SS2000 alignment problems SOLVED
Robert MacKay
solving the "only 1 point alignment problem" with the SkySensor 2000
The first solution seems like a workaround, but it does work. Here are the
steps.
1. Accurately polar align your mount.
2. Set up Telescope Config as Polar Aligned EQ
3. Pick alignment star from menu.
4. Hit "ENTER" to select it.
5. "GOTO" that star.
6. Unlock axis' and manually align star (do not use motor).
7. Lock axis' Press align.
8. Goto next star and proceed normally.
With this method I was able to achieve a two star alignment. I was never
able to get a 3 star alignment which is what led me to believe that this was
not quite correct. GOTO was pretty accurate but not nearly as good as
solution 2.
The second solution was posted this morning and I believe that this is the
100% correct method and that there is a mistake in the manual as it does not
tell you about the second "ENTER".
1. Roughly polar align the scope (just eyeball it)
2. Set up Telescope Config as Unaligned EQ (alt/az may work if you have that
type of mount)
3. Pick alignment star from menu.
4. Hit "ENTER" to select it.
5. "GOTO" that star.
6. Use hand controller to adjust RA & Dec to accurately center the star
7. Hit "ENTER" again - this is VERY important and must be done each time you
intend to align to an object.
8. Press "ALIGN"
With this method I am able to consistently get 3 star alignments and VERY
accurate goto's.. (dead center at 140X)
Thanks to all who contributed to this post.
Robert
Eddie Trimarchi
known that two years ago!
Glad you have solved your problem.
--
Regards
Eddie Trimarchi
~~~~~~~~~~~
edd...@bigpond.net.au
http://www.fan.net.au/~eddiet
Robert MacKay <r...@robnsacha.com> wrote in message
news:FjB35.187$WW1.1...@news.pacbell.net...
Bo Sandström
have reread the Skysensor manual. The information was there all
the time. There are several places where it says that one shall
press Enter to select a displayed object for alignment, goto and
similar things. Obviously Enter is the general selection key, it
is not sufficient to just get something displayed. It has to be
explicitly selected with the Enter key. The manual is rather
badly written not to more clearly point out such an important
information. These places I have found are hidden in a lot of
other text and easily overlooked.
Bo
Peter Gallop
I have had a SS2K for two years and have never had any difficulty getting a
three point alignment (as long as the alignment stars/planets are nicely
spread). I follow the second procedure you mention but have never pressed
ENTER again after the object is centred, instead I centre and just press
ALIGN.
I have a fairly old ROM version (2.01) so maybe the alignment procedure has
been modified in later ROMs.
The only problem I have had with alignment is due to an incorrect
timezone/time setting when the UK switched between Summer and Winter time.
I am glad the solution seems to work for you.
Pete Gallop
JMc
ever explained why one approach is more intuitive for some people than
the other.
Jim McSheehy
> Bo Sandström wrote:
>
> I never thought much about it, but since this post was started I
> have reread the Skysensor manual. The information was there all
> the time. There are several places where it says that one shall
> press Enter to select a displayed object for alignment, goto and
> similar things. Obviously Enter is the general selection key, it
> is not sufficient to just get something displayed. It has to be
> explicitly selected with the Enter key. The manual is rather
> badly written not to more clearly point out such an important
> information. These places I have found are hidden in a lot of
> other text and easily overlooked.
> Bo
>
> Eddie Trimarchi wrote:
> >
> > So! Pressing 'enter' after centering each star is the solution! I wish I'd
> > known that two years ago!
> >
> > Glad you have solved your problem.
> >
> > --
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > Eddie Trimarchi
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~
> > edd...@bigpond.net.au
> > http://www.fan.net.au/~eddiet
> >
Eddie Trimarchi
I always pressed 'Enter' after selecting an object, this is failry intuitive
coming from a computing background :)
I got the impression from the post, that you need to press 'Enter' again,
after the object has been slewed-to and manually centered.
I no longer have my ss2k so I can't check it myself either way.
--
Regards
Eddie Trimarchi
~~~~~~~~~~~
edd...@bigpond.net.au
http://www.fan.net.au/~eddiet
Bo Sandström <bo.san...@mbox302.swipnet.se> wrote in message
news:394FAFCA...@mbox302.swipnet.se...
> > > 6. Unlock axis' and manually align star (do not use motor).
> > > 7. Lock axis' Press align.
> > > 8. Goto next star and proceed normally.
> > >
> > > With this method I was able to achieve a two star alignment. I was
never
> > > able to get a 3 star alignment which is what led me to believe that
this
> > was
> > > not quite correct. GOTO was pretty accurate but not nearly as good as
> > > solution 2.
> > >
> > > The second solution was posted this morning and I believe that this is
the
> > > 100% correct method and that there is a mistake in the manual as it
does
> > not
> > > tell you about the second "ENTER".
> > >
> > > 1. Roughly polar align the scope (just eyeball it)
> > > 2. Set up Telescope Config as Unaligned EQ (alt/az may work if you
have
> > that
> > > type of mount)
> > > 3. Pick alignment star from menu.
> > > 4. Hit "ENTER" to select it.
> > > 5. "GOTO" that star.
Robert MacKay
that..
It's the second "ENTER"... AFTER you center it with the controller.....
That's the one that is not documented..
I checked my manual just before typing this...
Eddie Trimarchi <edd...@bigpond.net.au> wrote in message
news:g2T35.3888$qz4....@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
Bo Sandström
with Enter and GoTo it, you shall not need to press Enter one
more time before pressing the Align key. That's what the manual
says in one place. I tried to find the places where I found the
instructions to press Enter but could not find them with a brief
glance. So it is still a little confused how to do the align. It
has been a while since I had the telescope out, so I do not
remember. We are having a number of months now where it never
becomes dark enough to see anything but a few of the brightest
stars.
Bo
desnar
When I was running V 1.07, the 3 star alignment procedure did not require
this additional ENTER. It seems that this is an introduced function with V
2.05. Thanks for summarising the issues and providing a solution to the V
2.05 1 star alignment problem.
Cheers
Dennis
Robert MacKay wrote in message <5P945.4$Yu3....@news.pacbell.net>...
>That's correct... you have to select it with "ENTER"... everyone should
know
>that..
>
>It's the second "ENTER"... AFTER you center it with the controller.....
>That's the one that is not documented..
>
>I checked my manual just before typing this...
>
>
>Eddie Trimarchi <edd...@bigpond.net.au> wrote in message
>news:g2T35.3888$qz4....@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
Tai Beal
and so this very night eagerly tried this procedure out. Nothing. (I have
version 2.05.)
The only way I've ever gotten a 3-star alignment is to do 2 stars on one side
of the sky and the 3rd star on the other side (e.g. 2 stars looking west and 1
looking east; I'm unclear whether order matters). I tried using the Enter key
as
suggested for 3 stars sufficiently spaced (mutual separations >15 degrees)
in the same half of the sky and failed every time.
If I do the 2+1 scheme, an extra Enter appears to be unnecessary. In other
words,
I couldn't convince myself that pressing the extra Enter made any difference.
I wish it did; avoiding telescope reversal would speed up the alignment process.
I didn't try method #1 below because I had already polar-aligned using the polar
axis scope--there should be no need to move the scope to refine alignment.
(For the comments above, it doesn't matter whether the mount is polar aligned
or not--I tried it both ways).
Incidentally, when using polar-aligned mode with the mount
polar-aligned, and you do a 1-star alignment,
the Dec motor is never driven, but 2- or 3- star alignments do run the Dec
motor.
I've been attempting to do CCD imaging, and the Dec motor gets activated
often enough during tracking to create its own drift and blur the pictures;
I have yet to get even only 1-minute long untrailed pictures. Even though
I'm polar aligned, the SS2K seems to believe I'm not.
It appears that to track successfully, you either don't Align at all
or do only a 1-star alignment (which, by the way, rules out relative
alignments--
that will cause a 2-star alignment, which may potentially activate the Dec).
Has anyone else been having this problem? I bought the SS2K believing
Vixen's drive system would have to be better than the Celestron drive system
it replaced, but that hasn't been the case. The goto is nice in
light-polluted skies, but it seems I can either get accurate goto and bad
tracking for CCD work, or good tracking with poor goto (i.e. it's too inaccurate
to place objects on the CCD chip). Has anyone else noticed this?
Better yet, anyone got a fix (short of unplugging the Dec motor during imaging)?
- Bob
Bo Sandström
Tai Beal wrote:
>
> I have been having troubles getting a 3-star alignment (1 or 2, yes, but not 3)
> and so this very night eagerly tried this procedure out. Nothing. (I have
> version 2.05.)
> The only way I've ever gotten a 3-star alignment is to do 2 stars on one side
> of the sky and the 3rd star on the other side (e.g. 2 stars looking west and 1
> looking east; I'm unclear whether order matters).
This is the way to do it, using stars well separated. Read the
manual.
I tried using the Enter key
> as
> suggested for 3 stars sufficiently spaced (mutual separations >15 degrees)
> in the same half of the sky and failed every time.
How do you come to the conclusion that 15 deg is sufficiently
spacing for a 3-star alignment? Read the manual.
Bo
Tai Beal
What did you have to change? Did you change both the time and timezone
setting, or just one or the other?
- Bob
Peter Gallop wrote:
> Hi Robert,
>
> I have had a SS2K for two years and have never had any difficulty getting a
> three point alignment (as long as the alignment stars/planets are nicely
> spread). I follow the second procedure you mention but have never pressed
> ENTER again after the object is centred, instead I centre and just press
> ALIGN.
>
> I have a fairly old ROM version (2.01) so maybe the alignment procedure has
> been modified in later ROMs.
>
> The only problem I have had with alignment is due to an incorrect
> timezone/time setting when the UK switched between Summer and Winter time.
>
> I am glad the solution seems to work for you.
>
> Pete Gallop
>