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Synscan App questions


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Just before Xmas, I made an unashamed plea for help with choosing a new telescope for my 11 year old daughter (my wife and I are completed luddites at all things astro).  I received a number of very helpful responses from the forum and also from FLO, and ultimately we purchased a Skywatcher Heritage 90 Virtuoso plus a Synscan Wi-Fi Adapter.  My daughter already owns an android tablet, which we would like to use instead of the Synscan handset (unfortunately we couldn't stretch to that!)  

I have installed the Synscan app on the tablet, set up the Wi-Fi network and checked that the app has found my location (although is there anything that will allow me to check its accuracy, i.e. a N & W position?)  Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question, but do I need to align the telescope with polaris manually before using the Synscan app, or can I go straight to one of the alignment functions in the app?  I looked at this last night and it mentioned something about having to do a manual adjustment, which has thrown me somewhat.  I wasn't able to get to the bottom of this last night because, like the rest of the UK, we have been waiting in vain for a less cloudy night in the hope that we might finally be able to see something!

Also, someone mentioned on a thread that I stumbled across this morning (which I can no longer find, of course!) that you can do all of the preparation in the daytime.  Can you do a star alignment during daylight (again, apologies if this is a dumb question).

Finally, I haven't (yet) downloaded Stellarium.  Is it more intuitive to use than the Synscan app?

Any help would be very gratefully received.  Thank you.

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Hi, no need to align to Polaris before use.

It is an interesting question as I have the Virtouso mount but used it without handset first and now have the synscan v3 handset but I would expect you need to follow the basis of mount setup which would be.

Place mount on a level surface, place mount so that the N on the base faces north (a compass will do), have telescope facing north, ie the element end facing north but have the telescope level (0 on the altitude scale).

Plug wifi adapter in and turn mount on and away you go.

If you were going to use it to track only with no wifi unit then you would need to do the latitude setup as per the manual and program that into the mount (actually I would do that anyway) as it is a one time setup if observing from the same location. You do need to see Polaris for that.

Have fun.

Star alignment can only be live when needed at night. I would m,aster what you have before trying to connect and use stellarium.

 

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Many thanks for your response.  Sorry, I should have mentioned that I set up the mount as you have described (although I wish I had your excellent instructions at the time - following the user guide took me far longer!)

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What you can do in the daytime is align the red dot finder with the telescope. Use a very very distant object tree or chimney do not use the sun or go anywhere near the sun as would severely damage or blind that eye.

If on the night out all goes fiddly, and the Moon is up observe that and could start the lunar 100 challenge.

It's a great mount.

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