Skywatcher EQ2 r.a configuration

[Unicronicus]

Hi all,

I'm new here and new to astronomy on the whole and loving every minute of it so far! Especially with our crystal clear nights here on the Isles of Scilly! A friend and I have just bought a Skywatcher 130p telescope that comes supplied with the EQ2 mount, believed to be and Orion Equatorial mount, the scope is fine but it's the mount that we are having issues with.

The instructions that came with the telescope and written by Skywatcher seems to be inaccurate or different to what the Orion instructions say when setting up and using the right ascension (r.a) hour dial and it has got us somewhat confused...

For starters, we both realised that the metal pointer above the r.a. dial turns with the r.a. axis when the dial is locked. Now, this seems pointless but I have recently figured out that it is absolutely correct when you are locked onto a known coordinate as the earth rotates on it's axis and you constantly adjusting the r.a. axis. Fine. But how does this work out when you want to move from, say, Vega to M81?

The Orion manual basically says to ignore the metal pointer and use the line between the "R" and the "A" to track celestial objects, but why? Why attach it to the mount if it is useless (which I just proved to be false as it does actually serve a purpose). We understand that the lower set of numbers on the ring are for the northern hemisphere (even though the skywatcher manual says the opposite!) and the marker on the lower part of the mount does actually stay motionless as the r.a. axis rotates so the hours/minutes change. Great. The only problem is that when the mount and scope are polar aligned, and we then find Vega and set the r.a. dial to it, when we want to look at M81 going by the coordinates of it the r.a dial is way off! Sometimes up to a couple of hours! I know people have mentioned on other topics that the r.a dial on these mounts is pretty rubbish, but surely it must be able to get us in the ball park region of what we want to look at?

So basically my question(s) in a nutshell is are we using this mount correctly? Do we need to use both pointers on the r.a dial, if so, how? Are we configuring it properly if it is reading loads of hours out?

Any help is much appreciated!

Dan

[ultramol]

First welcome to SGL, second burn the skywatcher manual. I got a 200p with 2 manuals and nearlly had a coronary trying to understand them. They are wrong. I am no expert but the knowledgable people on here told me to ignore the scales on these mounts as they are not fit for purpose. The only use for the RA scale from what I have learned is for polar aligning the mount. I was told to learn how to find objects by star hopping or if I could not then to get a good goto mount. Good luck and I am not envious of your location for crystal clear nights at all LOL. Hang in there as I am sure someone will soon put you right on what to do....Regards   Geoff

[Unicronicus]

Cheers Geoff,

I to have heard bad news about the r.a dial, and the only thing the r.a axis is good for is tracking an object using the slow mo controls. I fail to see how it is ok for polar alignment though because if I can't use the r.a dial for finding celestial objects in the first place then why polar align at all? I must admit though, planet hoping is fun and I am pretty nifty when it comes to finding objects using the view finder ;-). It would be nice to have a semi-working r.a dial though for finding dimmer objects like messiers, nebulae etc... I tried to find the pinwheel galaxy last night but failed miserably, or am I asking too much from this scope, especially when the moon is at it's fullest and therefore brightest?

But any news on how to use the mount correctly, if I aren't doing so already, is very welcome! :-D

Dan

[Unicronicus]

If I don't get on with this mount in due course, what other mounts might I consider getting to replace it? Are the other sky watcher eq mounts rife with problems on the r.a setting circle? I think I have finally figured out the best method for using my current eq2 setting circles but I'm still sceptical as to whether it's any good at all to find objects by their coordinates....

[Unicronicus]

Ok, so I took the scope out tonight, got it polar aligned perfectly, but the r.a setting is still waaaaay off! After polar alignment I go to Vega, centre in my eyepiece and turn the dial to read it's coordinates (18hr 30 odd mins). I then immediately move to a known coordinate, such as the Orion Nebula, and it is waaaay off, I mean like hours! Now I know these dial are pretty rubbish but surely not this useless...? Am I using the scope correctly or is something messed up with my setup?

[Unicronicus]

Anyone? Is it critical that I set the dec first before the r.a?

[tony gazer]

long as polar alined then find an object u wanna view as time goesby u only need to use the ra slowmotion control 2 find it again u only need to use the dials 2 find things u can't c with the naked eye

[Unicronicus]

We are perfectly polar aligned though. But when viewing objects that are hard to see, setting the Dec and r.a is proving a pain. The Dec is always spot on but the r.a is always too far off, and I mean hours! Surely the r.a cannot be that bad from the factory unless we are doing something wrong...?

[tony gazer]

i"ll get my old eq2 out i started with exact same setup as ur usingnow on bigger mount n scope still hitting a few problems but the eq2 i got working fine

[Unicronicus]

If you can that would be great. I can locate objects by star hopping absolutely fine, and I can keep them tracked by using just the r.a slow mo cable. It would just be nice to get in the rough ball park area with the setting circles though and searching from there on in. I'm pretty sure I managed to find the great cluster in Hercules, bodes nebula and the Orion Nebula the other night, but it was hard with our finder scope misted up.