Synscan GOTO frustations

[johnrt]

aha - I think I may know what your problem is - some early versions of Synscan - less than V3.25 have a bug. If you enter the time zone at +0 it doesnt interpret time correctly. Try setting the time zone as -0.

I saw this on a thread ages ago. I reflashed mine to 3.25 as soon as I got the upgrade so I never saw this problem.

Test it out and see.

I tried this and it hasn't made any difference, the handset already has 3.25 on it.

It seems Equinox 6 makes no difference at all. A slew command from either the handset or equinox results in the scope pointing in the (same) wrong area of sky.

I am testing in my lounge but using planetarium software as a guide to where things are. A slew (from parked) to M45 which has passed the southern part of the sky and is due SSW results in the scope pointing..... due south.

[Merlin66]

Is the apparent error only in RA or both RA and Dec?

If only RA it would infer a problem with the hour angle setting - longtitude or time..........

Ken

[Glider]

Have you only got one of the counterweights fitted? Is the scope balanced?

[Astro_Baby]

I was rereading your initial post - and saw you put in 'start from parked ?' as a YES.

Have you tried putting the scope with weights down facing North and answered NO to the 'start from parked ?'

I never do a start from parked as I am always mobile so the scope doesnt actually know where the parked position is.

[Cornelius Varley]

I was rereading your initial post - and saw you put in 'start from parked ?' as a YES.

Have you tried putting the scope with weights down facing North and answered NO to the 'start from parked ?'

I never do a start from parked as I am always mobile so the scope doesnt actually know where the parked position is.

Yes, I agree the mount is still trying to start from the "parked" position (where ever that is) not from the normal "home".

Peter

[SteveP]

John

We're going to crack this collectively!

From the position of your photo, can you now do a 'Park at home' and publish a photo of that?

Steve

[Astro_Baby]

We're going to crack this collectively!

Damn right

[johnrt]

From the position pictured above I parked the scope using the handset park command and it returns to this position.

[Cornelius Varley]

Looking at the pictures the latitude looks a bit steep. What angle is the latitude set at ? @ 51 degrees?

The parked position looks ok from the photo.

Peter

[SteveP]

Hi John

So, the mount is starting from its Home (CWD) position and returning to the CWD position when parked and yet when going to an object at SSW, it points due south ie the mount is approx 2hrs short (S minus SSW) of where it should be. To me, that looks like either the Synscan model is screwed up (which I doubt) or the settings in the handset are incorrect

In practice this means that there is an error in 1 of ...

1. Lat/Long position

2 Date

3 Time

Can you double check these?

Also, does the Synscan HS record in RA/Dec where it is parked when in Home position? If so, what does it say?

Steve

[SteveP]

Looking at the pictures the latitude looks a bit steep. What angle is the latitude set at ? @ 51 degrees?

The parked position looks ok from the photo.

Peter

I agree it does look a bit steep. I took it as an illusion caused by the poition of the camera

[Astro_Baby]

Have you tried it from the park position shown in the pic above but when it asks start frompark - answer No and see where it goes from there ?

ie just put the mount at 51' latitude then enter all the data but when it asks 'start from park position' enter NO.

[Cornelius Varley]

Can you check the latitude scale on the LH side of the mount. It could just be an illusion though. Don't expect the scale to be accurate, they are known to be off by a few degrees.

Peter

[steppenwolf]

I have to say that the latitude does look very steep indeed. Assuming that the mount has 'apparently' been polar aligned, could it be that this has been carried out on the wrong star altogether?

[SteveP]

I don't know whether this is a red herring but on my EQ6, the Dec clutch lever is on the side of the mount not on the top as in John's photo. Is this how it is on an EQ5?

Steve

[johnrt]

The altitude is set to 51 deg.

My settings are as follows.

Turn on.

Start from parked - NO

Synscan EQ Ver 3.25

Warning about Sun etc

Enter Location - 000 19E 51 17N

Time Zone +00:00

Date - 02/08/2010

Time - 22:26 - Confirmed 10:26 PM

Daylight saving - NO

Polaris Clock - 03:23

Begin Align - Yes - 1 star align

I will go for Pollux as it is due south on Stellarium

Scope moves to this.

Co-ordinates on handset now read after I finish 1 star align without moving the scope at all - Dec = +28 01' 15" - RA = 07h 45m

[johnrt]

Park command issued to scope from pic above and handset co-ordinates read DEC = +90 00' 00" - RA = 13h 55m.

Scope is again in pictured position of parked scope as above.

[Cornelius Varley]

The dec lock is on the front and the ra is on the rh side.

Peter

[SteveP]

That looks like a very strange position. The scope seems to be lower than the counterweights. Is this caused by the angle of the camera or is the scope really below the horizontal position?

[MishMich]

I start with the scope pointing at Polaris. Otherwise it goes weird (points to Australia for Betelgeuse). So far it accpets one and two star alignments, but one star alignment isn't much use for anything. Not managed to get it to accept a three star alignment yet.

Thought it was just me...

But I've had hardly any sky since I upgraded, and when I do it seems more like two steps backwards and one step forwards at the moment. I'm ready to give up on the Synscan and use EQMOD instead.

M.

[SteveP]

John

All the settings look OK - it's found the correct co-ords of Pollux and it's used the correct co-ords for the standard Home (CWD) position. I've been simulating what you've done on the EQMod simulator as far as I can and it's confirmed the co-ords etc.

So we can eliminate most of the usual culprits. Can you eyeball the scope from the side? Does the angle of the scope in the Home position look to be about 51degrees (give or take) or is it really at 75-80 degrees as suggested by the earlier photo?

[Astro_Baby]

I'm stumped - cant see any reason for it not to get a fix. Is the latitude scale ok at 51' - does the scope look like its at about 51' when its at its home position - as others have said the scope looks very steep.

Beyond that I am stumped - I cant imagine what could be wrong. Unfortunately I cant simulate it here as my mount is out of commission for a bit.

[johnrt]

It's difficult to tell really. The altitude scale on the side of the mount reads just a tad over 50 deg and I haven't messed with the bolts since I last polar aligned the scope on Friday.

This is a shot from the side of the mount does it look way off here?

(PS Excuse the bottle of beer in shot, I am on holiday for 2 weeks you know )

[MishMich]

Have you checked the power pack? Made sure it is fully charged and pumping out 12+ V & can provide sufficient power?

Mine worked fine up till I did the upgrade, then it was downhill all the way. I notice that the weird stuff tends happen when the little red light by the on/off switch on the mount is flashing - that means the power is not at 100%.

I have a 12v power converter on order to get round this.

M.

[MishMich]

Check the connection as well - mine works better since I bent the little bit in the middle over to ensure the power lead wouldn't pop out. Also - is that an ALDI power pack, by any chance?

M.