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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 \ Conguration”
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 veries 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.
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