Aligning my Skywatcher 127

[Digi-Steve]

I'm a little bit confused about how to align my telescope (Skywatcher Skymax 127 SupaTrak).

I understand that I adjust the latitude scale till it reads 0.

I point the telescope tube north.

Thats should be the home position. I turn the power off and then back on.

Then I set the local latitude for accurate tracking. Save the setting, turn power off and on again. Go back to home position.

Is that it or do I have to align with Polaris?

[brantuk]

Which mount do you have Steve? Is it alt/a or eq? is the first thing you need to know - so do we in order to advise. Are you sure it's a latitude scale? (eq) or is it an altitude scale? (alt/az).

[Digi-Steve]

It's Alt-Azimuth Mount and it says in the manuel to set the latitude for accurate tracking.

[brantuk]

Ok - what it's referring to is your local latitude, the site I use to detrmine this can be found here :

Lat - Long Finder: This page helps you find Latitude and Longitude

Once you have that, set the scale to zero (i.e. level the scope tube) and switch off. When you turn back on again it it has a start position of zero degrees. Then use the arrows to raise the tube till the scale reads your lattitude. You then set it using the "fast" and "slow" buttons pressed together. This gives it a second reference point telling it your latitude on the earth. Then away you go.

(I'm assuming you don't have the goto handset).

If at any time you don't know your latitude, you can just point it north and find the pole star in center of the ep. Then take it down to zero, off/on, then raise back to the pole star and set

[Cornelius Varley]

I'm a little bit confused about how to align my telescope (Skywatcher Skymax 127 SupaTrak).

I understand that I adjust the latitude scale till it reads 0.

I point the telescope tube north.

Thats should be the home position. I turn the power off and then back on.

Then I set the local latitude for accurate tracking. Save the setting, turn power off and on again. Go back to home position.

Is that it or do I have to align with Polaris?

Almost right. Set the mount level and North with the pointer on the alt scale reading zero, then switch off and back on. To improve tracking you then adjust the alt axis using the handset to your local latitude and then press the "fast" and "slow" buttons simultaneously to store your local latitude into the system. You only need to do this once as the information is then stored in the handset.

Peter

[Freff]

Can I add that with mine I set it up slightly different.

First I levelled the tripod without the mount. Include all sandbags weights etc at this stage. I used an accurate digital inclinometer for this.

I then attached the mount and scope. Powered up the system a slewed the scope to north and latitude to zero on the scale. Unfortunately, on mine zero was not level.

The lat nut on the side of the mount is not very tight (I think it's a safety thing incase the scope collides it can slip).

I slimply put the inclinometer (or level) on the scope and manually moved it until it was level. This improve my tracking immensely.

I then done the switch on and off thing to home position it.

After that I do all the local lat/long on the handset.

Tony

[xboxdevil]

If you want to accurately set your local latitude, this is best done after you have levelled the scope, slew the scope until Polaris is in the middle of a low power eyepiece (you can refine this by increasing the magnification and re-centring) when you are happy that it is central then press buttons 2 & 3 together and all the lights on the controller will light up.

This bit will only ever need to be done once.

Good luck!

[Staffy]

Another way to find your latitude and longitude very accurately is Google Earth. If you can find your house (or other viewing site) it will tell you exactly what the lat and long is.