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iOptron SmartEQ, Instruction Manual

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iOptron SmartEQ Instruction Manual Download Page 8

 
 

8

 

Figure 9

. Align mount to the celestial pole 

 

For a better polar alignment, one may use the polar scope opening on the R.A. axis. Take off the 

Polar Axis Cover and Polar Scope Cover. Release the Counterweight (CW) Shaft Locking Screw to pull the 
CW Shaft out of the mount. Look through polar scope opening to find the Polaris. If the opening is blocked 
by the DEC axis, power the mount on and use the 

▲

 or 

▼

 button on the hand controller to turn the DEC 

axle to unblock the view. (You may use the number button to change the slewing speed. 9 for MAX speed). 
Loosen the Azimuth Locking Screws and adjust the mount to center the Polaris in the azimuth direction 
using Azimuth Adjustment Knobs. Tighten the locking screws to secure the mount. Loosen Latitude Clutch 
on the side of the mount, turning the Latitude Adjustment Screw to adjust the latitude (altitude) to center the 
Polaris along the altitude direction. Re-tighten the locking screws.

 

If an AccuAligning

TM

 polar scope is installed (standard for a SmartEQ

TM

 Pro mount, and optional for 

a SmartEQ

TM

 mount), please follow 

Section 4.1.1

 to perform the Quick polar Alignment.  

 
STEP 5. Install Counterweight (CW):

  

The mount comes with one 2 lbs (0.9 kg) counterweight. However, because of its unique design, no 

CW is needed if the payload is less than 4 lbs. The mount and installed batteries will provide balancing 
weight needed. If a payload is greater than 8.8 lbs (4 kg), additional CW is needed. The Counterweight 
Shaft is stored inside the mount head. If a CW is needed, release the CW Shaft Locking Screw to pull out 
the shaft (

Figure 10

). Mount a CW onto the shaft and tighten the CW Locking Screw to hold the CW in 

place. Tighten the CW Safety Screw (

Figure 11

). 

 

 

Figure 10

. Release CW shaft 

 

Figure 11

. Install CW 

 
 

STEP6. Attach and Balance an OTA on the Mount:  

CW shaft 
locking screw 

CW safety 
screw

Retractable 
CW shaft  

CW locking 
screw

Counterweight

Azi. adj. knob 

Polar axis 
(R.A. axis) 

Polar axis cover

Latitude adj. screw  

Polar scope cover 

Latitude clutch

Latitude dial 

Summary of Contents for SmartEQ

Page 1: ...SmartEQ and SmartEQTM Pro Portable German Equatorial GOTO Mount Instruction Manual Product 3100 3200 ...

Page 2: ...tar Alignment 17 4 3 3 Go to the Moon and Other Stars 17 4 3 4 Star Identifying Function 17 4 4 Autoguiding Only for SmartEQTM Pro Mount 17 4 5 Turn Off the Mount 17 5 Complete Functions of Go2Nova Hand Controller 18 5 1 Slew to an Object 18 5 1 1 Solar System 18 5 1 2 Deep Sky Objects 18 5 1 3 Stars 18 5 1 4 Constellations 18 5 1 5 Comets 18 5 1 6 Asteroids 18 5 1 7 User Objects 19 5 1 8 Enter R ...

Page 3: ...ppendix D Computer Control an SmartEQ Mount 32 Appendix E Polar Scope Adjustment 36 Appendix F Go2Nova Star List 37 IOPTRON ONE YEAR TELESCOPE MOUNT AND CONTROLLER WARRANTY 44 WARNING NEVER USE A TELESCOPE TO LOOK AT THE SUN WITHOUT A PROPER FILTER Looking at or near the Sun will cause instant and irreversible damage to your eye Children should always have adult supervision while observing Rev 1 0...

Page 4: ...mount ideal for visual observer and wide field astro photographer y Portable compact and sturdy German equatorial mount that is easy to travel with y Payload 11 lbs 5 kg excluding counterweight y Mount weight 6 2 lbs 2 8 kg y Dual axis servomotor with optical encoder y Drive motor with 9 speed setting for precise tracking y Resolution 0 5 arc second y Go2Nova 8408 controller with Advanced GOTONOVA...

Page 5: ... to track stars and they do not have adjustment components on the mount Equatorial mounts require alignment of the mount components as well as star alignments for accurate OTA tracking In order to provide the required Polar Axis alignment equatorial mounts use a combination of both mount types described above The adjustable part of the mount moves in the Alt Az mode in order to align the R A axis ...

Page 6: ...re 2 Alignment peg position The Alignment Peg may be moved to the opposite position if used at latitude lower than 20º to avoid counterweights hit the tripod leg STEP 2 Attach the SmartEQTM Mount Remove the Latitude Adjustment Screw from its Storage Position by unscrewing it all the way out Figure 3 Retract the Azimuth Adjustment Knobs to allow enough clearance for the Alignment Peg seating in the...

Page 7: ... holder Figure 8 Connect control cable STEP 4 Set the Location Latitude and Polar Alignment In order for an equatorial mount to track properly it has to be accurately polar aligned This is achieved by making the polar axis of the mount parallel to that of the Earth s axis of rotation This step requires you to know the latitude of your current location It can be easily found on the Internet with yo...

Page 8: ...ion Re tighten the locking screws If an AccuAligningTM polar scope is installed standard for a SmartEQTM Pro mount and optional for a SmartEQTM mount please follow Section 4 1 1 to perform the Quick polar Alignment STEP 5 Install Counterweight CW The mount comes with one 2 lbs 0 9 kg counterweight However because of its unique design no CW is needed if the payload is less than 4 lbs The mount and ...

Page 9: ...Safety Lock and tighten the CW Locking Screw if a CW is installed Balance the mount in DEC axis Balance in DEC axis is not that critical since the maximum payload is only 11 lbs Release the DEC Clutch and if the OTA does not rotate along the DEC axis it is OK Tighten the DEC Clutch again Adjust the Mount to Zero Position The Zero Position is the position where the counterweight shaft points to gro...

Page 10: ...control the movement of DEC and R A axes Press and hold DEC DEC buttons to move a telescope along the DEC direction R A R A to move a telescope along the RA direction They are also used to browse the menu or move the cursor while in the menu Holding an arrow key for a fast scrolling Number Keys Input numerical values Also used to adjust slewing speeds 1 1X 2 2X 3 8X 4 16X 5 64X 6 128X 7 256X 8 512...

Page 11: ...essing any button Figure 17 8408 HC LCD Information Screen 1 Target Name Mount Position displays the name of the target that telescope is currently pointed to or the current mount position An object name such as Mercury or Andromeda Galaxy Name of the Star or celestial object that the mount is currently slewing to GOTO or tracking User Position The mount is point to a user defined position which c...

Page 12: ...rom the local horizon zenith is 90º 7 Mount Status Display current operation status of the mount Stop mount is not moving Slew mount is moving with an arrow key is pressed GoTo mount is slewing to a celestial object using Select and Slew 8 Slew speed It has 9 speeds 1X 2X 8X 16X 64X 128X 256X 512X MAX 4º sec depends on power source 9 Current Time display local time in a format of HH MM SS ...

Page 13: ...here 4 1 1 Quick Polar Alignment If your SmartEQTM mount has an optional AccuAligningTM polar scope installed or you have an SmartEQTM Pro mount you may use this Quick Polar Alignment procedure to perform a precise polar alignment Figure 18 Polar Scope 1 Insert 8 AA batteries into the battery packs or connect the mount with an AC DC power adapter Plug the Go2Nova hand controller into the mount HBX...

Page 14: ... select Align and Pole Star Position to display the current Polaris position For example on May 30 2010 20 00 00 in Boston United States Lat N42º30 32 and Long W71º08 50 300 min behind UT DST set to Y the Polaris Position is 1hr 26 8m and r 41 5m as shown in Figure 21 a 7 Adjust the mount in altitude latitude and azimuth heading direction to place Polaris in the same position on the Polar Scope Di...

Page 15: ...rvice you still can use the mount to tracking the celestial object Without plug in the hand controller the mount will start to tracking when the power switch is turned ON Loosen R A and DEC clutches Figure 12 manually push the telescope in R A and DEC to desired observing target and retighten the R A DEC clutches It is done 4 3 Setting Up the Hand Controller You need manually enter the time and si...

Page 16: ...ates respectively W E means western eastern hemisphere N S means northern southern hemisphere d means degree m means minute and s means second The site coordinates information can be found from your GPS navigator a GPS capable cell phone or from internet such as at Support section in iOptron website under Controller Set up http www ioptron com support cfm module faq By entering the city name or ad...

Page 17: ...these set ups the mount is ready to GOTO and track objects One of the most common objects is the Moon To slew to the Moon press the MENU button Select Select and Slew by pressing the ENTER button Select Solar System and use the or buttons to select Moon Press ENTER The telescope will automatically slew to the Moon and lock on it It will automatically begin to track once it locks on If the Moon is ...

Page 18: ...amed deep sky objects is included in Appendix E Messier Catalog consists of all 110 Messier objects NGC IC Catalog consists of 7 840 objects in NGC catalog and 5 386 objects in IC catalog To select an object from NGC or IC catalog move the cursor to NGC using or button to toggle between NGC and IC Then move the cursor to a numerical position and use the number button to select the object UGC Catal...

Page 19: ...t except that you choose the object to sync to One star align chooses the star object for you 5 3 Electric Focuser Reserved for future development 5 4 Set Up Controller 5 4 1 Set Up Time Site Refer to 4 3 1 5 4 2 Set Display Beep Press MENU button from the main menu scroll down and select Set Up Controller Press ENTER and select Set Display and Beep Use arrow keys to adjust LCD display contrast LC...

Page 20: ...ption is Continue to Track In this case the mount will keep tracking and the OTA could hit the tripod leg if the mount is not monitored 5 4 5 Set Polar Light Use this function to adjust the light intensity of the LED that used for a polar scope Set the LED light intensity at the minimum when there is no polar scope is installed 5 4 6 Firmware Information This option will display firmware version i...

Page 21: ...be at right angles to the declination axis These small errors known collectively as the cone error can make a big difference to the GOTO performance of your mount so it pays to understand the implications From the main menu select Align Select Three Star Align Hand controller will then present you with the name of a suggested alignment star If this star is blocked by a tree or building press the d...

Page 22: ...hows press the MENU button it brings up the star catalogs that you can select the star from Follow the screen to add your favorite objects Press BACK button to go back one level Press BACK button few times to go back to Set User Objects You may review the records or delete the ones you don t want it anymore Press BACK button to finish the operation Now you can slew to your favorite stars from User...

Page 23: ...s or telephone calls So please contact iOptron first to avoid returning the mount for repair It is strongly suggested that to send technical questions to support ioptron com or call in the U S 1 781 569 0200 6 3 Product End of Life Disposal Instructions This electronic product is subject to disposal and recycling regulations that vary by country and region It is your responsibility to recycle your...

Page 24: ... optical encoder Resolution 0 5 arc seconds Hand Controller Go2Nova 8408 with 50 000 objects database Tracking Automatic Speed 1 2 8 16 64 128 256 512 MAX 4º sec Counterweight shaft Φ16mm Counterweight 2 lbs 0 9kg Dovetail VIXEN Tripod 1 25 Stainless Steel 5 7lbs or 2 6kg Polar Scope AccuAligningTM bright field illuminated Standard for SmartEQTM Pro Optional for SmartEQTM Power consumption 0 1A Tr...

Page 25: ...Object Messier Catalog NGC IC Catalog UGC Catalog Caldwell Catalog Herschel Catalog Named Object Messier Catalog NGC IC Catalog UGC Catalog Caldwell Catalog Herschel Catalog Named Stars Binary Stars SAO Catalog SAO Catalog Constellations Constellations User Objects User Objects Enter R A and DEC Enter R A and DEC Sync To Target Sync To Target Electric Focuser Electric Focuser Set Up Controller Set...

Page 26: ...ar Align Disp R A Axis Error Disp R A Axis Error Pole Star Position Pole Star Position Set User Objects Add A New Record Browse Records Delete One Record Delete All Records Set User Objects Set User Objects Add A New Record Add A New Record Browse Records Browse Records Delete One Record Delete One Record Delete All Records Delete All Records To Zero Position To Zero Position ...

Page 27: ...e upgrade as well as to use planetarium software to control the mount via a 8408 hand controller the communication between the PC and hand controller or mount has to be established RJ9 to RS232 cable The firmware upgrade and computer controller is through a RJ9 serial port on a Go2Nova 8408 hand controller You need a cable to connect this port to the serial port of a computer Here is a sample of a...

Page 28: ...ault assigned number is COM1 If you are using a USB to COM converter to convert one USB port to a COM port you can find the computer assigned COM port number After install the USB2COM driver that comes with the device click on Start located on the left bottom corner of your compute screen Move the mouse to My Computer and right click on it Move the mouse down and click on Properties Click on Hardw...

Page 29: ...rom iOptron wbesite Go to iOptron website www iOptron com click on Download tab Locate iEQ Mount Firmware under Software Firmware Upgrades catalog on the left part of the screen and click on it Download and save Upgrade Utility software and Go2Nova 8408 Hand Controller firmware 4 Upgrade 8408 hand controller firmware 1 Connect 8408 hand controller to the HBX port of a SmartEQ mount Make sure the m...

Page 30: ... controller while switch the ON OFF button to turn the mount power on 4 Locate download software and click on Upgrade Utility exe 5 An iOptron Upgrade Utility window will display Click on Browse 6 Select hand controller firmware 8408_VerXXXXXX and click Open 7 The FileType and Version will be verified and displayed Click on pull down menu of the COM port and select the COM port number Here is COM1...

Page 31: ... After the firmware upgraded successfully exit the Upgrade Utility program by click on If the upgrade process was disrupted wrong firmware is loaded or the firmware does not successfully just start over it again Make sure a correct COM port is selected ...

Page 32: ...www ascom standards org iOptron Telescope NET ASCOM Drive Download and install it from http www ioptron com under Support directory Make sure you computer has Microsoft NET Framework 3 5 SP1 or up I sinstalled Buy download planetarium software and install it When the communication between the hand controller and computer has been established by following Step 1 and Step 2 of Appendix C the mount c...

Page 33: ...33 3 Select Control panel in Telescope pull down manual ...

Page 34: ...down menu to select iOptron Telescope NET then click OK 5 Click on Configure In iOptron Telescope ASCOM Driver Setup pop up window select COM1 port from the COM Port pull down menu Click OK 6 Click Connect button The RED status square will change to GREEN Now you are ready to GOTO and tracking ...

Page 35: ...35 ...

Page 36: ...one the cross hairs by adjust Latitude Adjust screw and Azi Adjust Knob 3 Release the RA clutch again Rotate the mount 180º to bring the dovetail to the left side Retighten the RA clutch screw Bring the object half the distance to the center by adjusting the reticle adjustment set screws using a hex key Keep in mind that the image in the finder is inverted Loose one screw first then tighten the ot...

Page 37: ...37 Appendix F Go2Nova Star List Messier Catalog This table is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License It uses material from the Wikipedia article List of Messier objects ...

Page 38: ... 024 Alkalurops 073 Dabih 122 Mintaka 171 Sulafat 025 Alkes 074 Deneb 123 Mira 172 Syrma 026 Almach 075 Deneb Algedi 124 Mirach 173 Talitha 027 Alnasl 076 Deneb Kaitos 125 Mirfak 174 Tania Australis 028 Alnilam 077 Denebola 126 Mirzam 175 Tania Borealis 029 Alnitak 078 Dubhe 127 Mizar 176 Tarazed 030 Alphard 079 Edasich 128 Muphrid 177 Taygeta 031 Alphecca 080 Electra 129 Muscida 178 Thuban 032 Al...

Page 39: ...Per 20 Cepheus Cep 64 Phoenix Phe 21 Cetus Cet 65 Pictor Pic 22 Chamaeleon Cha 66 Pisces Psc 23 Circinus Cir 67 Piscis Austrinus PsA 24 Columba Col 68 Puppis Pup 25 Coma Berenices Com 69 Pyxis Pyx 26 Corona Australis CrA 70 Reticulum Ret 27 Corona Borealis CrB 71 Sagitta Sge 28 Corvus Crv 72 Sagittarius Sgr 29 Crater Crt 73 Scorpius Sco 30 Crux Cru 74 Sculptor Scl 31 Cygnus Cyg 75 Scutum Sct 32 De...

Page 40: ...42 13 California Nebula 1499 43 Owl Nebula 3587 97 14 Cat s Eye Nebula 6543 44 Pelican Nebula 5070 15 Cocoon Nebula 5146 45 Phantom Streak Nebula 6741 16 Cone Nebula 2264 46 Pinwheel Galaxy 598 33 17 Cork Nebula 650 51 76 47 Pleiades 45 18 Crab Nebula 1952 1 48 Ring Nebula 6720 57 19 Crescent Nebula 6888 49 Ring Tail Galaxy 4038 20 Draco Dwarf 10822 50 Rosette Nebula 2237 21 Duck Nebula 2359 51 Sa...

Page 41: ...636 51 66 Cet 16 5 5 7 7 5 129752 17 Nu Aur 55 4 0 9 5 58502 52 Eps CMa 7 5 1 5 7 4 172676 Adhara 18 Ome Aur 5 4 5 0 8 0 57548 53 Tau CMa 8 2 4 4 10 11 173446 19 Eps Boo 2 8 2 5 4 9 83500 Izar 54 145 CMa 25 8 4 8 6 8 173349 20 Del Boo 105 3 5 7 5 64589 55 Mu CMa 2 8 5 0 7 0 152123 21 Mu 1 Boo 108 4 3 6 5 64686 Alkalurops 56 Nu 1 CMa 17 5 5 8 8 5 151694 22 Tau Boo 4 8 4 5 11 100706 57 Iot Cnc 30 5 ...

Page 42: ...5 7 6 5 10 72509 87 Psi Dra 30 3 4 9 6 1 8890 122 Gam 1 Leo 4 4 2 2 3 5 81298 Algieba 88 26 Dra 1 7 5 3 8 0 17546 123 Iot Leo 1 7 4 0 6 7 99587 89 16 17 Dra 90 5 4 5 5 6 4 30012 124 54 Leo 6 6 4 3 6 3 81583 90 Mu Dra 1 9 5 7 5 7 30239 125 Gam Lep 96 3 7 6 3 170757 91 40 41 Dra 19 3 5 7 6 1 8994 126 Iot Lep 12 8 4 4 10 150223 92 1 Equ 10 7 5 2 7 3 126428 127 Kap Lep 2 6 4 5 7 4 150239 93 The Eri 4 ...

Page 43: ...intaka 191 59 Ser 3 8 5 3 7 6 123497 157 Iot Ori 11 3 2 8 6 9 132323 Nair al saif 192 Zet Sge 8 5 5 0 8 8 105298 158 Lam Ori 4 4 3 6 5 5 112921 Meissa 193 Eta Sgr 3 6 3 2 7 8 209957 159 Sig Ori 13 3 8 7 2 6 5 132406 194 Sgr 5 5 5 2 6 9 209553 160 Rho Ori 7 1 4 5 8 3 112528 195 Phi Tau 52 5 0 8 4 76558 161 E747 Ori 36 4 8 5 7 132298 196 Chi Tau 19 4 5 7 7 6 76573 162 1 Peg 36 3 4 1 8 2 107073 197 1...

Page 44: ... to abuse misuse mishandling or unauthorized repair Further product malfunction or deterioration due to normal wear is not covered by this warranty IOPTRON DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WHETHER OF MERCHANTABILITY OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR USE EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY SET FORTH HERE THE SOLE OBLIGATION OF IOPTRON UNDER THIS LIMITED WARRANTY SHALL BE TO REPAIR OR REPLACE THE COVERED PRODU...

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