

Anyway, I'm waiting for a good weather, and hopefully soon I'll go out and try again, its kinda hard for me as I'm not very familiar with finding objects etc, and the mobile apps are a bit off, so I need to get the hand of it first. Thanks anyway

[happy-kat]

I'm using all altaz with go to.

Mount must be level and telescope for me level but facing Polaris and mount know what the location latitude is.

After turn on and confirmation of local details in the handset.

The first alignment star, if mount does slew to it is only as good à setup, second star may also need fine tuning before accepting, should be good to go I think

 

[Owmuchonomy]

On 01/01/2019 at 20:34, msacco said:

Sorry for the delayed reply, wasn't home, so your saying I don't need to do polar alignment in order to align my goto? Wouldn't that cause the goto to be less accurate?

Anyway, I'm waiting for a good weather, and hopefully soon I'll go out and try again, its kinda hard for me as I'm not very familiar with finding objects etc, and the mobile apps are a bit off, so I need to get the hand of it first. Thanks anyway

Using my instructions the PA will be sufficient to allow you to set up accurate GoTo. The GoTo will be unaffected. Accurate PA of an EQ mount is only necessary for long exposure astrophotography.