A question for owners of Synscan handsets - alignment star criteria?

[Zermelo]

I use the Synscan app (1.19.12 pro), and I don't have access to a handset.

When I do an alignment (brightest star or north-level), I get a list like this:

For each of the possible choice of first star, the app tells me how many second-star choices would be available (shown as "Next") and also a "Quality" score.

If I choose one of the stars, I'm given a list of selected second stars, each of which also has a Quality score:

 

(If I were doing a 3-star alignment, there would also be a further "Next" number, relating to the third-choice stars)

 

Now the "quality" number is interesting for two reasons:

(1) It isn't mentioned at all in the app user guide

(2) For all first and second choice stars that are displayed, the quality value is always 5 (out of 5, I believe). So either most of these values are wrong, or the app is displaying only the very best choices, both of which I would describe as a bug. In fact it can't be the latter because, I've had it suggest alignment stars with a 5 rating, even though they don't meet all of the alignment criteria described in the user manual.

I'm sure that in previous versions of the app there were quality scores from 1 to 5.

My question to owners of the Synscan handset is:

do you also get these quality scores displayed during alignment, and if so, are they always "5"?

 

[PeterC65]

I get none of this with the SynScan handset (on the SynScan AZ GOTO mount)!

I choose a first star from a list of star names, just the names with no additional information. I think most of the 100 stars in the Alignment Star Index are listed in this initial list. Then I get offered a second star list, also with no additional information, which is a subset of the first list, presumably just listing those stars that meet the alignment criteria.

I don't get the option to use planets for alignment as your example seems to suggest you do with the app.

Maybe I should try using the app for alignment!

 

[wulfrun]

I've just tried mine, v1.19.15 Pro. If I do a "North level" alignment, I get all Q5 on both lists. If I do a "3-star alignment", page 1 is all Q5 but pages 2 & 3 are assorted values. Polaris as a 3rd star, for instance is Q2 or Q3 (didn't note it down).

Can't shed any light on how the Q relates, sorry. The manual notes the "rules" for stars to use but I feel some you could pick would fall foul.

[Zermelo]

1 hour ago, PeterC65 said:

I get none of this with the SynScan handset (on the SynScan AZ GOTO mount)!

I choose a first star from a list of star names, just the names with no additional information. I think most of the 100 stars in the Alignment Star Index are listed in this initial list. Then I get offered a second star list, also with no additional information, which is a subset of the first list, presumably just listing those stars that meet the alignment criteria.

I don't get the option to use planets for alignment as your example seems to suggest you do with the app.

Maybe I should try using the app for alignment!

 

Ah, that's interesting Peter, thanks.

I'm not sure that the app is better. One limitation is that you can't select stars of below mag 3, even though the app has them in its star database.

[Zermelo]

8 minutes ago, wulfrun said:

I've just tried mine, v1.19.15 Pro. If I do a "North level" alignment, I get all Q5 on both lists. If I do a "3-star alignment", page 1 is all Q5 but pages 2 & 3 are assorted values. Polaris as a 3rd star, for instance is Q2 or Q3 (didn't note it down).

Can't shed any light on how the Q relates, sorry. The manual notes the "rules" for stars to use but I feel some you could pick would fall foul.

Ah, that's it - you're right!

I must have been remembering when I had previously tried a 3-star alignment for some reason. I've just done it again and it does show stars with quality 2, 3 and 4.

I'm puzzled, though. Although the 3-star uses slightly different rules and has an extra stage, it's not qualitatively different as far as I can see. So I don't understand why the 2-star alignments should only show quality 5 stars.