Sky-Watcher Hand User Manual
INSTRUCTION MANUAL
TM
SynScan
Copyright © Sky-Watcher
140303V4
CONTENT
CONTENT
Basic Operations
PART I : INTRODUCTION
1.1 Outline and Interface .......................................................................................... 4
1.2 Connecting to a Telescope Mount ...................................................................... 4
1.3 Slew the Mount with the Direction Keys .............................................................. 4
1.4 SynScan Hand control’s Operating Modes .................................................... 5
PART II : INITIALIZATION
2.1 Setup Home Position of the Telescope Mount ..................................................... 7
2.2 Initialize the Hand Control .................................................................................. 7
PART III : ALIGNMENT
3.1 Choosing an Alignment Method .........................................................................10
3.2 Aligning to Alignment Stars ...............................................................................10
3.3 Alignment Method for Equatorial Mounts ..........................................................10
3.4 Alt-Azimuth Mounts using Brightest Star Alignment Method ............................11
3.5 Alt-Azimuth Mounts using 2-Star Alignment Method ........................................12
3.6 Tips for Improving Alignment Accuracy .............................................................15
3.7 Comparison of Alignment Methods ....................................................................15
PART IV : SYNSCAN MENU TREE
4.1 Menu Structure .................................................................................................. 17
4.2 Accessing Menus ..............................................................................................18
4.3 Short-cut Keys ....................................................................................................18
PART V : LOCATING OBJECTS
5.1 Locating Messier Objects ................................................................................. 19
5.2 Locating NGC and IC Objects .......................................................................... 20
5.3 Locating Planets and the Moon ........................................................................ 20
5.4 Locating Caldwell Objects ................................................................................ 20
5.5 Locating SAO Stars .......................................................................................... 21
5.6 Locating Named Stars, Double Stars, and Variable Stars ............................... 21
5.7 Deep Sky Tour ................................................................................................... 22
5.8 User-Dened Objects ........................................................................................ 22
PART VIII : AUXILIARY FUNCTIONS
8.1 Editing Date, Time, Coordinates, Time Zones, and Daylight Saving Time ......... 27
8.2 Re-aligning the Mount ........................................................................................ 27
8.3 Show Position ................................................................................................. 27
8.4 Show Time and Local Sidereal Time ............................................................ 27
8.5 Display Version Information ........................................................................... 27
8.6 Display Power Voltage ................................................................................... 28
8.7 Display Polaris Position .................................................................................. 28
8.8 Display Polar Alignment Error ........................................................................ 28
8.9 Changing Polar Scope Illumination Level ..................................................... 28
8.10 Identifying Objects ............................................................................................. 28
8.11 Synchronizing Encoders .................................................................................... 29
Advanced Operations
PART IX : CONNECTING TO A COMPUTER
9.1 Working with Astronomical Applications .............................................................. 30
9.2 PC Direct Mode ..................................................................................................30
PART X : UPDATING FIRMWARE
10.1 Hardware Requirements .................................................................................... 31
10.2 Preparation ........................................................................................................ 31
10.3 Updating Firmware ............................................................................................. 31
10.4 Trouble Shooting ............................................................................................... 32
PART XI : ADVANCED FUNCTIONS
11.1 Parking Telescope .............................................................................................. 33
11.2 Pointing Accuracy Enhancement ........................................................................ 34
11.3 Polar Alignment without Polar Scope ............................................................... 35
11.4 Camera Control .................................................................................................. 36
11.5 Periodic Error Correction (PEC) for EQ Mount ..................................................... 38
11.6 Calibrating Auto-Home Offset ............................................................................ 39
Intermediate Operations
PART VI : CONFIGURE THE TELESCOPE MOUNT
6.1 Choosing Tracking Speed ...............................................................................24
6.2 Backlash Compensation ...................................................................................24
6.3 Setting the Slewing Limits ..............................................................................24
6.4 Enable/Disable Auxiliary Encoder ....................................................................25
6.5 Setting Autoguider Speed ................................................................................25
PART VII : CONFIGURE THE HAND CONTRL
7.1 Display, Keypad ................................................................................................. 26
7.2 Alignment Star Filter ........................................................................................... 26
7.3 Sorting Method of the Alignment Star List ......................................................... 26
7.4 Naming of Stars ................................................................................................ 26
PART XII : USING A SYNSCAN GPS MODULE
12.1 Initialization of the Hand control with a SynScan GPS Module .......................... 40
12.2 Checking GPS Information .................................................................................. 40
Appendix
APPENDIX I : ELIMINATING CONE ERROR ...................................................... 41
APPENDIX II : SYNSCAN SELF-DIAGNOSIS ..................................................... 42
APPENDIX III : SCHEMATIC OF THE PORTS .................................................... 43
APPENDIX IV : SPECIFICATIONS ................................................................ 43
2 3
PART I : INTRODUCTION
PART I: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Outline and Interface
A SynScan hand control and its interfaces are shown in Fig. 1.1
LCD Display Screen: It can display two lines of text, 18 characters
per line. The contrast and the brightness of the red backlight are adjustable.
Buttons: ESC, MENU, ENTER, directional, number/shortcut keys,
and scroll keys.
Multi-Purpose Port: Connects to an external device such as a computer, a GPS module, a camera, etc.
Mount Port: Connects to a Sky-Watcher telescope mount. The hand
control can get power supply from the mount via this port.
• The left and right keys are used to control the movements of the Right Ascension (R.A.)
axis (for an equatorial mount) or the azimuth axis (for an Alt-azimuth mount).
• The up and down keys are used to control the movements of the Declination (Dec.) axis
(for an equatorial mount) or altitude axis (for an Alt-azimuth mount).
• In most cases, pressing the “RATE/2” key will invoke the operation of choosing a slewing
speed:
» The LCD screen will display “Set Speed”, followed by the current speed as “Rate = *x”’.
» Press a number between “0” and “9” to select a new speed.
» Press the ENTER key to return to the previous display.
» If the user does not press the ENTER button, he/she can continue to change the speed
while using the direction keys to slew the mount.
» If there is no keypad operation in 5 seconds, the most recent speed will be kept and
the LCD display will return to the previous ones.
• The following table lists the available speeds:
Rate 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Speed *10.5X
*2
1X
*3
8X 16X 32X 64X 128X 400X 600X Max
*4
• Rate 7/8/9 is primarily used to quickly slew a mount.
• Rate 5/6 is primarily used to move a target in the eld of view of a nder scope.
Fig. 1.1
1.2 Connecting to a Telescope Mount
Connect the 8-pin (RJ-45) “Mount” port of the hand control to the “Hand Control” port on a
Sky-Watcher mount using an appropriate cable. The table below lists the “Hand Control” ports
on different Sky-Watcher mounts.
Mount Model Hand control Port “Hand Control” Port on Mount
EQ6 Pro
HEQ5 Pro, EQ5 Pro, EQ3 Pro,
AZ-EQ6 GT, EQ8
All Alt-azimuth mounts 6-pin RJ-12
8-pin RJ-45
D-sub 9 Male
8-pin RJ-45
1.3 Slew the Mount with the Direction Keys
In many situations, users need to slew the mount at different speeds with the directional keys.
Here are the guides for this operation:
• Rate 2/3/4 is primarily used to move a target in the eld of view of an eyepiece.
• Rate 0/1 is used to move a target in the eld of view in high magnication observations,
or manual-guiding.
Note:
*1: Speed is represented as multiples of the Earth’s rotation speed.
*2, *3: For Equatorial mounts, the speed is the drift speed of an object in FOV while the mount’s
tracking is turned on; it is not the axis’s rotation speed.
*4: Maximum speed varies on mounts. For most Sky-Watcher mounts, it is higher than 800X
(3.4 degrees/sec).
1.4 SynScan Hand control’s Operating Mode
The SynScan hand control has 2 operating modes: Full Feature Mode and Easy Tracking
Mode.
1. Full Feature Mode:
The ow chart of the “Full Feature” operation is shown in Fig. 1.4a.
Initialization Alignment
Locate a celestial
object automatically
Observing or other
operations
4 5
Fig. 1.4a
PART I: INTRODUCTION
PART II : INITIALIZATION
In Full Feature mode, the hand control must connect to a Sky-Watcher telescope mount.
After turning on the power to the mount, the hand control must complete an “Initialization”
routine, followed by an “Alignment” routine which establishes a model to transform the
coordinates of the mount and the coordinates of the sky. Only after the “Alignment” is
done can the SynScan hand control’s high precsion “GOTO” function be used to locate a
celestial object.
The Full Feature mode is the most commonly used mode of operation.
2. Easy Tracking Mode:
The ow chart of the “Easy Tracking” operation is shown below:
Initialization
In Easy Tracking mode, the hand control also needs to connect to a Sky-Watcher telescope mount. The mount must be setup at a proper “Home Position” (refer to Section 2.1
for details) before turning on the power. After turning on the power of the mount, the hand
control must complete an “Initialization” routine. Then the user can choose to skip the
“Alignment” routine and start the tracking function directly (refer to Section 6.1 “Choosing
Tracking Speed”). Users will need to locate a celestial object in the sky, and then use the
hand control to manually point the telescope to the target. The object locating function may
still be used but it can only give a rough result.
Start Tracking
Locate a celestial
object manually
Observing or other
operations
Fig. 1.4b
2.1 Setup Home Position of the Telescope Mount
Before powering on the telescope mount, it should be setup to a particular home position. The
home position differs between an equatorial mount and an Alt-azimuth mount.
1. Home Position of an Equatorial Mount:
• Tripod head is leveled.
• R.A. axis points towards the Northern Celestial Pole (in Northern Hemisphere) or the
Southern Celestial Pole (in Southern Hemisphere).
• Counterweight rod is at its lowest position.
• The telescope points towards the Northern Celestial Pole (in Northern Hemisphere) or
the Southern Celestial Pole (in Southern Hemisphere).
2. Home Position of an Alt-azimuth Mount:
To operate the SynScan hand control in “Full Feature” mode, no particular home position
is required.
To operate the SynScan hand control in “Easy Tracking” mode, the mount should be setup
as close to home position as possible, according to the following instuctions:
• Mount base is leveled.
• The telescope’s tube is leveled and points towards the true North (note: not magnetic
North).
2.2 Initialize the Hand Control
Once the mount has been setup to the home position, the user can turn on the power to the
mount and start the initialization process on the SynScan hand control. The following is the
steps:
The Easy Tracking mode is suitable for quick setup for visual observing of brighter celestial
objects, such as planets, the moon, or the sun. If the user does not turn on the tracking
function, the Easy Tracking mode can also be used for observing terrestrial objects.
1. Selecting the Operation Mode of the Mount
A SynScan hand control with a rmware version 4.05.06 or later supports both an equatorial mount and an alt-azimuth mount. It is able to detect the model of the mount to which it
connects and select the appropriate operation mode accordingly.
For an equatorial/Alt-azimuth dual-mode mount, such as the AZ-EQ6 GT mount, the SynScan hand control will require the user to choose the mount’s operating mode.
• The LCD screen will display “Operating Mode” in the rst line.
• Use the scrolling keys located at the bottom left and right of the keypad to choose be-
tween Equatorial mode (EQ Mode) and Alt-azimuth mode (AZ Mode).
• Press ENTER to conrm the selection.
2. Firmware Version Display
The hand control will display the rmware version.
• Press ENTER to proceed to the next step. Press ESC to return to the previous step.
• Users can slew the mount with direction keys in this step.
6 7
PART II: INITIALIZATION
PART II: INITIALIZATION
3. Warning Message Conrmation
The hand control will display a warning message about the dangers of viewing the sun with
a telescope.
• Press ENTER to conrm you have read the warning messages and proceed to the next
step. Press ESC to return to the previous (rmware version display) step.
• Users can slew the mount with direction keys in this step.
4. Auto-homing (EQ8 Only)
This step only applies to a mount with Auto-homing feature (such as the Sky-Watcher EQ8
Equatorial mount).
• The LCD screen will display “Auto-Home?” in the rst line, and display “1) YES 2) NO”
in the second line.
• Press “2” to skip this step and proceed to the next step.
• Press “1” to start the auto-homing routine on the mount. Once complete, the screen will
display “Home Position Established”. Press ENTER to proceed to the next step.
• During auto-homing routine, pressing the ESC key will stop the mount’s movement. The
screen will display “Home Position NOT Established.” Press ENTER to proceed to the next
step.
5. Setting Information of the Observing Site
Geographic Coordinates
The LCD screen will display “Set Longitude” or “Set Latitude“ in the rst line, and display
longitude and latitude in the second line.
• Press the numeric keys at the cursor position to ll the longitude or latitude digits.
• Use the scroll keys to change east/west longitude or north/south latitude when the cur-
sor blinks on the corresponding characters (E/W for longitude, N/S for latitude).
Date, Time, Daylight Saving Time
• When “Date: mm/dd/yyyy” is displayed, enter the current date in the indicated mm/dd/
yyyy format (i.e. 10/24/2012 for Oct.24,2012); press the ENTER key to conrm and pro-
ceed to the next step. Press the ESC key to return to the “Geographic Coordinates” step.
• When “Enter Time” is displayed, enter the current local time in 24-hour format. (i.e.
18:30:00 for 6:30pm). Press the ENTER key to display the entered time in 12-hour for-
mat. Press the ENTER key again to conrm and proceed to the next step. Press the ESC
key to return to the previous step.
• When “Daylight Saving?” is displayed, use the scroll keys to select “Yes” or “No”. “YES”
indicates the time entered in the previous step is daylight saving time, while “NO” indicates the time entered is in standard time. Press the ENTER key to conrm and proceed
to the next step. Press the ESC key to return to the previous step.
6. Display Polaris Position
This step applies to an equatorial mount only.
• The LCD screen will display “Polaris Position in P.Scope = HH:MM”. It tells the orienta-
tion of Polaris in the polar-scope’s FOV. User can imagine the large circle in the FOV
of a polar-scope as a clock’s face with 12:00 at the top, and put Polaris at the “HH:MM”
position of the large circle when using a polar-scope to do the polar alignment. Press
ENTER key to conrm and proceed to the next step. Press ESC key to return to the pre-
vious step.
• The LCD screen will display “Hour Angle of Polaris = HH:MM“. Press ENTER key to
conrm and proceed to the next step. Press ESC key to return to the previous step.
7. Starting Mount Alignment
This is the last step in the hand control’s initialization process. The screen will display “Be-
gin Alignment? 1) YES 2) NO” to ask the user to make a choice:
• Use the Left and Right direction keys to move the cursor.
• Press the ENTER key to conrm the input and proceed to the next step.
• Press the ESC key to return to the previous.
Time Zone
The LCD screen will display “Set Time Zone” in the rst line, and display the current time
zone in the second line.
• Use the scroll keys to change the leading “+” or “-” sign when the cursor is on it. The “+”
sign is used for time zones in the Eastern Hemisphere (Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania),
while the “-” sign is used for time zones in the Western Hemisphere (North and South
America).
• Press the numeric keys at the cursor position to ll the time zone digits.
• Press the ENTER key to conrm the input and proceed to the next step.
• Press the ESC key to return to the previous step.
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Press “1” to start the alignment process
The SynScan hand control will operate in Full Feature mode (ref er t o Section 1.4) after the
alignment.
Press “2” to skip the alignment process.
The SynScan hand control will enter standby mode.
• Users may start the tracking functions (ref er to Section 6.1), or use the GOTO function
(ref er to PART V) to roughly locate celestial objects. Both operations will let the SynScan
hand control work in the Easy Tracking mode (refer to Section 1.4 Step 2).
• Users can also start an alignment process (refer to Section 8.2) to let the SynScan
hand control operate in Full Feature mode.
• Users may slew the mount with the direction keys to point the telescope to terrestrial
targets for observing. The “User-Dened Objects” function (refer to Section 5.8) of the
SynScan hand control is a useful tool for terrestrial observing.
PART III : ALIGNMENT
PART III : ALIGNMENT
3.1 Choosing an Alignment Method
At the beginning of the alignment process, users are asked to choose an alignment method.
The available alignment methods differ between the mount types, as listed below:
• For an equatorial mount: 1-Start Alignment (1-Star Align.), 2-Star Alignment (2-Star
Align.) or 3-Star Alignment (3-Star Align.)
• For an alt-azimuth mount: Brightest Star Alignment (Brightest Star) or 2-Star Alignment
(2-Star Align.)
Note: For a detailed description and comparison of each alignment method, please refer to
Section 3.7.
Operation:
• The LCD screen displays “Alignment:” in the rst line.
• Use the two scrolling keys to select an alignment method in the second line of the LCD
screen.
• Press ENTER to conrm selection and proceed to the next step (Section 3.2).
• Press ESC to skip the alignment process and enter standby mode.
3.2 Aligning to Alignment Stars
In this step, user will be asked to choose one or multiple alignment stars from a list provided
by the SynScan hand control, and then control the mount to center the star(s) in the FOV of
the telescope’s eyepiece. The SynScan hand control will then use the data collected in this
process to transform between the mount coordinates and the sky coordinates.
The operating steps of aligning to alignment stars may differ depending on the type of mount
used, as well as the chosen alignment method. Users should read the following section which
meets your mount and alignment method:
• Section 3.3: Alignment Method for Equatorial mounts.
• Section 3.4: Alt-azimuth mounts using the Brightest Star Alignment method.
• Section 3.5: Alt-azimuth mounts using the 2-Star Alignment method.
3. Now users can use the direction keys to move the telescope to align with the 1
st
alignment
star. That is, center the 1st alignment star in the FOV of the nder scope, and then center
it in the FOV of the telescope’s eyepiece; press ENTER key to conrm centering of the star
and proceed to the next step. Generally, users can use Rate 5 or 6 to center the star in the
nder scope and use Rate 2 or 3 to center the star in the telescope’s eyepiece.
4. If the user has chosen 1-Star Alignment method before, the SynScan hand control will now
display “Alignment Successful”. Press ENTER to complete the alignment process.
5. If the user has chosen 2-Star Alignment or 3-Star Alignment before, the SynScan hand
control will then proceed to the next step.
Aligning the 2
1. Again, the SynScan hand control asks the user to choose and align a 2
nd
Star:
nd
alignment star.
The operation is the same as that of aligning the 1st alignment star.
2. If the user has chosen 2-Star Alignment before, the SynScan hand control will display
“Alignment Successful” after conrmation of centering the 2nd alignment star.
3. Two seconds later, the LCD screen will display the polar-alignment offset of the mount. The
“Mel” value is the offset in elevation, and the “Maz” value is the offset in azimuth.
4. If the user has chosen 3-Star Alignment before, the SynScan hand control will then pro-
ceed to the next step.
Selecting and Aligning the 3
rd
Star:
The operation is the same as that of Aligning the 2nd Star.
Cancellation During Aligning Process:
1. While the mount is slewing during the alignment, users may press the ESC key to stop the
mount. The hand control screen will display “MOUNT STOPPED!!. Press any key…”
2. Press any key and the SynScan hand control will ask the user to select another alignment
star.
3.3 Alignment Method for Equatorial Mounts
Aligning the 1
st
Star:
1. The LCD screen displays “Choose 1st Star” in the rst line. Use the scrolling keys to browse
through a list of star names and Press ENTER key to pick the one on the screen as the 1
alignment star. The mount will then automatically slew and point the telescope towards the
1st alignment star in the sky.
2. After the mount stops, the hand control will display “Use arrow buttons Ctr. to eyepiece..”.
Now the telescope should point rather closely to the 1st alignment star (generally, in the
FOV of the nder scope), and the mount’s tracking function is also turned on by the hand
control to prevent the objects drift in the FOV of the telescope.
10 11
3. Press the ESC key again, the LCD screen will display “Exit Alignment? 1) YES 2) NO”. Press
key 1 to exit the alignment process; press key 2 to go back to choose an alignment star.
3.4 Alt-Azimuth Mounts using Brightest Star Alignment Method
st
Aligning the 1
st
Star:
1. Find the brightest stars in the current sky with naked eyes, and estimate its horizontal re-
gion (orientation).
2. The hand control displays “Select Region”. Use the scroll keys to pick one of the eight re-
gions shown in Fig 3.4a, which matches the horizontal region of the brightest star. Press
ENTER to conrm selection and proceed to the next step.
PART III : ALIGNMENT
PART III : ALIGNMENT
N (0˚)
R
T
H
K
H
T
Y
K
S
T
U
O
S
N
S (180 ˚)
R
E
N
S
K
Y
N
O
R
T
H
E
A
S
T
S
K
Y
O
U
T
H
E
A
S
T
S
K
Y
S
S
O
U
T
H
E
R
(45˚)
E
A
S
T
E
R
S
N
S
K
Y
(135˚)
E (90˚)
Fig. 3.4a
W (270˚)
(315˚)
(225˚)
O
N
S
Y
K
S
N
R
E
T
S
E
W
E
W
H
T
R
O
N
Y
K
S
T
S
E
W
Y
3. The hand control will generate a list of the bright stars within the selected horizontal region.
The list is sorted by the brightness of the star and with the brightest stars at the top of the
list. Users can use the scroll keys to browse the list. An example of the screen display is
shown in Fig. 3.4b.
4. Now the screen will display “Point scope to RR ZZ.Z’ TT.T’ ”, which means point the telescope
to RR region, the exact azimuth is ZZ.Z degree and the exact altitude is TT.T degree. Users
can use the direction keys on the SynScan hand control to move the mount and point the
telescope to the 1st alignment star selected in the previous step. Center the 1st alignment
star in the FOV of the nder scope or the red dot nder, and then press ENTER key to proceed to the next step.
If the telescope has clutches on its axes, user can loosen the clutches to move the mount
manually to point the telescope to the target.
5. Now the screen will display “Ctr. to eyepiece..” and the name of the selected 1
st
alignment
star. The star should have been in the FOV of the telescope. User can use the direction
keys to center it in the eyepiece and then press the ENTER key to proceed to the next step.
Aligning the 2
1. If the 1
wise, it will display “Choose 1
nd
Star:
st
alignment star is not a planet, the LCD screen will display “Choose 2
st
Star”.
nd
Star”; other-
2. Use the scrolling keys to browse through a list of star names and press ENTER key to pick
the one on the screen as the 2nd alignment star. The mount will then automatically slew and
point the telescope towards the 2nd alignment star in the sky.
3. After the mount stops, the hand control will display the name of the selected 1st star on line
Star Name
Brightness Order
Orientation
1. Capella
NE 35.3 15.7
Altitude Angle
Azimuth Angle
Fig. 3.4b
• Only stars brighter than magnitude 1.5 will appear in the list. If there is no star brighter
than magnitude 1.5 in the selected region, the hand control will display “No object found
in this region.”
• If multiple bright stars appear in the list, users can identify the names of the stars in
the real sky by matching the azimuth, altitude and magnitude provided by the SynScan
hand control.
• Pick one of the star(s) (Generally the brightest one) as the 1st alignment star and press
ENTER key to proceed to the next step. Press the ESC key to return to the previous step
(“Select Region”).
1 and “Ctr. to eyepiece..“ on line 2. Now the telescope should point rather closely to the 2nd
alignment star (generally, in the FOV of the nder scope).
4. Now users can use the direction keys to move the telescope to align with the 2
nd
alignment
star. That is, center the 2nd alignment star in the FOV of the nder scope, and then center
it in the FOV of the telescope’s eyepiece. Press ENTER key to conrm the centering of the
star and proceed to the next step. Generally, users can use Rate 5 or 6 to center the star
in nder scope and use Rate 2 or 3 to center the star in the telescope’s eyepiece.
5. If the 1
st
alignment star is not a planet, the SynScan hand control will now display “Align-
ment Successful”. Press ENTER to complete the alignment process.
6. If the 1
st
alignment star is a planet, the SynScan hand control will display “Choose 2
Repeat from Step 2 to complete the alignment process.
Cancellation During Aligning Process:
1. While the mount is slewing in alignment process, users may press the ESC key to stop the
mount. The hand control screen will display “MOUNT STOPPED. Press any key…”
2. Press any key and the SynScan hand control will ask the user to select another alignment
star.
3. Press the ESC key again; the LCD screen will display “Exit Alignment? 1) YES 2) NO”. Press
key 1 to exit the alignment process; press key 2 to go back to choose an alignment star.
nd
Star”.
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