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Will the EQ5 be a better choice ?


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Hi all, just a bit of general user advice needed please. 

I bought a new scope a couple of months ago, (Bresser Messier nt 203), Exos-2 GoTo (startracker)

I have been attempting to align telescope forever, but find the Bresser system will not even align to one star, let alone anything else. My following points are all correct and have been entered each and every way.

Polar alignment, time, date, (daylight saving on & off) longitude and latitude via custom & selecting closest city, etc etc. 

Anyway I have given up on  my new pride and joy. I've contacted the retailer and Bresser & received zero help at all. 

Anyway my question is, does anybody know whether the Skywatcher EQ5 Pro Synscan mount would be a worthy replacement for the Exos-2 ? (I have given up on receiving help from the retailer or manufacturers) In terms of usability, ease of set up? I understand a GPS mouse can be used with the EQ5 ?

I am convinced the Startracker system will never work for me after attempting use for approaching 2 months with no success. 

Apologies if this should be in the mounts section, but I just need some beginner advice, as this is my first computerised scope and so consider myself a newbie. 

I'm basically at my wit's end.

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Eq5 isn’t an upgrade over an Exos 2 really. 
why don’t you share specifically what your issues are here in case somebody here can help.

you are either going wrong somewhere in your setup (easily done) or the mount is faulty and the retailer must replace. 
 

but don’t go throwing money at a new mount yet until you understand your issue.

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Hi yes thanks for that. I have been sharing my issues over the past while. I didn't want to keep raking over the same issues. But as you say, I agree. 

My latest issue is with one star alignment, I enter one of the 3 available stars, say Rigel for instance, off goes the telescope and stops within roughly 10 degrees of Orion.

I then attempt to centre Rigel, as requested by hand set, only to find the direction keys do not move the scope at all, my electric supply is solid and not loose at all, my electric supply is fully charged, in fact brand new also.

This really is just the tip of the iceberg. My polar alignment is spot on, or as close as need be for visual use. 

I did put the scope on the saddle 180 degrees wrong when new, but have since sorted out the encoders. So now the telescope knows generally which way it is pointing. It just will not get close to any target, 1,2 or 3 star align. 

Anyway as I say, this is just the start of my woes. Bresser claim, as most do that it is  due to user error. The retailer just contacts Bresser with my problems, their reply is generally, I am doing something wrong. I may well be,  but really I have tried everything I know to rectify. And got nowhere.

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37 minutes ago, paul schofield said:

only to find the direction keys do not move the scope at all,

Hi Paul,

After you have switched on, initialised, (date, time, if necessary, site), but before beginning an alignment routine, select a fast slewing speed (7, 8 or 9) with the number keys.

Do the arrow keys work now? Do they move the relevant axes in the correct direction?

Also the time zone for the UK is E00 (or W00, same thing.)

Edited by lenscap
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Thanks chaps. I will check both your suggestions when I next attempt alignment. 

I wasn't aware of a EQ or AZ setting. Time zone E00, W00 (I must of missed this also) I will try to find where this is on my next attempt at set up. 

Much appreciated suggestions fozzybear and lenscap from a computerised mount newb. You have given me hope. 

Clear skies all.

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One hopes that somebody familiar with the Exos 2 will respond.

One assumes that some pre-align is involved here.  Otherwise why is the mount slewing to Orion (even if it's wrong)?  Is the mount really not moving at next stage, or just moving slowly?

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7 hours ago, paul schofield said:

My latest issue is with one star alignment, I enter one of the 3 available stars, say Rigel for instance, off goes the telescope and stops within roughly 10 degrees of Orion

Sounds like you're making progress since your last thread, since the mount seems to be doing gotos to the correct area. 

We mentioned E00 or W00 in the previous thread, if you had this wrong you could have a 15 degree error on the first goto. 

The wrong Daylight Saving setting will also give a 15 degree error. 

So up the slew speed as suggested and centre Rigel and you're good to go. 

Changing the mount won't help, it will have the same setup you will have to learn. 

Michael 

 

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Thanks chaps. I will check both your suggestions when I next attempt alignment. 

I wasn't aware of a EQ or AZ setting. Time zone E00, W00 (I must of missed this also) I will try to find where this is on my next attempt at set up. 

Much appreciated suggestions fozzybear and lenscap from a computerised mount newb. You have given me hope. 

Clear skies all.

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Whoops I re submitted reply sorry. All of the above points will be executed, thanks guys. Reset and start from scratch being top of my list. You guys have been really helpful. Appreciate it thanks. 

Cosmic Geoff, as far as I could tell the scope was not moving at all at next stage star centering as I was pressing direction keys for some minutes without success. 

I will let you know how it goes. 

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12 hours ago, lenscap said:

Hi Paul,

After you have switched on, initialised, (date, time, if necessary, site), but before beginning an alignment routine, select a fast slewing speed (7, 8 or 9) with the number keys.

Do the arrow keys work now? Do they move the relevant axes in the correct direction?

Also the time zone for the UK is E00 (or W00, same thing.)

The default slewing rate on my EQ5 is painfully slow and shows very little movement when the direction buttons are pressed with a low magnification eyepiece inserted.

After the mount has gone to the first alignment star, as @lenscap says above you will need to select a high slew speed.  On the EQ5 I think I have to push button 2 (also labelled as Rate) and then 7, 8 or 9 to select the speed, but after reading the EXOS GoTo manual, I think just the number buttons are pressed to select a rate.

Do the direction buttons work normally to allow you to navigate the menu system of the handset?

 

Edited by AdeKing
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16 hours ago, paul schofield said:

I did put the scope on the saddle 180 degrees wrong when new, but have since sorted out the encoders. So now the telescope knows generally which way it is pointing. It just will not get close to any target, 1,2 or 3 star align. 

Hi

What does 'sorted out the encoders' mean. What did you do?

Surely you just took the telescope off and mounted it the correct way around?

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They are both eq5 mounts just different goto companys . I think for a lot of people going a manual mount may be better. Add single or dual drives and that's all u need. Just point the scope to where u want and look.

Its half the cost but of course u gotta learn the older way to find stuff

U cant believe how many hundreds of threads I have seen since goto crazy started since 1999 of people who cant figure goto align,  or goto fail break or other reason it doesnt work.

Joejaguar 

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HappyKat, that is exactly what I did as when new I accidentally placed the OTA on mount 180 degrees wrong as explained. This caused confusion in the encoders apparently. So I turned mount saddle 180 then did the same with OTA dovetail to correct confusion.

And Joe A, I agree with the sentiment. I have used, shall we say manual, scopes for quite a number of years. So wanted to try a Goto mount for a change. It seemed like the next step up for me even though I have been regretting it just lately.

Another update from Bresser, apparently they are certain there isn't a problem, so that's ok then. They must be a very talented company to diagnose without even looking. Sorry, sarcastic.

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Double check everything. Your location co-ordinates should be similar to E000 13 11 , N51 26 38 (the centre of Dartford). Time zone E00 W00, DST OFF. Date is in yyyy/mm/dd format. Select EQ mode and Sky. Pressing keys 1-9 adjusts the slew rate, keys 2, 3, 4 are probably the best options for centring the target star.

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Thank you Cornelius for your great advice. I shall use your msg as a check list along with everyone elses kind suggestions. 

Thank you all very much, you guys rock. I'm hoping for a clear night tomorrow, or Fri,  Sat or Sunday so I can put all these pointers into practice. 

Thanks again.

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I tried finding a manual for the Exos-2 Startracker but could not find one. Failing that, I have been reading through the Synscan GoTO manual (since I should be getting an upgrade kit delivered later today.

Nobody has picked up on my point above about pre-align.  With the Synscan, you have to polar align the mount, aim the attached telescope at Polaris, and then turn the power on.  The system now knows roughly where it is: mount setup and level, scope pointed at Polaris.  (And if it isn't, don't expect any of the following to work) If you go for a one-star align on Rigel, select Rigel and the mount will slew till Rigel is in the finder field (we hope). Centre the star in the finder then in the main eyepiece. Job done.

I assume the Exos-2 works either in exactly the same way or close enough so you can figure it out from the manual.

If there is a function to return to the start position, execute it and see what happens.

Badly behaved electronics can often be fixed by that old engineer's trick - turn the power off, count to two and turn it on again, or  a factory reset.

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1 hour ago, michael8554 said:

Bizarrely you have to read the pdf manual for the Goto kit, not the manual for the mount !

I managed to find it. (I should get a prize).  Reading through this, the directions for the initial Polar Home Position align are a bit vague, but it seems to be the same as for the EQ-5 Synscan cited above. The one star, two star align etc seem to work as for the Synscan.

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If you need a ready source of data for your setup try the sysnscan init 2.0 app for your mobile phone and switch on the GPS - this will let you double check the format of all the entered data.  Other things - check your North alignment if part of your setup - use North Pole star north not compass north.  Also try to do the setup with the lightest of all your EP's in the telescope - heavy EP's sometimes unbalance things.  Make sure you finish driving the scope with the recommended two clicks (it might be up and left or something similar - the book should say), check you have entered the correct + or - into the Lat and Long set up and also make sure you have included any leading zeros in the Lat and Log coordinates (I had fun with that one myself), also make sure you have correctly identified the stars you are aligning on (this also caused me all sorts of issues) and check you are entering the correct times in terms of 12 or 24 hour clock times.

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