Newbie help please.

[Cody]

Hi all

I know this question has probably been answered 1000's of times already, but have spent all day reading on line and none of the answers I have read make sense.....so

Well I have finally been out of the back yard to somewhere where I hoped there was not much light pollution....Druridge Bay in Northumberland. I tried setting up my Skywatcher 1145p EQ1 by polar aligning it and then messing about trying to "dial" in some stars using Stellarium. I know that many have said that the dials on the EQ1 are not that accurate and thus useless, but I figure I should at least be able to get into the ball park. Assuming I was alligned correctly, I just have 1 question:

When using coords off Stellarium I was using Hour Angle/DE as this is constantly changing so thought that this must be the correct one as it is tracking the relative movement of the stars as the earth rotates, however since reading (a lot) on the net, I realise that this is not the coordinates I need and should therefore use a static star coordinate. Am I right in thinking that once it has been polar aligned, I move onto an obvious star such as Arcturus and then using the RA/DE (of date) coords on stellarium check that my DE is correct (or near enough) and then set the setting ring using the top set of numbers for the RA using the number off Stellarium once I have the star in my scope. From there, get the coordinates of something I want to look at and then adjust as necessary? Does this mean that for every "search" I will have to re callibrate against a known star with known coordinates as the equitorial grid will be constantly moving as the earth rotates???

Anyway, it wasn't a total waste of time as I did manage to see Jupiter and it's moons last night, and also the moon tonight.....whilst it was still light which was pretty cool.

Anyway, cheers for any help sent my way!!

Dave.

[Domis]

Cody, you should not need to recalibrate against a known star each search.At the start of your session,find a known star,set your circles,RA and DEC to the coordinates from Stellarium.Then find your object and observe.Now when you wish to move to another object simply check that the object is still centered in your eyepiece and that your DEC circle is reading correctly for the object you have been observing and the same with the RA circle,adjust if necessary.Then swing to the coordinates of your second object.Usually your DEC circle does not have to be adjusted after the first setup but I find mine needs tweaking once in awhile.The RA circle does need to be reset before each time you move to a new target.As you seem to know,good polar aligning is critical to have half a chance at finding anything using setting circles.Hope this helps you,good luck.

[Cody]

Thats ace thanks, just the answer I was looking for!!

[Nova]

although the setting circles are not super accurate you should still be able to use them as a rough guide. the circles on my EQ3-2 are pretty poor but i can callibrate the RA circle on a visible target then move the scope to the correct RA of M13 for example then leaving the RA axis locked i sweep the dec around whilst looking though the ep so far has worked on a few objects. as long as you set the RA circle to the object your observing before you move on to the next it will keep a rough level of callibration

[MeanEYE]

although the setting circles are not super accurate you should still be able to use them as a rough guide. the circles on my EQ3-2 are pretty poor but i can callibrate the RA circle on a visible target then move the scope to the correct RA of M13 for example then leaving the RA axis locked i sweep the dec around whilst looking though the ep so far has worked on a few objects. as long as you set the RA circle to the object your observing before you move on to the next it will keep a rough level of callibration

Hi there. I recently got my SkyWatcher 150PL with EQ3 mount and after reading manual I don't have a clue how to calibrate RA axis. They have example picture in it that is supposedly showing 8h 20m but it doesn't make sense to me. I'am starting to think manual is not really good.

Care to share experience on how to calibrate RA? I've attached image showing how my RA axis dial looks like.

[faulksy]

the way i use setting circles ra/dec is starting from scratch level mount set facing north with compass/polar align then calibrate to night sky. i use auriga in cappela. cordinates are r.a. 5hours 13mins-dec is 45.57 deg once done that is it until you kick mount or move then has to be done again. also as a note the ra settings on most scopes have 2 measure ments 1 is for south of the equator 1 is for north it should tell you in instructions or google it. hope this helps. but no doubt some one will correct me lol

[spaceboy]

My god people have actually been able to use those setting circles. I thought they were for aestheticpurposes. Is there no way of using a wixey with an EQ mount ?

To be honest under dark skies I find thing pretty easily it's when the sky is washed out by LP when I really struggle. I know what I am looking for but I often only get a glimpse of the faintest wisp of fuzz that it can so easily be over looked when trying to find it manually.

[MeanEYE]

What am interested in, how the hell one reads hours and minutes from that dial (from my picture above)?

[glowjet]

The RA dial is divided into 24 hours as can be seen, each hour is again sub divided into 6 sections making each division 10 minutes , you also have what is known as a vernier scale, thats the bit with RA printed on it, divided from 10 to 0 in 10 divisions, so when used each division will break down one division of your 10 minute scale to just one minute, which is as accurate as you can get, in use you will set the main dial to the nearest full hour and minutes of your intended object, where the 0 point of the vernier splits the next 10 minute division you will need to look along the scale of the vernier until you see where one of the 0 to10 marks lines up with one on the hour scale you can then read off the single minutes to add to your first reading, such as 14 hours 40mins + 7 = 14h 47m. All as clear as mud ? with a little practice you should get your head round it.

[Nova]

Hi there. I recently got my SkyWatcher 150PL with EQ3 mount and after reading manual I don't have a clue how to calibrate RA axis. They have example picture in it that is supposedly showing 8h 20m but it doesn't make sense to me. I'am starting to think manual is not really good.

Care to share experience on how to calibrate RA? I've attached image showing how my RA axis dial looks like.

I know what you mean about the SW manual. Its not ver clear. Ill run through what I do to set the RA circle.

Firstly I align my scope to a nice bright star lets use arcturus as an example. When you have the star nicely centred in your FOV you can "dial in" your RA setting circle. You use the top set of numbers

for northern hemisphere and bottom set for southern. The RA of Arcturus is 14h 15m 39s (for these setting circles 14h 15m is all we need) each number on the circle represents 1 hour of RA and each increment line represents 10 arc mins. Loosen the locking screw (which doesnt actually lock!!) and turn the dial until it is as close as you can get to 14h 15m (around to 14h then half way between the 10 and 20 min increment lines) normally lock the setting screw down but as ive said it doesnt lock as these circles are more for asthetics than actual scientific use. Your now dialed into arcturus. Now you need to find the RA co-ords for another object lets use M13 as an example 16h 42m. ensure that acrturus is still centre of your fov and release the locking screw then rotate the RA axis of your mount while watching the RA setting circle until it reads 16h 42m (or as close as you can get). Now you are on the correct RA for M13 its a case of sweeping over with the dec axis until you spot it. It helps to have tracking motors so that you hold the RA you have moved too.

[wrinkly]

MeanEYE,

Used to be a reprographer in a Radar Technical Publication Department. This is what is known technically as a "dropping a gooley", caused by non co-operation between the art department, the technical authors and an astronomical illiterate proof reader. Add to this that SkyWatcher is the cheap version of Celestron, whose literature is better, if not the products.

Go to the SkyWatcher site and look for downloads Setting Circles for EQ3-2 and EQ5 and the diagram there does read 8 hours 20 minutes. Fig N reads 00:00 as far as I can tell but don't believe me as I'm an idiot.

[MeanEYE]

I know what you mean about the SW manual. Its not ver clear. Ill run through what I do to set the RA circle.

Firstly I align my scope to a nice bright star lets use arcturus as an example. When you have the star nicely centred in your FOV you can "dial in" your RA setting circle. You use the top set of numbers

for northern hemisphere and bottom set for southern. The RA of Arcturus is 14h 15m 39s (for these setting circles 14h 15m is all we need) each number on the circle represents 1 hour of RA and each increment line represents 10 arc mins. Loosen the locking screw (which doesnt actually lock!!) and turn the dial until it is as close as you can get to 14h 15m (around to 14h then half way between the 10 and 20 min increment lines) normally lock the setting screw down but as ive said it doesnt lock as these circles are more for asthetics than actual scientific use. Your now dialed into arcturus. Now you need to find the RA co-ords for another object lets use M13 as an example 16h 42m. ensure that acrturus is still centre of your fov and release the locking screw then rotate the RA axis of your mount while watching the RA setting circle until it reads 16h 42m (or as close as you can get). Now you are on the correct RA for M13 its a case of sweeping over with the dec axis until you spot it. It helps to have tracking motors so that you hold the RA you have moved too.

Finally something that actually makes sense. Thank you!

I was looking for Uranus the other day and I knew approximate position but I was unable to find it as he is not that obvious in the sky and dials had little sense to me (after reading the manual).

[MeanEYE]

MeanEYE,

Used to be a reprographer in a Radar Technical Publication Department. This is what is known technically as a "dropping a gooley", caused by non co-operation between the art department, the technical authors and an astronomical illiterate proof reader. Add to this that SkyWatcher is the cheap version of Celestron, whose literature is better, if not the products.

Go to the SkyWatcher site and look for downloads Setting Circles for EQ3-2 and EQ5 and the diagram there does read 8 hours 20 minutes. Fig N reads 00:00 as far as I can tell but don't believe me as I'm an idiot.

Later on I did suspect manual was the one to blame for my lack of understanding. In manual I got with this mount picture shows 0h 0min but picture description says 8h 20m or something like that... No wonder I was confused. Well it's all sorted now.

Thanks for reply!

[MalJ]

This may be of some use? I struggled for ages trying to understand the manual for my EQ5 - then came across this on here - printed it out and suddenly it all made sense

Astro Babys HEQ5 Polar Alignment