Need advice again on Alt/Az syncscan wont keep alignment

[acharris77]

Hi all, I am posting to ask advice on the goto of the syncscan Alt/Az mount with 130p. I have checked all my settings and level , including co-ordinates and date, time and stuff so that is OK. I have some problems with the alignment process which then seems to transfer to problems with using goto.

I do 2 star alignment and I use Arcturus and either Dubhe or Merak as the 2 stars at the moment. I goto Arcturus and then center it ok. Then I select say Merak and the scope slews but seem to arrive and stop a good way from the star, that I have to change the speed up one to get it into the eyepiece and center, where as it used to be in FOV before, just not center.

After I do this it says alignment sucessful. I go to an object say M81 and it seems OKish, not perfect but reasonable in FOV. Then if I say goto saturn, the scope is way off saturn, and I mean not even slightly out of FOV, but very lots out.

I got to use the finder to get saturn in the EP when slewing the scope. IT has done this saturday and tonight. It was OK before we had the run of bad weather and I could not get the scope out for 2 - 2 1/2 weeks. Could not try another alignment tonight as the clouds moved in and spoilt it after 15 mins.

Also my warranty is out in 10 days with FLO, so if I have a fault I want to be able to get it sorted before the warranty is up as otherwise I am left with a not very useful scope and mount. Any help is appreciated, as I dont know if the mount is slipping or not. Thanks.

[brantuk]

I'd use the azmithul divisions indicated in the manual for alignment purposes - it seems to be more accurate "per region" that way. Then if you slew to another region use the PAE to refine accuracy as you go accross the sky.

PAE settings are stored after a session and powerdown. So if you move the scope before the next session it'll throw those out and you'll need to realign all over again