NEQ6 Goto Accuracy

[Guest CodnorPaul]

Morning all

 

How accurate should goto on an NEQ6 be?

 

Friday night I set up as normal, got a decent polar alignment (visual only so good enough using hour angle and setting circles set properly), 2-star align after checking my coordinates were accurate on google earth, time was I believe fairly accurate although I need to check my watch before next session.  Alignment was successful first time after starting in home position which I again believe is accurate after setting circles using spirit level.

 

Some targets were in FOV, others were not in FOV at all and after some manoeuvring I found some of them predominantly down and to the left.

 

Is there anything I am missing, or anything I can do to improve accuracy of go to?  I have had a look at 3-star alignment and Dawsons famous cone error ramblings but believe that is more for AP?

[Sheila]

I am not too sure. But I would have thought a 3 star alignment would be

more accurate. I have always done 3 star The more stars I do in an

alignment the the more accurate it is.

Could also be which stars you are using. ( close together or further apart)

Try 3 star and chose stars in different parts of sky and see if it improves?

But someone who regularly uses a 6 may have more info

[+RonC]

Have you tried a software polar alignment on synscan after a 2 or 3 star align?

[Guest CodnorPaul]

Hi Ron

 

No I haven't - as I do visual only I was lead to believe close is good enough, and I do a fairly good PA through the PA scope, and have taken the time to set the reticule in the mount so it is aligned etc.  Would an even more PA make a lot of difference to goto accuracy, or would this just mean that tracking would be more accurate?

 

Sheila - will try 3 star next time

[+RonC]

Think so Paul, does for me! Also, I find 2 different objects ( not used in initial alignment) centre them then press 'Esc' twice to recentre them then goto them again and check. Works for my HEQ5 pro and EQ5 pro and is the same in the NEQ6 I'm sure.

PS I only use a 2 star align unless there's a problem, then a 3 star!

 

Cheers

Ron

[Guest CodnorPaul]

Thanks Ron - will give that a go next time

[red dwalf]

it can be out, sometimes by a long way, if you do a two star alignment on one side of the meridian, when you go to the other side it can be way off, the more stars the better, i have my mount on a pier in the obsy so have done the best possible polar alignment i can do using eqmod method, then i build up a sync library which involves slewing to a target, centre it then control 3 to sync it and eqmod then records it as a sky map, but even then when i slew to a newer or sometimes an old synced target it has moved from centre, why i have no idea, it`s close but not where i left it L.O.L. 

[Perkil8r]

It may be as Rob says to do with being opposite sides of the meridian. Also worth doing is once you have successfully located a target press and hold enter, this then adjusts it's alignment model each time, thus making it more accurate with each new target you look at. Plus of course it will depend on the EP used. Ifit were in the FOV at say 4mm it would be very accurate, even if just off the edge, but at 25mm just outside would be a lot further out. I doubt you will ever get it to drop the target straight bang in the middle of a high power EP nor should it be expected to do so.

[Guest CodnorPaul]

Thanks Mike - had heard about pressing enter earlier, will try that.  It was outside FOV of 24mm stop on Hyperion Zoom, and then when I went to find it, it didn't appear straight away, took a little slewing so it was way off - I don't expect bang in middle every time, but if I could have some certainty I was in the right place by it being at least in FOV then that would help when searching for the fainter objects.

[wolfman_55]

I think the three star method has to be done on both sides of the meridian if your looking at both and is also only accurate within the triangle you've created. I try to image only on one side of the meridian in an evening (mostly 'cause I'm lazy) but I also add an extra brightish star near the object I'm trying to find as well. That normally ensures the object is in the small field of view of the C11 when I skew to it.

Dave

[philjay]

3 star align with calibration stars as far away from each other is normally the most accurate. You can choose the calibration stars, so if the 2 nd calib star is too close to the 1st select another further away.

The c11 has a narrow fov even with a 24mm, when i had my c11 I calibrated the mount goto with my 8-24mm zoom fitted.

I would find the calib star at 24 then zoom in to 8 mm and maje sure it was centered at high mag. This increased calib accuracy considerably. I still use this method on my f15 scopes

Edited August 25, 2014 by philjay