Index

Quick Start

Running the App

App can be installed on Android, iOS, and Windows.

Home Position

In order to ease subsequent setup steps, before you power up the mount, you should move the mount by hand into a particular pose, called the home position. This should be done unless you are only using [Point and Track], or if you are recovering axis position with [Hibernate].

Home Position of an Alt-azimuth Mount:

Home Position of an Equatorial Mount

Time and Location Setting

The device running SynScan app should have correct system time and timezone setting. Also, review Settings > Location to ensure it matches your location.

Connect by Network

Power on your mount that is equipped with SynScan Wi-Fi (either built-in or with an external dongle), and by default a new Wi-Fi network with a name of the form SynScan_WiFi_#### will appear. Use the system setting of your device running SynScan app to join the network. Open SynScan app and tap the Connect button on the top toolbar. If the mount supports being used in either alt-azimuth mode or equatorial mode, you will be prompted to choose one.

See [Network troubleshooting] for tips. Also [Connection] shows other ways to connect.

Slewing the Mount

Use the direction buttons at the bottom of app to command the mount axes to rotate (slew). The rate number at the center of the buttons indicate the slewing speed, where:

Rate 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Speed 0.5X 1X 8X 16X 32X 64X 128X 400X 600X Max

Speed is in multiples of sidereal (Earth’s rotation) rate.

Align the Finderscope or Red Dot Finder

Point the primary telescope to a fixed target. Identify the object at the center of the telescope field of view, and then adjust screws on the finderscope or red dot finder until the reticle or red dot also points to the same object.

Quick Observation with Point and Track

At this stage in the setup, you can already use an alt-azimuth mount to visually observe bright objects such as the moon and the planets. To do that, go to Star > Solar System, pick the target, and if it is visible, you can enable [Point and Track] at this target. Use the altitude and azimuth displayed on this page to identify the target in the sky. If you then manually (motor-driven and/or push-to) center the object in the telescope field of view, the mount will keep it there.

Simple Mount Alignment

Alignment is a process that once performed, can allow accurate GOTO. To perform, go to Alignment menu, choose Brightest star alignment and follow the prompts. You will be prompted to use the slew buttons to center the alignment star in the telescope field of view. To make the task easier, first center the star in the finderscope or the red dot finder, and use an eyepiece with an illuminated reticle. Before you can confirm center, the last slewing buttons you press must be the RIGHT and UP buttons. The right and up buttons will blink to remind you of this. Use a planetarium app to help you identify stars.

GOTO

GOTO is a feature where the mount turns by itself to point to an object you specify. You can specify an object from a [Catalog] (such as Star or Deep Sky), from [User Objects], or from [Identify]. When arrived at a sky object, the mount will start tracking, and you will be prompted to optionally perform [Sync]. Sync involves making the target object more centered in the field of view, and it allows subsequent GOTO to this target or others near it to be more accurate.

How accurate GOTO is depends on the pointing model. See [Alignment] and [Sync] for how to improve it.