First Light? - Not Quite!

[KevStar]

After an interminable wait for delivery ( no fault of Steve's, who's customer service and communication was first rate) I finally took delivery of my new scope and mount on Thursday 1st March. Greg had kindly offered to come round and help me set up the following night so, despite the fact that it was a brilliantly clear sky, with Saturn grazing the moon that night!, I curtailed my excitement and just ogled my new toys till lights out. Of course the next evening was raining cats and dogs so we were limited to balancing the scope (without success given the 2x5kg weights supplied) and taking a couple of pics of me standing next to The Beast.

Saturday daytime was sunny and the outlook for the evening was good. I levelled the tripod and hefted the stupendously large mount into position. Following the instructions I performed the polar reticule alignment in daylight without OTA or counterweights. Darkness seemed an interminable age away.

Twilight comes! On goes The Beast (and insufficient counterweights). There was loads of residual light that seemed to hang around for ages (Earthshine?). Eventually Polaris peaks out at about 8.30 and I am able to check my alignment. I'm massively out and decide I need to start all over again. Stupidly I didn't have any red light so everytime I had to find the piddly little allan key or the piddly little screws I had to turn the lights on and subsequently blind myself.

Midway through my second attempt Wifey traipses up the hill with the chili and nachos (3-4 glasses of wine the merrier) and makes a nuisance of herself by interrupting my -admittedly equally inebriated - concentration. I'm too busy to bother with the scrummy scran which doesn't go down well with my wife.

Eventally I pacify my darling by sitting down in summerhouse (candles burning out my retinas) with lovely meal and wine which I scoffed down in about two minutes.

Back to the job in hand. Actually I may as well have had my jobbie in hand cos my polar aligning skills amounted to nought as i was about to find out with my attempted 3 star alignment. I may be a novice but I'm pretty sure Betelgeuse wasn't located straight overhead. I'd forgotten to lock the RA axis!

Third time lucky and I managed to get Betelgeuse in the middle of the EP and then had a go at aligning the red dot finderscope. A few clicks here and there and I have it bang on but when I go back to the ep one of the biggest stars in the solar system has vanished. By this time the moon is getting on for a fiery red so I give up in exasperation and just watch the wonders of nature with me good old eyes ( + glasses for corrected vision and thank god the opticion at least knew what the hell he was doing.

Greg called me next day to see how I got on and will be over with blue flashing lights next time we have a clear night.

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Feel for you there Kev. Just intrigued as to which piddly little screws you were having to play with in the dark? the EQ6 is designed to be setupaable in the dark so I'm thinking that you were perhaps doing something into the wind a little.

Captain Chaos

[KevStar]

I was jsut following these instructions

"To move the reticle, adjust the three small Allen screws

(Fig.h-2) on the polar scope. Make small adjustments by

moving only two of the screws at a time. Adjust the screws to

move Polaris half the distance back to the center of the

reticle. This is because Polaris started in the center of the

reticle. By rotating the mount 180 degrees, Polaris moved

exactly twice the distance between the center of the reticle

and the center of rotation. The center of rotation lies midway

between the center of the reticle and the new position of

Polaris. Do not turn any of the set screws more than one

quarter turn at a time or the reticle will disengage from the

set screws. Do not tighten these screws too much or the

stress will fracture the lenses in the polar scope."

Having done it in the daytime agaist a distant obect I thought that I'd messed it up and tried it again in the dark. Now you have to admit that those are pretty damn small screws. Plus I was terrified of lense popping out or cracking.

All newbie problems which I'm sure I'll iron out next time. I do feel like a bit of a plonker though!

[Greg]

We've all been there Kev..

In a couple of weeks or so's time when you've done a few set ups you'll wonder what all the fuss was about...W'ell be sat in your summer house with a nice bottle of red laughing...Trust me..

Soon as we get a clear forcast i'll be over.

Greg

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

OK just so that you are clear about the polar 'scope thing.

In daylight you align it so that as you rotate the RA axis whatever is central, stays central. TV aerials are ace for this as you can count the "notches" to get the alignment spot on. Then put away the little Allen keys for a year or more, you DON'T touch those again, ever, unless you take the mount to bits.

When its dark and you're getting all soggy round the trousers, you need to get the picture in the polar 'scope so that the constellation pictures are the right way up compared to real life. Lock the axis at that point.

Using the two side knobs move the mount head from side to side, and use the floppy handled adjusters to go up or down. The aim is to get Polaris in the little circle which is on the edge of a larger circle. If you get it bang on, you are good for 2 minute exposures with a camera. For visual, anywhere near is plenty good enough.

If possible align before loading the weights and 'scope on as the 'scope can crash into the mount at certain awkward times of the year. Slightly loosen the knob which locks the head to the tripod to unlock it for sideways movement, and lock it up when you are done.

HTH

Captain Chaos

[proflight2000]

I had the same issue when I first got my HEQ5, I attempted to get the polarscope aligned and as you said, those 3 little hex screws are just totally a pain. I kept un doing them too much and the inners would fall out, so I would have to start again and again and again. It is a pity that there was no way of doing this with some form of thumb screws. I then decided to rough polar align instead using the screws etc that captain mentions, it not done too bad but I will have to grasp the finer details of aligning the polarscope.

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

PF, it's best done with the polarscope almost horizontal. It doesn't fall out so easily then. Once it's aligned, it stays aligned until you do something drastic like take it out.

Captain Chaos