HEQ-6 Alignment Issues

[KevStar]

Hello - I'm getting very frustrated! That last three nights I have set up I have successfully completed a 3-star alignment with my EQ6 mount but all subsequent targets are WAY out of the eyepiece - at least 8-10 degrees. I've reset to home position and started from scratch with the set-up but exactly that same thing has happened on the last three occasions. What am I doing wrong?

[steppenwolf]

I can only tell you what always works for me! Do a 1 star alignment but instead of using the hand-controller to locate the star in the centre of your field of view, unlock the RA and DEC clutches and manually push the telescope about until you get the alignment star perfectly centred in the EP (use a crosshair EP to do this if possible to get it absolutely centred!) and then lock the two clutches firmly. Now accept the alignment using the hand-controller and PARK the mount to the HOME position using that function on the controller. You now have a VERY accurate 'PARK' position. Re-start the process again choosing 3 star alignment but this time use the hand-controller to make all the adjustments - this should give you much better accuracy.

Choose your three alignment stars carefully, especially if you are going to view the whole sky during your session and try to get them widely spaced from one another.

If you are only interested in a single object that session then do the 1 star alignment on a nearby bright star in the manner that I have described but don't park the mount, just go to the object you want after you have tightened the clutches and accepted the 1 star alignment.

[Merlin66]

Well, if nothing else the problem is consistant!!

Luckily this also normally means its a straightforward solution ( maybe not obvious right now).

Have you had success previously? What changed?

OK, what about setting time and location... if your polar alignment is OK and you're getting an acceptable 3 star alignment...the GOTO should be OK. Are your 3 stars chosen for alignment reasonable well spaced across the sky?

Ken

[brianb]

Date in right format - mm/dd/yy not dd/mm/yy

Time zone right

Daylight time saving turned off

Tripod top a reasonable approximation to level

If so then it should work.

Don't use Polaris as one of the alignment stars - if doing 3 star alignment, at least one should be with the tube east of the mount and at least one with the tube west; one of the stars should be very high in the sky and the other two should be well seperated from it and not in a straight line. Mid evening, in February, in the UK, a good set of stars would be Regulus (lowish in the east), Capella (overhead) and Aldebaran ( moderately high in the south west); Hamal or Alpheratz would be a better choice than Aldebaran for the third star.

[KevStar]

Thanks for the advice - I'll try again this evening. The stragnge thing is I have been setting up using the same equip for the past 2 years and this problem has only just started. The mm/dd/yy seting are correct as is the long/lat however I have noticed that although I get the timezone 00+or- option I am no longet prompted for BST or GMT prior to choosing 1-3 star alignment. Once again the 3 star alignment is working perfectly - it is the following object alignment that is vastly out.

[Merlin66]

What version Synscan are you using? V3.23/ V3.25/ V3.27 ?

[Matthew.Blake]

Is the mount set up on soft ground and slowly sinking? Happened to me once and took me a while to realise why the alignment was getting gradually worse and worse through the night.