EQ8+synscan handbox, Goto works, tracking not

[Peter D]

Hello, i'm quite new to this so maybe this is a real stupid question, but this starts to wreck my nerves.

I power up the EQ8, do a three star allignment using Arcturus, Dhube and Vega. The GoTO seems to work fine than. The problem i have: the tracking is poor to non existend. Even a 30 second picture shows quite some movement. Sideral tracking is selected. If i for example GoTo Vega and repeat this every second Vega stays centered but all other stars still move. Anyone any idea what i'm doing wrong here?

All the best,

Peter

[CedricTheBrave]

have you set the time and location correctly and polar aligned?

[Peter D]

I used the synscaninit app to make sure location, timezone, altitude, daylightsaving and everything is set correctly. I very roughly polar alligned the Mount, but without the polefinder. As per the manual this should be OK as you do a three star alignment anyhow. At least thats what I think. The alignment stars where quite near the location the scope tried to locate them. Thank you for your reply! 

[Jiggy 67]

A rough polar alignment will only give you a rough tracking ability. Star alignment is not the same as polar alignment. One tells the scope where it’s pointing and where everything is in the sky relative to where it’s pointing and the other sets the RA axis to the North Celestial Pole so it can track accurately. You need to do an accurate polar alignment, the more accurate, the more accurate your tracking will be

Also there is no need for a three star alignment, the third star serves no purpose unless you suffer from cone error which you don’t need to worry about for now. A one or two star alignment is perfectly adequate 

Edited July 5, 2021 by Jiggy 67

[Peter D]

Thanks so much for your reply, I think you pointed me to my error. In the manual it says I can polar align using 3 start alignment. What I did not read was the part where I need to have a small polar alignment error and it needs to be repeated. I think that's the part where I need to adjust the screws. Thank you again!