At my wits end with the 130p Syncscan now

[acharris77]

Hey all, maybe you all remember I posted a while back about problems with my scope unstable and poor focusing and resloving objects, anyway I am still having problems and appear worse now.

The main problem is that no matter how long I leave my scope to cool, I still get no detail on objects and every thing is like moving and bubbling in the eyepiece. Looking at Astrobaby's collimation guide and looking at the different issues, I seem to be getting a combination of atmopsheric turbulence, a bit of optical surface damage and some blurring off to the sides like the EP or the scope is constantly moving and causing a motion blur, even if I dont move or touch the scope and stay a little distance from the scope. This happens if it is tracking on the mount as well.

I try to do a star test, but no joy due to not being able to get the object in the EP to settle down, but the circles look concentric looking, just the defocused star aint round shape, it is like rough around the edges and due to the stuff moving in the EP, I cant get it stable to check.

The mount now shakes if the scope tracks like I said above, and stars are not sharp or detail shown. I cant test collimation accurately as got no tools to help me. So at the moment I am not enjoying viewing as I aint been the last few clear nights due to this issue and tried tonight and still the same.

So dont know what to do now, as I dont know weather to chuck more money on a collimator to see what is what, contact FLO to see where I stand as I still got about 6 weeks warranty left, or the way I feel, either sell or get a refund on the scope and leave astonomy and sell of my gear. Just another problem which have arised this year, 2010 has been a pain in the rear end with stuff and dont look like ending yet.

Thanks for reading and any advice I would be greatful as dont want to leave the hobby, but the way I am feeling is just to give up as I am fighting a losing battle every turn this year. Thanks.

[ollypenrice]

What magnification were you using? If it was very high the turbulence would make the image 'boil' as you describe. However, it almost sounds as if something might be loose, the primary or secondary, or part of the focuser. How does it look at a low magnification?

Could you get along to an astrosoc where folks will have plenty of experience and also collimation tools ect? You would be sure to find help easily.

If ever you want an observing setup that 'just works' then a refractor on an Alt-Az mount is as close to foolproof as it gets. But I am sure someone with experience could sort out your scope. Maybe a forum member lives near you?

Olly.

[Cornelius Varley]

If the mount is shaking check the three bolts at the top of the tripod. If they are loose or not fully tightened the mount will be a little unstable.

Peter

[Brett]

Hi Anthony I have the same scope and mount as you and found that it needed collimation after a few months of use. I also found that the standard set of EP`s are ok but not perfect optically and do show some blurring towards the edge especially the 10mm. I have upgraded all my EP`s and it makes a massive difference. The only tip i can really give you is to tighten the three bolts on the tripod head, the miniscule amount of slop here can result in massive alignment errors as I found when I first got my scope. Also keep the tripod legs as short as possible, the vibrations transfered from the ground by your feet multiply tenfold by the time they get to the scope. Are you using the 8 AA batteries to power the scope, if so this may be causing problems for you as it did for me and it might be worth investing in a powerpack for more reliable power !!!

Regards

Brett

PS. Where abouts do you live, someone on here may live near enough to help you out.

[hemihaggis]

ok for a start , i had a look at the pic of your scope in your profile page ,, the scope is sitting in your garden yes ?? .. for starters the legs are not fully extendend ..giving a you too narrow a base for full stability .....also the accesory tray is missing ?? this is an integral part of the tripod and contributes greatly to the stability of scope ...it will be almost impossible to get stable views with out ..

please check these thing and try again as sw 130 scopes are virtually bullet proof and most of the problems with them are user created

[acharris77]

Thanks for the replies. Using the 25mm EP or my 26mm 4000 series meade, there can be seen a little bit of unusally around the edge of the star long side the diffraction pattern from the spider vanes but not as much as at High magnification. Also, I took that back last year the accessory tray is always used that was taken for just showing to someone I know, but I will have to try higher, but I thought too extended and the mount is unstable anyway or so I have read.

I can try tightening the bolts on the tripod, as I have done it before on it and it helped but my main concern is the OTA. without a EP in I can see the 3 clips of the secondary mirror pretty much central, so from reading guides would I be right to assume that the secondary is more or less OK, and I cant get a star test as there is too much distortion at the EP to judge.

I am up in the S Wales valley, and not sure about a local Astro society, I know I have had problems with my 3 bolts for adjusting the primary coming loose often, so I dont know if this is a problem or not as the locking screws are tight, just the primary ones keep coming loose?? I got a new focuser here, I was wondering about trying that in case the one now have got to much play in it. Will try to look into something to try and check the collimation.

Thanks again and any other advice appreciated.

[pvaz]

It's not normal for the adjusting bolts in the primary to come loose.

[Brett]

It's not normal for the adjusting bolts in the primary to come loose.

I have problems with the locking screws becoming loose occasionaly but this doesnt seem to affect the collimation.

[acharris77]

Here is a picture taken down the focuser, I dont know if it will help any with the mirrors aligned:

Thanks.

[pvaz]

If you point it during the day to a distant object (tree, building, etc) how does it look?

Do you get a stable focused image or is it as bad?

How often have you used the scope? I mean mine gives me perfect images, but on some nights nothing seams to reach perfect focus due to atmospheric conditions. Although I never get objects constantly shaking around, the dob base is pretty steady even under moderate wind conditions.

[acharris77]

Right, due to be stuffed up with a cold and the on/off clouds the last few days I aint be able to get out, I am hoping the weather is clear tomorrow night as tonight is cloudy so that I can try the scope again, now I have extended the legs and tighten things up.

Also I bought a Rigel Chesire Collimation eyepiece for £8 from Scope 'n' skies after going to the site from an earlier post in there astroboot section. So when that comes, I will check the collimation and probably be posting some questions for some advice with that, so I am hoping to get to the bottom and hope the Chesire is OK for that price, as when I looked I seen it at 19.99 to 24.99.

[Doc]

Here is a picture taken down the focuser, I dont know if it will help any with the mirrors aligned:

Thanks.

Looking at this photo I would say the problem does not lie with your collimation, it looks like it should do. The mirror clips are visible, the spider vanes are disecting the donut on your primary pretty much in the centre and the offset is present.

[jgs001]

When the scope is slewing are you able to tell what it is about the mount that is shaking ? I'm working on the basis the SynScan mount is virtually the same as the NexStar SLT mount, it looks like it in the pictures I've seen. On the under side of the tripod below the head is the retaining bolt... make sure that's tight and that the head sits in the tripod properly. Are you able to tell if the shaking is worse at certains points in the slew, and whether it's on the Az or Alt axis ? Is the scope with eyepiece etc, reasonably well balanced ?

[brantuk]

It looks to me like the tube could be set a little further forward so you have a little more weight towards the front. I certainly wouldn't have the focuser directly opposite the mounting point.

[acharris77]

@ brantuk thats for that tip, I will see if moving the weight along the dovetail to the front will help, as the balance for the scope is always something I have wondered about and have always set it to be pretty even long the bar when tightened, but will try that. Thanks.

@ doc, thanks for that, maybe then it was down to apmospheric conditions then, could the ash cloud have anything to do with seeing, or is it cause the weather warmer now and more heat is raising??? Thanks.

@jgs001, The shake in the mount seem to be worse when the scope is slewing along the azimuth I think (going left to right or vice versa, though I am hoping to sort that out with the tighten up of everything possible.

Giving it a go tonight, so will make notes about the performance and try different balance points. Thanks.

[sgazer]

Right, due to be stuffed up with a cold and the on/off clouds the last few days I aint be able to get out, I am hoping the weather is clear tomorrow night as tonight is cloudy so that I can try the scope again, now I have extended the legs and tighten things up.

Also I bought a Rigel Chesire Collimation eyepiece for £8 from Scope 'n' skies after going to the site from an earlier post in there astroboot section.

ah so it was you!! I saw it yesterday and went on there to buy it today, but it had gone! At least you had one stroke of luck.