Skywatch EQ5 Instruction Manual Download

Page: 31 / 51

PART I : INTRODUCTION

Multi-Purpose Port:

Connects to an external device such as a com-

puter, 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.

LCD Display Screen

: It can display two lines of text, 18 characters

per line. The contrast and the brightness of the red backlight are ad-

justable.

Buttons:

ESC, MENU, ENTER

, directional, number/shortcut keys,

and scroll keys.

A SynScan hand control and its interfaces are shown in

Fig. 1.1

1.1 Outline and Interface

1.2 Connecting to a Telescope Mount

Fig. 1.1

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

8-pin RJ-45

D-sub 9 Male

HEQ5 Pro, EQ5 Pro, EQ3 Pro,
AZ-EQ6 GT, EQ8

8-pin RJ-45

All Alt-azimuth mounts

6-pin RJ-12

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:

PART I: INTRODUCTION

Full Feature Mode:

The flow chart of the “Full Feature” operation is shown in

Fig. 1.4a.

•

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 “

” and “

” 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 7/8/9 is primarily used to quickly slew a mount.

•  Rate 5/6 is primarily used to move a target in the field of view of a finder scope.
•  Rate 2/3/4 is primarily used to move a target in the field of view of an eyepiece.
•  Rate 0/1 is used to move a target in the field of view in high magnification 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).

Rate

Speed

0.5X