Sky-Watcher SynScan V4 Hand Controller - Manual (Page 41)

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PART XI : ADVANCED FUNCTIONS
11.8 Astronomical Time-Lapse Photography
The SynScan hand control can coordinate a Skywatcher telescope mount(equitorial or alt-az
mount) and a DSLR camera to take series of long exposure photo of the night sky. These
series photos can be used to make a time-lapse video. The SynScan hand control accom-
plishes this task through the following sequence.
1. At an initial position, turn on sidereal tracking of the mount and release the shutter of the
camera at the same time.
2. Keep mount tracking and camera shutter opened until the preset exposure time reaches.
3. Close the camera shutter and return the mount to the initial position.
4. Repeat step 1 to 3 until preset numbers of photos is taken.
Both the “SNAP“ port on a Sky-watcher mount or the multi-purpose port of the SynScan hand
control can be used to control the camera with proper cables availiable from Sky-watcher
product dealers.
Operation Details:
1. Connect the camera’s shutter control port to the mount(or SynScan hand control) with
proper cables.
2. Point the camera to the desired orientation.
3. Access the menu “ UTILITY \ Astro Time-Lapse \ Configuration\Exposure Time ” to set the exposure
time of the camera.
4. Access the menu “ UTILITY \ Astro Time-Lapse \ Configuration\Repeat Times ” to set the number of
photos which will be taken.
5. Access the menu “ UTILITY \ Astro Time-Lapse \ Configuration\Shoot ” to start taking photos.
6. The LCD will display remaining photos and remaining time of the ongoing exposure.
7. Press ESC key to pause or cancel the shooting.
• Generally, NPE is very small and can be ignored(Set to 0) in most cases unless superior
pointing accuracy is required.
Note: If the value of CE or NPE entered in the hand control is not 0, the hand control will give a
reminding message “CAUTION: Prev. NPE, CE applied.“ at the end of the alignment routine.
User should make sure that the stored CE and NPE parameters are correct for the current
system setup; otherwise, these value should be set to 0.