I cant tell when black soul gem altar is on, waited for weeks

[OutlawTornWithi]

I can't tell when the altar is on, i have waited for weeks upon ends, and it is really annoying me, i need it for a quest, just a few pointers would be greatly appreciated... thank you!!!

[UncleScratchy]

Soul Gem Altar (possible spoiler)

One sure way to know when the altar is activated is to wait for a Necromancer to appear worshipping at the altar. Kill him (he'll have the same note on him as you received when you first did this as a Mage Guild quest), put your empty grand soul gem in the altar and zap it with a Soultrap spell. Note the day of the week and the hour - I alway write it down. Unfortunately on my current game I first encounter the worshipper of Fedas at 3 PM, but when I went back a second time with a load of soul gems to convert it didn't work at that time. Had to wait for the Necromancer to show up again and this time it was Turdas at 2 AM. Also when this occurs note how the sky looks. Usually there will be a huge moon shining a bright beam of reflected light down on the altar. Hope this helps. You can put a whole bunch of empty grand soul gems in the altar at once and then just keep zapping it with soultrap. Only one gem will be converted at a time. When you're done remove them and have fun. I usally try to fill them up right away with human or those sword weilding daedra dude's souls form the Oblivion gates so that I don't waste them on lesser creatures by accident.

[superbob263]

Hey Guys I am not sure but it seems like this topic has already been discuses.