SynScan alignment issues :/

[willcastle]

Took the HEQ5 out for the first time tonight and ran into a few issues. After realising for ages that I was inputting the date wrong (dd/mm/yy instead of mm/dd/yy), I also realised that when it mentioned the position of Polaris at the end of the setup, it seemed to say it was at a different position to my app (but maybe I am misunderstanding it). Secondly, I told it to do a one star alignment just as a quick test and it was so horrendously out that I was a bit stunned. I loosened the clutch and pointed it where it should be, and from then on it was approximately okay and finding the moon / m42 / m45. It managed to at least get each of these in the 30mm finderscope, if not the actual scope (80mm). But then I typed in m31 and it said it was below the horizon! And... well... yeah it was pretty much right over head. 

[carastro]

Did it ask you where you were in the world, sounds like it thinks your mid atlantic, or in the USA.  Or maybe just enter your co-ordinates. 

Carole 

Edited January 10, 2020 by carastro

[willcastle]

3 minutes ago, carastro said:

Did it ask you where you were in the world, sounds like it thinks your mid atlantic, or in the USA.  Or maybe just enter your co-ordinates. 

Carole 

I used google maps to type in my exact coordinates 😕 

[carastro]

It's not that then..............and you are absolutely sure you got the date correct as stated above.   No daylight saving?

What are you using to control the mount? 

Handset or laptop?  If using CdC it defaults to Mid Europe somewhere until you change it.

Sorry to ask but you definitely asked it to go to the right star?

If using the handset, those keys can be a bit "sticky" and don't always register, could you have possibly put in M3 instead of M31. 

Carole 

Edited January 10, 2020 by carastro

[wookie1965]

Was the mount in the right position after polar aligning I.e weights down scope pointing towards polaris.

[Cornelius Varley]

10 minutes ago, willcastle said:

I used google maps to type in my exact coordinates 😕 

Did you enter the numbers correctly and in the right order ? I've used Ashford in Kent here as an example. Your co-ordinates should be similar to 000 52 E  51 08 N, include all the zeros and enter in that order.

https://www.latlong.net/

[Marvin Jenkins]

18 minutes ago, willcastle said:

Took the HEQ5 out for the first time tonight and ran into a few issues. After realising for ages that I was inputting the date wrong (dd/mm/yy instead of mm/dd/yy), I also realised that when it mentioned the position of Polaris at the end of the setup, it seemed to say it was at a different position to my app (but maybe I am misunderstanding it). Secondly, I told it to do a one star alignment just as a quick test and it was so horrendously out that I was a bit stunned. I loosened the clutch and pointed it where it should be, and from then on it was approximately okay and finding the moon / m42 / m45. It managed to at least get each of these in the 30mm finderscope, if not the actual scope (80mm). But then I typed in m31 and it said it was below the horizon! And... well... yeah it was pretty much right over head. 

Welcome to astronomy b#####s. I have lost count of the amount of times I have laboriously pin pointed Polaris in the polar scope, adjusted for Polaris off set using the syn scan app, for the first star of choice given by the hand set to be so far out it is in another constellation!!!

Drives me mad to the point that when the hand set asks to align to first star I always scroll to second or third option in the list as this ends up being more accurate. Just to prove myself wrong I have calibrated my polar scope and use an illuminated reticule eye piece and first star is always way out.

Marv 

[carastro]

I have to say at times my GOTO on alignment stars is sometimes out (but not by miles unless I have done something stupid) and takes me ages slewing around to find it, and then other times it is bang in the FOV and sometimes I haven't even moved the mount if it's in the obsy.  On the days it works I breathe a sigh of relief.   Once aligned though it's pretty accurate. 

Carole 

[willcastle]

53 minutes ago, carastro said:

It's not that then..............and you are absolutely sure you got the date correct as stated above.   No daylight saving?

What are you using to control the mount? 

Handset or laptop?  If using CdC it defaults to Mid Europe somewhere until you change it.

Sorry to ask but you definitely asked it to go to the right star?

If using the handset, those keys can be a bit "sticky" and don't always register, could you have possibly put in M3 instead of M31. 

Carole 

Yep certain it was m31. It had it written on the screen right next to the “below horizon” warning.  

[carastro]

Do you mean the screen on the handset or the screen on the computer as if it is the computer it might open up some more options?  If handset i'm stumped.

Carole 

[willcastle]

46 minutes ago, Cornelius Varley said:

Did you enter the numbers correctly and in the right order ? I've used Ashford in Kent here as an example. Your co-ordinates should be similar to 000 52 E  51 08 N, include all the zeros and enter in that order.

https://www.latlong.net/

Oooooooohhhhhh!? Wait what. Maybe I did this bit wrong? 

If I use Ashford as an example too (so I don’t post exact coordinates to my house 😆), I get this come up:

 

So I typed it in like that

[willcastle]

3 minutes ago, carastro said:

Do you mean the screen on the handset or the screen on the computer as if it is the computer it might open up some more options?  If handset i'm stumped.

Carole 

Was on handset. Will try computer when I can at least get the basics right 😅

[carastro]

OK well that narrows it down.  I'm pretty stumped now.  There has got to be something not right.  See what happens the 2nd night, check and double check all in-put data, and check set up and PA, though slightly inaccurate PA would not cause such big inaccuracies. 

Carole 

[carastro]

Ah just seen the post above.  Are you inputting Ashford as East of the Meridian?

Carole 

[Geoff Barnes]

3 minutes ago, carastro said:

Are you inputting Ashford as East of the Meridian?

Yes, doesn't it need a minus symbol before the longitude figures?

[DaveL59]

worth trying it in the day and get accustomed to the controls, assuming you've not done that already. Doesn't necessarily have to be perfectly polar aligned and using a sky map app you should get an idea what stars might be up and approx where to see if it slews reasonably to targets it wants to align to. If that works then tell it to go to a target  and see if it roughly gets there. You can check with your phone and app for this, if you can rig a way to hold the phone on the mount/OTA so its aiming along the scope then hopefully result should tally.

Don't forget if you are making an adjust to centre a star during alignment to make the last to moves as up and right before you save it and move to the next.

Oh - and polar aligner pro could help you getting the mount aligned in the day too, might make that step a bit easier.

Edited January 10, 2020 by DaveL59

[carastro]

I have an HEQ5 and the handset shows E & W on inputting the longitude.  Mind you my handset software is quite old.

He might also have missed 00s as in 000 52 E  for instance. 

Carole 

[Cornelius Varley]

10 hours ago, willcastle said:

Oooooooohhhhhh!? Wait what. Maybe I did this bit wrong? 

If I use Ashford as an example too (so I don’t post exact coordinates to my house 😆), I get this come up:

 

So I typed it in like that

In your example the coordinates are given in decimal units. The Synscan handset requires the numbers to be in proper mapping units (degrees and minutes) The longitude component should be entered first as 000 52 E and latitude as 51 08 N. You can find these values lower down the page on latlong.net. The GPS coordinates are given in full as 0d 52m 30.9684sec E , 51d 9m 47.274sec N. This becomes 000 52 E , 51 08 N for the handset. More accurately, by rounding up/down, you get 000 53 E, 51 09 N.

[happy-kat]

^ as above

As you are using a phone then the app syscaninit will tell you all you need to know

[willcastle]

Omg. I’m such an idiot.  Thanks everyone who was telling me to recheck the settings. I plugged it in now and thoroughly checked everything and I had put the latitude and longitude the wrong way round. What a fool. Now I just need some clear skies to recheck it. And we are forecast about a week of cloud by the looks of it 

[AndyThilo]

You don't need clear skies to test. Have it setup indoors with the mount pointing North, use a compass on your phone. Doesn't have to be exact. Then with the scope parked, weights down/scope up, bring up an app on your phone like startracker or anything that will use your phones gyro to look for objects. Slew to say the sun, and see if the scope matches your phone. If it's close, you're good to go. I used this when I was diagnosing my EQMOD issues which turned out to be a conflict between the handset and EQMOD. Ditching the handset and using EQMOD with a EQDIR cable cured it.

[carastro]

Quote

Omg. I’m such an idiot.  Thanks everyone who was telling me to recheck the settings. I plugged it in now and thoroughly checked everything and I had put the latitude and longitude the wrong way round. What a fool. Now I just need some clear skies to recheck it. And we are forecast about a week of cloud by the looks of it 

Glad you found out the cause, but you're not an idiot, I think we have all done something similar at one stage or another.  There must be a thread somewhere called something like, "stupid things I have done" (or something along those lines).   See if you can find it and have a good laugh.  

Carole 

Edited January 11, 2020 by carastro

[carastro]

Here you go, and looks like I started it. = Enjoy!

 

[carastro]

Just looked up the incorrect Co-ordinates and looks like the Mount thought you were halfway between Cape Verde and Trinidad.  I guessed at mid atlantic.

Lol.

Carole 

[DaveL59]

I had considered getting the WiFi add-on for the EQ5 to save having to mess with date/time and location settings if I were to set up elsewhere. Shame they don't just build that functionality in but then it'd bump the cost and be something else to fail or cause frustration. Besides, the new job barely covers my costs so can't really justify that for the moment.