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Hi, I'm a first time caller...couple of obvious beginner questions


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Hello,

I have just bought my first scope and mount, a 90mm refractor on an Eq2 mount. First silly question: Do you keep the eye covers over your spotting scope optics? I have been doing so but by wiggling them to get them off, the spotting scope is then always off and requires realigning every time

Second, I polar aligned my mount after reading various instructions and watching videos. I set my latitude to 55 degrees and put the scope in the home position. When I tried to get polaris in the finder scope using just the Altz and latitude adjustments I found I could only do so by changing the latitude to 60 degrees and fine tuning with the slow-mo controls. This is because once it was in the scope and I went to lock the latitude and altz controls polaris would have moved way out of the spotter scope. The tripod is level so was just wondering if anyone has any tips? Due to the weather I only got a couple of hours outside observing and the moon and Jupiter seemed to stay in the field of view using RA slow motion but wasn't sure if, over several hours the initial rough polar alignment would cause problems.

Thanks

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Hi Jim,

Firstly, can you adjust the spotter scope - it could be that the nuts need tightning slightly. It shouldnt move by just taking the caps off.

Regarding polar alignment - dont get too hung up over trying to get accurate allignment for visual use. I just plonk it down so the axis is pointing roughly north and that is usually good enough.

Best of luck and clear skies.

Ben.

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Thanks, I was trying not to get too hung up on the polar alignment but I can get a bit [removed word] about these things. I will up my polar alignment game if I feel it becomes a problem. The spotter scope is held in place by a sprung grub screw and 2 other adjustable grub screws which you use to align the scope. There is no real way of completely locking it in place. It's always close but I can't help noticing that it seems to need minor realignment every time I set up. A full night of clear, non-baltic skies might be a way off but I will have another play around with it when I get the chance

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You don't need to push the dust caps fully on, just enough to keep them from

falling off, it's best to check the alignment every time you intend to observe,

normally it's just a tweak, as long as you point your tripod north it shouldn't be

a problem, as long as you are enjoying yourself, that's what counts.

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You don't need to push the dust caps fully on, just enough to keep them from

falling off, it's best to check the alignment every time you intend to observe,

normally it's just a tweak, as long as you point your tripod north it shouldn't be

a problem, as long as you are enjoying yourself, that's what counts.

Absolutely, that's the whole point of the hobby.

Good luck and clear skies.

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