Advice on EQ6 pro Synscan mount

[mark RD]

Im New to Goto and was hoping I could get some advice from those who use it. I got the pleasure of a couple of hours of clearish sky a couple of days ago, And so I got a few questions.

1 How important is it to be accurately pol aligned?

2 Does the time have to be set within the minute on the hand set, If so whats the best sorce for an accurate time?

3 is my longitude and latitude even right? (015.47'W 52.13N) post code is pe192dt

Im asking these questions as I did a three star setup, while setting up I got the stars I was setting up to within the finderscope FOV but after set up the objects I was went for on the pre programed tour was out by about 4 finderscope FOVs. I must have gone wrong somewhere ....

RD

[blinky]

Yes to the first two questions. For an accurate time source you can find them on the web or remember phone 123!!! As for lattitude I just googled my town name and lattitude.

[mark RD]

As for lattitude I just googled my town name and lattitude.

I tryed that which is how I got what I put in to the hand set (015.47'W 52.13N) only the format on the hand set seems diffrent to all the results I got on the net ????

RD

[Tinkerbell]

Lo Rd

The format of the Lon and Lat are in decimal and if I remember right you need them in Deg , Min, Sec. There is a formula to convert it but the drink is clouding My mind at the moment.

Also are You putting the scope in the home position ( Roughly pointed at Polaris ) before You start Your alignment. A good cheat I have found is if the first star is somewhere close and the second isn't , undo the clutches and move the scope so it is in the field of view and then go on to the third star and do the same. This works for Version 2.05 but I am not sure on Version 3.xx.

[GordonCopestake]

Dont forget the date is probably in yank, mm/dd/yyyy

[George]

Well according to your postcode this is what I came up with:

http://www.streetmap.co.uk/streetmap.dll?GridConvert?name=518746,259634&type=OSGrid

[mark RD]

Lo Rd

The format of the Lon and Lat are in decimal and if I remember right you need them in Deg , Min, Sec. There is a formula to convert it but the drink is clouding My mind at the moment.

Also are You putting the scope in the home position ( Roughly pointed at Polaris ) before You start Your alignment. A good cheat I have found is if the first star is somewhere close and the second isn't , undo the clutches and move the scope so it is in the field of view and then go on to the third star and do the same. This works for Version 2.05 but I am not sure on Version 3.xx.

Thanks Guys that gives me a few things to play with, Hopefully be clear tonight so I can give it another shot.

RD

[Ambermile]

Umm, 15:47:0W puts you somewhere in the Atlantic I reckon... try 0:15:47W

Arthur

[mark RD]

The problem is how do I put that in to 000.00W 00.00N format Im guessing 000.15W 52.22N ?

RD

[Ambermile]

Yes. Ignore the third set of numbers (seconds). Can't remember but pretty sure you get the option to put W or E in. If not then W is a negative when you get the +/- bit (you will get either the +/- or the W/E choice)

Arthur

[mark RD]

Thanks Arther thats a big help, Hope the weather holds out so I can try it out

RD

[jcm]

I live in Peterborough and my values are :-

N 52 : 37 : 42 ( thats deg , min , sec) and W 00 : 16 : 30

I used a hand held GPS unit ( garmin etrex) to get accurate results needed for the Minor Planets,Comets people in the US.

John

[radioactive]

here's the arithmetic needed to convert on to the other

# The whole units of degrees will remain the same (i.e. in 121.135° longitude, start with 121°).

# Multiply the decimal by 60 (i.e. .135 * 60 = 8.1).

# The whole number becomes the minutes (8').

# Take the remaining decimal and multiply by 60. (i.e. .1 * 60 = 6).

# The resulting number becomes the seconds (6"). Seconds can remain as a decimal.

# Take your three sets of numbers and put them together, using the symbols for degrees (°), minutes (‘), and seconds (") (i.e. 121°8'6" longitude)

may be of help to you

[scotty365]

Be very careful not to cross the meridian when setting your alignments as the mirror moves "mirror slop" (reflectors at least) i.e if you are looking in the eastern sky choose a 2-3 star alignment in that quadrant but not too close to your target. I've found it hard work getting it working properly and i'm still struggling. GOOD LUCK! HTH

Scotty

[mark RD]

Thanks for all your help and advice on this, just wish I had the Sky's to try it out on :)

Second night out with the setup on Monday I skipped the alignment and just went for a target then repositioned

the scope bang on. That got me within the finderscope FOV on all the targets I could see ( thanks to the moon).

I'm sure once I work it out it will all seem too easy.

RD

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Mark, I thought that the tracking didn't work until after you do an alignment, or have you got the newer V3 version?

Captain Chaos

[mark RD]

Mark, I thought that the tracking didn't work until after you do an alignment, or have you got the newer V3 version?

Captain Chaos

I'm right up to date with the V3.10. I went out a bit late on Monday with the setup and on the first attempt at alignment I got an error, I think I got my

Castor and Pollux mixed up :insects1: So I switched it off and on did not do the alignment but set the scope off to find the pleiades Manually moved the scope in position

and everything else I tried to find was within the finderscope FOV.

RD

[GordonCopestake]

Dont take this the wrong way but perhaps purchasing a planisphere wouldn't go amiss to ensure your target stars are infact your target stars?

[mark RD]

Dont take this the wrong way but perhaps purchasing a planisphere wouldn't go amiss to ensure your target stars are infact your target stars?

Its a good exscuse to learn the star names, I did before use starrynight pro and plan out the stars I was going to use, however my memory is not great at the best of times so 2 out of 3 is not too bad. I have got a planisphere somewhere must dig it out sometimes.

RD

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

I too found this very frustrating and went for one star alignment. I'm slowly learning the names of those elusive white dots. As a total beginner I was miffed with it, it's like getting SatNav for your car and having to tell it the way to the motorway each time you set off anywhere.

Captain Chaos

[richard42]

i've had some alignment errors as well i think it was because i used stars that were too close to each other ie same constallation, i think it will only show stars i can use with the latest firmware update. One thing about the meade autostar was it would tell me how bright the target star is and what colour, this was a great help, is there a way to get it to say which constalation the stars are in?

[geppetto]

Charts on here look well worth printing out for this job..

http://www.weasner.com/etx/buyer-newuser-tips/starcharts.html