Brightest Star Alignment with an AZ GOTO (Skywatcher 130P SynScan)

[LizE]

Hoping someone out there can help us with a question we have about our Skywatcher 130P SynScan AZ GOTO.

We are novice star gazers and this is our first telescope so we are finding our way very slowly!!

We are ready to begin the "Brightest Star Alignment" step in setting up our scope. Although we haven't done it yet, "selecting the Region" in the azimuth looks relatively straightforward on paper at least, but it is the next bit we are uncertain of...

It seems that the LCD will display the name and position of the brightest star in the selected region and it is up to the user to manually slew the scope to point to the object in the finder.

We are not sure how to actually do this as the instructions aren't explicit. How do we know we have found the right object in the finder? How will we know that we are slewing the scope in the right direction? How will we know once we are there? Do the coordinates given on the LCD give us any clue? Are we supposed to use this information somehow to know which direction to slew the scope in (example in instructions is "Arcturus 0.0, E88.1, 24.1", but how does this help us? what are we supposed to do with this information??!)

We are hoping that finding the second brightest star will be easier as I note that the GOTO automatically slews to the second brightest object once the first is found, but we need to find the brightest object first!

Any help would be welcome as we are desperate to get out there and start star gazing but are stalling at this first hurdle!!!

Liz

[Cornelius Varley]

Download a copy of Stellarium this will help you identify the brightest stars. I think the "brightest" stars are extactly that in the region of the sky selected. A useful book to look out for is "Turn left at Orion" plus a Philip's planisphere.

Peter

[Space Cowboy]

I have the same system as you. I assume you don't have a manual as all this is explained :-) If you know where a star or planet is in the sky then select that region of the sky ie northwest etc. On the display scoll down to your known object i.e Venus. Press enter and you will be propted to slew the scope to Venus. Thereafter the goto automatically slews to each star and its a matter of centering the star in the eyepiece. You will only know if your first star or planet was correctly pointed when the led says "allignment succesful".

To make findind stars easier download the free planetarium software "stellarium"

Have fun!

[Brett]

Hi Liz, I have the very same scope and mount as you so hopefully I can help. Firstly download a free program called stellarium Stellarium Its a free planetarium for you pc and is based on your location at any given time including real-time. You will need to set the location in stellarium but for now don't worry about it being exact, just close will do dont forget the date and time including bst, . You can use stellarium to learn whats in the sky and to identify the stars you need for alignment.

To set the scope up make sure the tripod is level Id use a small spirit level first as the bubble levels can be dodgy. Once you have the mount and scope on you will need to set up the handset for date, time and lat/log. With the date settings make sure you enter in the format of MM/DD/YYYY. With the time make sure you have Am/Pm correct and don't forget to select BST on. With the alignment I find a 2 star alignment easier, its personal preference really. Once you have identified a star select the star on the handset and slew to it using the handsets arrow keys. You can change the speed of the mount between 0 and 9 by pressing 2 and then selecting the speed 0-9. To initially line things up use the 25mm eyepiece, I sit behind the scope and eye things up before checking in the eyepiece and once centered I use the 10mm to better center the star. Once you have centered this star it will ask you to select a second star, once selected it will slew automatically to the selected star you will then be asked to make the final centering manually use the 25mm and then the 10mm for better centering, its a good time to center your finder-scope now. With all this done you should be ready. Also make sure the that the scope is in its correct position on the alt (up/down) axis as this can be moved easily when attaching the scope. To do this go to Utility then show position and use the arrow keys to change to alt az readings. Make sure that the scope is in the correct position according to the handset. To move it just use gentle pressure to move the scope by hand and match it up to the handset using the scale on the mount.

Sorry if i waffled on a bit, Hope it helps.

Regards

Brett:)

Ps Keep an eye on the back end of the scope when looking towards zenith as the back of the scope can strike the tripod . If it gets too close for comfort press ESC and it will stop. You can set slew limits in the handset, even so I haven't used them yet.

[Skuber]

Liz, I had a similar experience the first few times with my scope.

The hardest part when I was a complete beginner is accurately identifying the stars in the sky.

Get Stellarium, then work out which stars you can definitely identify - even if it's only three or four, it will be enough. The constellations of the Plough and Cassiopeia are easy to identify and can give you pointers to other stars. And watch out for planets - I mixed up Arcturus and Saturn the first time

You can also get an iPhone / Android app that you point at the sky and it tells you what you're looking at. It's not all that accurate, but it can be really helpful to get an idea of what you're looking at in the field.

[Skuber]

By the way, I meant to ask - have you set up your finder scope so that it points to exactly the same place as the main tube? This is usually best done in the day time when you can see something far away to point your scope at.

You won't be able to find anything if your finder is pointing to a different place in the sky to the main scope.

Apologies if this an obvious question

[kniclander]

If it helps, Arcturus is pretty unmissable at the moment- it's the brightest star high in the ssw sky just as night is falling and its quite distinctly orangey. It is currently higher, less far west and brighter than saturn.

good luck

[brantuk]

Find the pole star - it's allways there and easily identifiable using the plough and cassiopoeia:

North pole star.

Align on this one first then two others east and west for reasonable accuracy. You can replace them in smaller areas of sky for greater accuracy. And do use the pointing accuracy enhancement feature (PAE) - it works.

Hope that helps

[Capricorn]

Find Polaris. Get scope base level and then level the scope tube and point it North. Skywatchers do not specifically require this but it is reasonable starting position.

Skywatcher do require that you know a few stars, Meades don't assume this but the start position is more critical.

Arcturus is a good star, not a lot around it and at this time of year is in effect West when it is getting dark enough to see anything. I looked a couple of nights back and would have said it was a bit north of west. If you are looking North then off to the left. Alternatively find the Plough and follow the sweep of the handle round and the curved path sort of bumps into Arcturus.

Arcturus is always a good one for alignment.

For a second I would suggest Deneb, part of the constellation Cygnus and probably close to overhead. Cygnus looks more like a cross. Deneb is the bright one at the top of the cross.

Problem is that Vega isn't that far away from Deneb.

During the alignment use a nice big/long eyepiece, they give a wide field of view, so more chance of the star you want being in view.

[Chestercopperpot]

Im glad someone asked this, im at exactly the same stage.

Aint got a scooby doo how to allign.

This helps a lot

[IIxFUSIONZxMMx]

LOL I have almost given up the  stars I want to use in the plough don't show up on the synscan pulling my hair out want to see galaxies only had my skywatcher 130p explorer goto az scope 4 days my first ever telescope cant get it to align so at the moment I can only view the moon and Jupiter  

[ashwoody]

I am in the same boat. I got the same telescope today and I am having trouble aligning it it up. I tried the 2 star way but I aligned it with one star pressed enter and it moved away. Think I will try the brightest star way later on.

Hope you all figure it out

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