Mother in law has bought a SW 127 syn scan and we cant get it to align

[Ollienttm]

Can anyone give us any tips? We are gonna get it out tonight as it looks like it will be clear. What can we see DSO wise with this scope? Last time we tried to align it wasnt far off but could see nothing with it I am not sure if it is because it was july and it was still too light in the sky but we are going for Jupiter tonight as that is all she wants to see but I want to be able to cheer her up after spending so much on a scope and get her seeing things. Maybe andromada will be out not sure if we will see it from her garden yet.

Such a stress for something with is meant to be so fun

[brantuk]

Hi Ollie - first tip is to download stellarium (unless you have it allready). It'll show you the pattern of stars around your object and wich direction to point the scope.

For Jupiter it'll be rising in the east around midnight to 1am - very bright - can't miss it.

M31 (andromeda) can be found using the great square of pegasus. Take a line diagonally from bottom right to top left and extend beyond the square past two bright stars plainly visible. Then up a bit sharp right at 90 degrees and you'll be on it. Use a wide angle ep perhaps 30-40mm and you should see it as a smudge.

With the scope - align the finder during daylight on a distant object (much easier). Set the date in USA format (MMDDYY) - and do one star or two star align on known stars (from stellarium). Use stars in the same quarter of the sky for best accuracy and refine using the PAE if necessary.

Hope that all helps

[Ags]

At least you should be able to find Jupiter without too much trouble even if the goto is not working right. The first few times I took my goto scope out I did not try to align it as the moon, Mars and Saturn were available in the sky. If you have no luck with the goto tonight, maybe go hunting the brighter double stars - Mizar, Albireo and Epsilon Lyrae should be possible to find by the naked eye and then you can manually point the telescope at them.

DSO-wise you should be able to see M27, M57 and M13 really well. They look good in my scope, which is smaller than yours.

[BazMark]

One thing I find very important when setting up my SW 127 Synscan GoTo scope is making sure that the tripod is dead level before I start. If it is even slightly off the GoTo won't be very acurate. I found that when using a torch to see the spirit level, it cast a shadow from the ring that made it tricky to see the bubble when it was dead center. Another sugestion I found helpful was not to extend the legs fully. This helps to keep the tripod steady.

If you have trouble getting it to align tonight, I would skip the aligning process for this evening and just use the directional controls to point it at Jupiter. Once you have it in the field of view you can increase the magnifcation and enjoy the view.

Once you master the aligning process there are quite a few DSOs viewable with this scope.

some are very faint, but the darker your skies the brighter the DSOs will appear in your scope.

From where I live I cannot see the milky way due to light polution. However, I have seen numerous globular clusters. I've seen both the Cateye and Ring nebulas. These are very faint but clearly discernable. The scope also splits double stars like Mizar very well. The Andromeda galaxy is clearly eliptical.

The two biggest planets Jupiter, Saturn, along with the moon are spectacular up to about 180x magnification.

Mars, Venus and Mercury are very good, though you might need a filter to reduce the glare with Venus.

Hope this helps.

Mark

[Ollienttm]

Thanks for the replies, I had it aligned so it was just off centre the first time but when I went to something like the ring nebula I could see nothing in or around that ares it was ****

When doing a 1 star alignment does the mount need to be facing notrth or the tube facing a certain position before starting the alignment? It doesnt make it very clear in the instructions on how to actually get going

[Capricorn]

Level the tripod then level the scope and point it north.

Not necessary the scope level and north bit but it makes it a lot easier for you to work out directions.:D

If you have a view to the west and use what I think is the 2 star alingment tell it that you will locate a star in the West, hopefully it will ask for Arcturus. Arcturus is in the west and easy to locate - follow/continue the handle of the plough round and somewhere along the arc is a nice orange star called Arcturus.

Other options could be Altair to the South East, Vega is easy to find sort of overhead and possibly classed as South but overhead isn't a direction.:rolleyes:

If you have good views North then Capella, but it could be too low.

After that I think the scope selects the next and your job is to centre it.

Oh yes, use the longest focal length eyepiece you have to start with, wider field of view.

From something you mentioned, point the scope at a populated bit of the sky (Casseiopia) with a long focal length EP in and make sure that you have it in reasonable focus before you start.

[Ollienttm]

Thanks I will see how we fare and report back. She will be happy to just see Jupiter so anything else would be a bonus

[dweller25]

I had big problems with mine when I ran it off the small battery pack. Once I upgraded to a 7AH power pack it was very good.

[Capricorn]

You will find that the better you start off at the set up stage the easier it will be.

Meades use the level scope and point North and I find it useful. Half my liking of it is that you can do that 2 hours before using the scope, in daylight, then leave it switched off. You then power up and align.

For a Meade that is an essentail part of the setup, not so on Skywatchers.

I tend to suggest it as it makes you level the tripod which is better and as I said means you know easily where South, West and East are.

You have to work through the SW alignment options and find which suits you.:D

[Ollienttm]

Well we never got the alignment stage as the thickest blanket of clouds ruined it after about 7-8 hours of clear skies

Managed to get Jupiter in view for a minute but never bumped the mag up with a barlow but she was still happy bless her.

The power pack I have is a SW one from FLO I think it is 7ah already?

Will try to align another time now when its clearer

[brantuk]

Same happened to me Ollie - got Jupiter in the ep, played with a couple of ep's for 5 mins, finally got it focused nicely at 5mm (about x95 mag) called the missus to come see, and by the time she got there (30-40 secs) it had gone behind a thick bank of cloud. Such is the nature of our hobby lol

[Ollienttm]

Does anyone know how to get this tracking? She found Jupiter by herself last night and wants to track it but we don't know if it needs alignment first?

[Capricorn]

I guess on the SW you need to do some alignment. Otherwise the scope has no real idea of it's orientation and so cannot determine how much each drive needs.

Say this as if it simply tracked at the sideral rate then if aligned then OK, but if 180 degrees out in orientation then it would be going the wrong direction.

[Ollienttm]

Ok, thank you. We could not see arcturus from her garden only vega so would we be better trying the 1 star align and having it set to north before finding vega or is it pretty much useless doing a 1 star anyway? She found jupiter went out of fov too quick for her to keep up

[brantuk]

One star alignment is usually ok - it gets you to the area and if you're lucky the object will be in the ep (maybe a bit off center and depending on wether ep is high or low mag).

Two stars in the same quarter of the sky makes for more accuracy - add in PAE and it should be spot on. A level mount is very important to start and if you can set level and raise and set polaris it will improve star alignment even more.

You can allways adjust as you go along and it will home in on the correct orientation