Synscan , so what are your results ?

[cotterless45]

Having used Eq5pro (belt drive) and Eq6 mounts for some time, it has been a source of puzzlement why every time I get different accuracy results. The following have been the same ;

power supply , regulated bench supply.

levelling and balancing , rigorous. All bolts snipped up before use. Some of those extension pillar bolts have a dance of their own.

position, tripod leg bases positioned into drilled out holes in paving. Home position marked on the mount . 

Time , date , long /lat , time zone , BST all ok.

Polar alignment (not a factor in alignment , but useful for settling a view), as close as possible.

Synscan versions , 03.39.03 and 04.39.04

alignment stars , either one star if studying one area of the sky. Two stars , low , east and west . Three stars , zenith , then east and west. 

Aligning, ending in "up" and "right" using a 12mm illuminated reticle.

scopes , set accurately on the dovetail .

ok , some nights , first star, nearly there . Other nights , about six degrees out . Second star , some nights it's very close to the reticle. Other nights , it might be a degree out. Ok.  Alignment done, now goto.

some nights , targets are to one side of a x50 fov. Once corrected by the handset , performance is great. Some nights from the start , it'll bang targets centred at x200.

 

 

Now , in no way am I complaining or moaning . It's just puzzling . I spend a lot of time on binary stars and these are pretty obvious in the fov, so a bit of leeway is ok.

Every time I switch on , I don't know what to expect . It certainly comes to a head when my friend with his AVX called Synscan rubbish ! Luckily at outreach or star parties everything behaves !

The only thing that I can think of is ambient temperature acting on poor tolerances of man versus machine  !

 

Any other Synscan dice throwers out there ?

old Nick.

[paul mc c]

This will be interesting....i have a permanent set up in an obsy and i always get different levels of accuracy,i dont think i have ever not had to center my alignment stars.

[Prador]

Very weird considering yourself (setting up with repeatable and accurate markers) and Paul with the permanent installation experience the same issue. At first glance I wondered if a minute variation in mount footing or home position would be amplified when aligning on stars. As I take my stuff to sites in the car I always have to center on stars but thought I was the weak link (still probably the case). Can it be Synscan? After all it's just ones and zeros ?‍♂️

[Alan White]

Hi Nick

Is the AVX you mention behaving in a similar way when you observe with Pat or is it just Synscan?
 

[cotterless45]

The AVX doesn't seem to have the odd variations.

I was not tempted , extension pillars aren't off the shelf, the payload is a bit lower than the 5pro, it's noisy ( less so than his previous Coffee Grinder 5)and you can get just about everything you need for SW mounts pretty easily. I also found Nexstar a right pain !

Very surprised to see that other users are getting variation ,

Nick.

[DeepSkyBagger]

I have a SynScan mount, but it's a Dobsonian. My results are very variable. Sometimes (rarely) it's spot on. Others, degrees out. There's no way of predicting which way it will go on any night. I mostly search for faint DSOs, so this can be very frustrating. I use the GoTo, then I have to identify where I've actually ended up, then star hop to where I should be.

There seem to be many little rules, or myths, about doing the alignment:

1) Start with the scope horizontal and pointing north (makes no difference)

2) Choose alignment stars that are wide apart but at about the same declination (makes no difference)

3) Centre the second alignment star using only right and up, not left and down. (This is something to do with backlash, so I always do this one).

The results are so varied that I can't make any sense out of it at all, other than sometimes it's really good, and sometimes it's just rubbish. If it's rubbish, I'm trashed for the night. No amount of realigning or switching-off-and-on-again will fix it.

[Rob]

This is interesting guys. I've been on/off about buying the goto upgrade for my HEQ5 (old black dual drive version). One minute I cant wait to get it, the next I start thinking 'Do I'.

Now I'm 80% visual with a little imaging thrown in (nothing to serious!). I'm also mega old school. I've really learnt the sky over the years, and star hop with ease.. I usually have the target in the EP's FOV first go, and I'm lucky my mount seems to track quite well.

Rob

[Owmuchonomy]

Oh dear.  I never had such a problem with my HEQ5 Pro (on a permanent mount).  Neither do I have any issues with the AZ EQ 6 GT.  Assuming the scope is positioned the same way each time in the dovetail then we can discount cone error.  The only thing I can see absent from your list is the firmware update for the mount hardware.  Is this up to date?  I did this a few times on the HEQ5 Pro following a handset update.