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Sky-Watcher SynScan V3 Hand Controller User Manual

Page 37

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37

PART XI : ADVANCED FUNCTIONS

1.

Using the SNAP port on the telescope mount:

Several Sky-Watcher’s equatorial mounts (such as the AZ-EQ6 GT and the EQ8) are

equipped with a SNAP port. Users can use a proper shutter release control cable to con-

nect this port to the same port on the camera.

2.

Using the multi-purpose port on the SynScan hand control:

The SynScan hand control uses 2 pins (The SHUTTER and COMMON pins in the dia-

gram of

Appendix 3

) of its multi-purpose port to control the shutter release of a DSLR

camera. Users may use a proper shutter release cable to connect the SynScan hand

control and a camera.

1.

Press the “

UTILITY

” shortcut key, access to sub-menu “

Camera Control \ Configuration

and press the

ENTER

key.

2.

Edit the interval between each exposure (in MM:SS format) and press the ENTER key .

3.

Use the scroll keys to browse through a list of 8 groups of parameters. A sample screen-

shot is shown below:

The leading number (“

1

”) is the index number of this group; the “

mm:ss

” data is the ex-

posure time in minutes and seconds; and the ending 3 digits number is the frames to be

shot. Press the

ENTER

key to pick a group and proceed to the next step.

The SynScan hand control can control a DSLR camera to do astrophotography. It can accept

8 groups of “Exposures Time - Frames” parameters, and then controls the camera to take

batch exposures without manual intervention.
To use the camera control function, the camera must be equipped with a shutter release con-

trol port and can be set to the bulb exposure mode.

11.4 Camera Control

Connecting the Camera

Setup Control Parameters

Select a Group
1. mm:ss X 000

• The initial polar alignment should not be too far off to avoid the polar alignment error in

azimuth exceeding the adjustment range of the mount.

• It is necessary to use a reticle eyepiece in the 2-Star alignment, 3-star alignment and polar

alignment process.

• Generally, the cone error in a telescope-mount setup might reduce the accuracy of this

polar alignment process. Therefore, it is recommended to reduce or eliminate the cone

error before the polar alignment process

(Refer to

APPENDIX 1 : ELIMINATING CONE ERROR

ON EQUATORIAL MOUNTS

)

.

• It is recommended that the user verifies the accuracy of the

2-star alignment or 3-star

alignment before starting the polar alignment process by locating several objects in dif-

ferent areas of the sky. If the pointing accuracy is low, try to use another set of alignment

stars for the

2-star or 3-star alignment process.