A Little Help Aligning a Syncscan Goto AZ Mount

[sonicninja]

Hi everyone,

I made a very spur of the moment purchase of a very cheap Syncscan AZ Goto Mount and Mak 127 Telescope. I had been wanting a system like this but hadnt planned on buying one until I came across a cheap listing.

Anyway, Ive looked through the manual and watched a couple of videos but Im having trouble aligning it correctly, I wondered if someone could look through the information Im entering into the handset as I suspect Im doing something fairly fundamentally wrong. Currently when going through the 2-Star Alignment the telescope is way off when moving itself to the second star, probably 40 or 50º off when looking by eye and not something I can make minute changes to address.

Using the compass app on my iphone I get the follwing Long/Lat -

52º4'38" N

0º35'10" E

50m Elevation

 

What Im inputting on the Syncscan Handset-

E 000º 35'

N 52º 04'

Timezone +00:00

Elevation +0050m

 

Does this all look correct? The syncscan version is 04.37.03

My other query is that the gear/mechanism that moves the telescope left to right sounds fairly .......sick compared to the up/down movement. Is there anything I can do to ease this or is it a fairly complicated dissasembley?

 

Many Thanks

Keith

Edit: I also havent paid much attention to polar aligning the scope before I turn everything on. The manual doesnt address this procedure but Ive seen a few videos online explaining the process. Is this something I should do? I've not had to do it before as Ive only ever used a manual AZ mount before.

 

Edited May 25, 2022 by sonicninja

[malc-c]

Are you confirming the use of daylight saving, and entering the date in the correct format.  It's been ages since I used an handset but remember it needed to be MMDDYYYY.

Also polar alignment is an essential part of setting up an equatorial mount and not a requirement of an ALT/AZ mount.

If there is a physical fault with the mount that would need addressing, if it sounds like gear stripping 

[AstroNebulee]

6 hours ago, sonicninja said:

Hi everyone,

I made a very spur of the moment purchase of a very cheap Syncscan AZ Goto Mount and Mak 127 Telescope. I had been wanting a system like this but hadnt planned on buying one until I came across a cheap listing.

Anyway, Ive looked through the manual and watched a couple of videos but Im having trouble aligning it correctly, I wondered if someone could look through the information Im entering into the handset as I suspect Im doing something fairly fundamentally wrong. Currently when going through the 2-Star Alignment the telescope is way off when moving itself to the second star, probably 40 or 50º off when looking by eye and not something I can make minute changes to address.

Using the compass app on my iphone I get the follwing Long/Lat -

52º4'38" N

0º35'10" E

50m Elevation

 

What Im inputting on the Syncscan Handset-

E 000º 35'

N 52º 04'

Timezone +00:00

Elevation +0050m

 

Does this all look correct? The syncscan version is 04.37.03

My other query is that the gear/mechanism that moves the telescope left to right sounds fairly .......sick compared to the up/down movement. Is there anything I can do to ease this or is it a fairly complicated dissasembley?

 

Many Thanks

Keith

Edit: I also havent paid much attention to polar aligning the scope before I turn everything on. The manual doesnt address this procedure but Ive seen a few videos online explaining the process. Is this something I should do? I've not had to do it before as Ive only ever used a manual AZ mount before.

 

As said previously no polar alignment needed but like the AzGti in az mode do you need to level the tripod, point the scope North and level it. Then perform your star alignment? 

Cheers 

Lee 

[LaurenceT]

5 minutes ago, AstroNebulee said:

As said previously no polar alignment needed but like the AzGti in az mode do you need to level the tripod, point the scope North and level it. Then perform your star alignment? 

Cheers 

Lee 

We probably have already discussed this before but when I look at Youtube videos about the Az GTi and other similar mounts they always talk about "pointing north" but never differentiate between geographical north and magnetic north. There is a considerable divergence between the two and I'm not sure if it makes any difference in the end.

[AstroNebulee]

45 minutes ago, LaurenceT said:

We probably have already discussed this before but when I look at Youtube videos about the Az GTi and other similar mounts they always talk about "pointing north" but never differentiate between geographical north and magnetic north. There is a considerable divergence between the two and I'm not sure if it makes any difference in the end.

Yep your correct Laurence, I should say point to geographical north for a more accurate alignment, that's what I always did with my az gti in North level alignment and had good alignment and gotos. Like you say whether it makes any difference, I suspect a slight difference. Hopefully the op can get rough north and be ok. 👍

Edited May 25, 2022 by AstroNebulee

[doublevodka]

7 hours ago, sonicninja said:

Hi everyone,

I made a very spur of the moment purchase of a very cheap Syncscan AZ Goto Mount and Mak 127 Telescope. I had been wanting a system like this but hadnt planned on buying one until I came across a cheap listing.

Anyway, Ive looked through the manual and watched a couple of videos but Im having trouble aligning it correctly, I wondered if someone could look through the information Im entering into the handset as I suspect Im doing something fairly fundamentally wrong. Currently when going through the 2-Star Alignment the telescope is way off when moving itself to the second star, probably 40 or 50º off when looking by eye and not something I can make minute changes to address.

Using the compass app on my iphone I get the follwing Long/Lat -

52º4'38" N

0º35'10" E

50m Elevation

 

What Im inputting on the Syncscan Handset-

E 000º 35'

N 52º 04'

Timezone +00:00

Elevation +0050m

 

Does this all look correct? The syncscan version is 04.37.03

My other query is that the gear/mechanism that moves the telescope left to right sounds fairly .......sick compared to the up/down movement. Is there anything I can do to ease this or is it a fairly complicated dissasembley?

 

Many Thanks

Keith

Edit: I also havent paid much attention to polar aligning the scope before I turn everything on. The manual doesnt address this procedure but Ive seen a few videos online explaining the process. Is this something I should do? I've not had to do it before as Ive only ever used a manual AZ mount before.

 

I've had similar noise issues with a couple of Celestron mounts. It is fairly complicated but if you take your time and are competent with a screwdriver and spanner it's not too difficult.

Mine had a combination of issues, but if you do get it apart it's worth removing all of the Chinese glue-grease and replacing it with sparingly applied white lithium grease / super lube / add grease of your choice. The Chinese stuff makes the mount work harder than it needs to.

 

This video may help? 

 

[sonicninja]

Thanks for your replies everyone. Unfortunately my issues with aligning are slightly arbitrary now as after plugging in what I thought was a compatible power supply the handset is now dying and almost unreadable. It was a 12v 1.5amp supply which I had read was safe but sadly has caused lines all over the screen. Could be coincidence I suppose, initially the display was fine. After a series of button presses I can still get the mount to move so its not completely dead. Frustrating none the less.

[malc-c]

Do you mean you plugged 12v supply to the handset rather than the mount ?  Is this the scope you have ?

[bosun21]

You have to  check that any power supply has the correct polarity ie: centre pin positive. This should be marked on each power supply. Where did you plug it in? The mount or the handset?

[happy-kat]

If you haven't already unplug the power supply you are using 

[sonicninja]

I've unplugged the power supply, the problem persists with the battery pack which im now using. I plugged the mains into the mount, not directly into the handset, sorry for the confusion.

I did notice the screen on the handset was a bit worn out and faded last night before Id ever plugged the mains adapter in so it may just have been on its way out. It still works (I can just about navigate my way through the alignment in order to use slew controls). The mount is still functioning.

Yes thats the telescope and mount set-up, the handset is different though.

 

[sonicninja]

....bizarrely its working again. I took the handset apart and it started working....maybe a loose connection or dirt on the PCB which ive dislodged. Slightly annoying I dont know exactly how I fixed it, im sure it'll come back again.

Anyway, Im going to have another go at aligning it tonight. Can anyone see any issues with the lat/long I entered?

Thanks for all your help.

 

[bosun21]

You don’t need to do any alignment procedure before you can slew the telescope. All you need to do is enter the lat/longitude, elevation and time etc. You need to select YES for daylight saving. Once done it will ask to begin alignment, Yes/No . If you select No, you can slew the telescope and track targets should you want to. Your settings for lat/longitude seem fine.

[Paul_Sussex]

I've recently bought the same set-up new from FLO. I found following the manual worked, but you have to be careful with north alignment - true north, not magnetic - and levelling - best with a separate level rather than the on mount bubble level. Also, as mentioned US date format and either GMT/UTC or confirm daylight saving time. Found that two star alignment would get me in the general location, usually in or close to the finder scope view.

[happy-kat]

We are in BST now.

location is entered in degrees and minutes and not decimal and I think you would enter the longitude before the latitude.

[bosun21]

Your lat/longitude is fine, mine for instance is 51  44’N   1. 13’W. Whilst in BST (summer time) I believe that it’s Yes for daylight saving. If not I hope someone will rectify it.