Skywatcher Manual's
Skywatcher Manual's
MiniDob Mount
Congratulations on your purchase of the MiniDob Mount. This is a unique
and versatile mount! Nothing like this mount has ever been offered in the
marketplace before!
WARNING
• Never look at the sun with the naked eye or with a telescope (unless you have the proper
solar filter). Permanent and irreversible eye damage may result.
• When observing the sun (while using a proper solar filter) with your telescope, make sure
that the finderscope has a dust cap over the objective end or remove the finderscope.
• Never use your telescope to project an image of the sun onto any surface. Internal heat
build-up can damage the telescope and any accessories attached.
• Never use an eyepiece solar filter or a Herschel wedge. Internal heat build-up inside the
telescope can cause these devices to crack or break, allowing unfiltered sunlight to pass
through the telescope to the eye.
• Never leave the telescope unsupervised, either when children are present or adults who
may not be familiar with the correct operating procedures of your telescope.
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MOUNT AND TELESCOPE ASSEMBLY
Mount Setup
locking knob
Figure 1 Figure 2
1.Place the mount on a flat surface. For 2.Loosen the locking knob on the mounting
astronomical usage, place a bubble leveler platform. Slide the dove tail bar on the
on the base and adjust the 2 adjustable telescope tube into the slot of the mounting
feet to level the base (Figure 1). platform and tighten the locking knob. The
fork arm should be at the right side of the
telescope tube when the telescope tube
points forward (Figure 2).
Figure 3
2
Powering The Mount
The MiniDob mount can be powered from
the internal batteries or an external DC
power supply (Figure 4).
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FOR ASTRONOMICAL USE
Normal Operation
clutch knob
Figure 5 Figure 6
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tracking that object automatically.
7.User can also use the buttons on control panel to move the mount. Following these
guides to use the buttons to slew the mount:
• The four direction buttons are used to slew the mount horizontally and vertically.
• User can use the other 5 buttons to choose from 5 slewing speeds. Speed 1 is the
slowest and Speed 5 is the fastest.
• Speed 1 and Speed 2 are for centering an object in the eyepiece of the telescope.
• Speed 3 and 4 are for centering an object in the red dot finder of the telescope.
• Speed 5 is for slewing the mount at its fastest speed. (To save the battery, we
recommend rotating the mount manually instead.)
8.The celestial object function can be switched on/off by simultaneously pressing the
buttons “1/a” and “2/b”. While the tracking is on, the backlight of the buttons will flash twice
and the internal buzzer will give two short beeps. If the tracking is off, the button’s backlight
will flash once and the buzzer will give only one short beep.
9.Press and hold “1/a” button for more than 5 seconds can switch the internal buzzer
on/off. Press and hold “2/b” button for more than 5 seconds can switch the button
backlight on/off.
The MiniDob mount needs the input of local latitude to allow its celestial object tracking
function to work properly. The latitude setting operation is an operation if the observing site
does not change much in latitude. Here are the steps for setting the latitude.
• Find local latitude with a GPS, a map or other similar devices.
• For Northern Hemisphere users, rotate the altitude axis until the altitude scale reads 0
degree. For Southern Hemisphere users, let the dial read the local latitude. User can rotate
the altitude axis with motor or manually (figure 5).
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• Press both buttons “2/b” and “3/c” simultaneously, and the MiniDob will know the local
latitude.
Tips: When rotating the altitude axis with motor, use the same UP/DOWN key to end
adjusting scale reading to 0 degree or your local latitude, this will help eliminate the
influence of mechanical backlash. For example, if UP key is the last button that you used
to set the scale to 0 degree, you should also use UP key as the last button for setting the
scale reading to your local latitude.
• Users have to find a celestial object and point the telescope to it manually. To locate a
celestial object automatically, user can consider purchasing a SynScan GOTO hand control.
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FOR TERRESTRIAL (LAND) USE
General Opertion
1.The MiniDob mount always activates the celestial object tracking function after power is
turned on. For terrestrial application, user should press buttons “1/a” and “2/b”
simultaneously to turn off the tracking function.
2.User can loosen the clutches to rotate the mount manually, or use the buttons on the
control panel to slew the mount.
3.The MiniDob mount can store 6 preset positions and retrieve these positions when
required.
• Point the mount (with telescope, camera etc.) to a spot of interest, and then press
button “SET” plus one of the buttons “a” to “f”. The current position of the mount will be
stored and represented with that button (“a” to “f”).
• Press button “GO” plus one of the buttons “a” to “f”, the mount will slew to the preset
position represented by the button (“a” to “f”).
Tip – to ensure the best accuracy for your position choices, it is important that you use
the "up" and "right" direction buttons as the final keys before you actually set your
position choice.
4.The MiniDob remembers the stored positions even after the power is turn off. Thus if the
base of the mount is not moved and the power is turned on with the mount pointing at the
same reference spot, user can always retrieve the pre-stored position.
5.Press and hold “1/a” button for more than 5 seconds can switch the internal buzzer on/off.
Press and hold “2/b” button for more than 5 seconds can switch the button backlight on/off.
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will slew to and stop at the pre-stored position one by one from “a” to “f”. When the mount
stops, it will send a signal to trigger the attached camera to take a picture. The MiniDob will
stop at the last position for about 3 minutes before it re-starts the cruising again.
5.By default, when the MiniDob stops at a pre-stored position, the active time of the shutter
triggering signal is 3 seconds. User can press button a~f and button DOWN to change the
time to 1~6 and 7 seconds during the cruising. The proper time depends on how long the
camera takes to finish the exposure measurement and auto-focus functions.
6.During the cruising, user can press the SET button to pause. Release the SET button will
resume the cruising.
8.User might want to clear and skip one or more of the preset positions (“a” to “f”). To do
this, user must store the power-on position to the specific buttons immediately after turning
on the power.
2.Press buttons “GO/4” and “Down” to activate the “Video Cruising” function.
3.During the cruising, user can press the SET button to pause. Release the SET button will
resume the cruising.
Panoramic Photography
1.The MiniDob mount can control a camera to take panoramic photos.
2.The camera must have an external shutter control port, and a proper bracket should be
used to attach the camera on the MiniDob mount.
• Level the camera with the mount. Turn off the power of the mount and then turn it on
again.
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• Look through the viewfinder window of the camera or look at the life view LCD display
of the camera. As shown in the following figure, remember the object at the corner of the
view finder, then rotate (Manually or automatically with motor drive) the azimuth and altitude
axes of the MiniDob mount to move the center of the view finder onto that object. Press
buttons “SET/5” and “1/a” to save the position. The MiniDob will double the movement to
get the full field of view.
• When taking panoramic pictures, the mount will apply 30% overlap between the
pictures.
30% Overlap
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triggering signal is 3 seconds. User can press button a~f and button DOWN to change the
time to 1~6 and 7 seconds during the cruising. The proper time depends on how long the
camera takes to finish the exposure measurement and auto-focus functions.
9.Press buttons “DOWN” and “RIGHT” to suspend the operation.
10.The FOV setting, lowest altitude and highest altitude setting are saved in the MiniDob
mount even after the power is turned off. During the next panoramic photography session,
the user does not need to repeat the setting if these parameters do not change. User can
simply level the tripod and camera, turn on power and press button “1/a” and “3/c” to start
taking panoramic pictures.
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