Sky-Watcher Synscan Hand Control - Manual (Page 13)

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PART VI : CONFIGURE THE TELESCOPE MOUNT
6.1 Choosing Tracking Speed
6.2 Backlash Compensation
6.3 Setting the Elevation Slewing Limits
1. Access the menu “ SETUP\Tracking ” and press the ENTER key.
2. Use the scroll keys to browse through the following options, and press the ENTER key to
pick one.
1. Access the menu “ SETUP\Backlash ” and press the ENTER key.
2. The screen will display “ Azm = X o XX’XX” ” or “ RA = X o XX’XX” ”. Use the Left/Right keys to
move the cursor and use the numeric keys to fill in a number at the cursor position to input
the amount of backlash in the azimuth axis or the R.A. axis. Press the ENTER key to finish
the input and proceed to the next step.
3. The screen will display “ Alt = X o XX’XX” ” or “ Dec = X o XX’XX” ”. Fill in the amount of backlash
in the altitude axis or declination axis and then press the ENTER key.
• Sidereal Rate: Enables the mount to track celestial objects at the sidereal rate for ob-
serving the stars, deep sky objects, and planets.
• Lunar Rate: Enables the mount to track at the lunar rate for observing the Moon.
• Solar Rate: Enables the mount to track at the solar rate for observing the Sun.
• Stop Tracking: Stops the mount.
• PEC+Sidereal: Enables the mount to track at the sidereal rate and turns on the periodic
error correction (PEC) function. Applies to equatorial mounts only.
Note: Users can turn on the tracking without doing a star alignment process. In this case, the
polar alignment should be rather accurate for an equatorial mount; and the mount must be
setup to the proper home position before turning on the power (refer to Section 2.1).
Note: Set the backlash value to 0 for an axis to disable backlash compensation for that axis.
If there is backlash in the motor driving system, users might see a lag when moving an object
in the FOV of the telescope with the direction keys. The SynScan hand control can control the
mount to slew with higher speeds for a specific amount of distance when the user reverses
the moving direction of an axis with opposite direction keys. Such backlash compensation
function helps the user get faster response from the mount.
Users should input the amount of the backlash of both axes of the mount as follows:
Some telescope mounts have limited slewing range in elevation. Users can set the upper and
lower limits for such mounts.
• When a user asks the SynScan hand control to locate an object whose elevation exceeds
the limits, the SynScan hand control will display “ Target is over slew limits!! ” and will not start
the mount slewing.
PART VI : CONFIGURE THE TELESCOPE MOUNT
6.4 Enable/Disable Auxiliary Encoder
6.5 Setting Autoguider Speed
• The screen will display “ Set Elev. Limits: ” in the top row, and “ Upper=+XXX. X o ” at the
bottom row. Use the Left/Right keys to move the cursor and use the numeric keys to fill
the upper limits. The leading sign can be changed with the scroll keys. Press the ENTER
key to end the input and proceed.
• The screen will display “ Lower=+XXX. X o ” at the bottom row, fill in the data in a similar
way.
Some Sky-Watcher’s mounts are equipped with auxiliary encoders on their primary axes to
support manually rotating the axes without worrying about losing the mount’s alignment sta-
tus. Users may turn off the auxiliary encoder to obtain the best pointing accuracy. The auxiliary
encoder can be turned on again at any time for manually moving the mount.
1. Access the menu “ SETUP\Aux. Encoder ” and press the ENTER key.
2. Use the scroll keys to select between “ Enable ” or “ Disable ” and press the ENTER key.
Note:
• After re-enabling the auxiliary encoders, it is recommended to use the direction keys to
move both axes for a little bit before asking the hand control to locate an object.
• For a mounts which does not have auxiliary encoders, the hand control will display “Not
availiable !“
For an equatorial mount with an autoguider port, the SynScan hand control can change the
guiding speed of the port.
1. Access the menu “ SETUP \ Auto Guide Speed> ” and press the ENTER key.
2. Use the scroll keys to choose one of the following guiding speeds list: 0.125X, 0.25X,
0.5X, 0.75X, 1X , and then press the ENTER key.
The following are the steps to set the altitude slewing limits:
1. Access the menu “ SETUP\Elevation Limits ”, and press the ENTER key.
2. Use the scroll keys to choose options “ Enable ” or “ Disable ”, and then press the ENTER key
to confirm.
3. If “ Disable ” is chosen, the SynScan hand control will turn off the altitude limit.
4. If “ Enable ” is chosen, the SynScan hand control will turn on the altitude limit, and users can
input the upper and lower limits as the following:
• When a user uses the direction keys to slew the mount passing the limits, the SynScan
hand control will automatically stop the slewing and display “ Over slew limit. Slewing stop! ”.
User has to press any key and the SynScan controller will bring the altitude axis back.