A big thank you ......and now a big sorry

[bcfcciderhead]

The thank you goes to Andy aka "black knight" for the sell of his Skywatcher 200P EQ5 GOTO..TO ME!!

A really nice guy and very helpful (the kids think mrs Black Knight and the hamsters are nice to).

Been playing all after noon with the mount and i think i'm getting my way around it, but i'l forget the setting circles for the time being and just work on polar alignment.

I believe a simple polar alignment would be enough for the GOTO as i only do visual use (for now) and then straight into star alignment?

Can't wait to get out and start using it and after sticking my head out the back door at 8pm the clouds came in so no go tonight,

so thats my sorry, sorry for the clouds in the South Wales area....new scope and all that.

So stand by all you EQ5 user's the questions will soon start flooding in

[twotter]

Nice one

It would be interesting to hear how it compares to your old dob, and which mount you prefer?

[Dai150PL]

Hi Dave, nice one on the new scope and for Polar Alignment I found that Astro Babies guide was the easiest to follow. Hope this helps - Astro Babys HEQ5 Polar Alignment.

[JamesM]

Congratulation Dave on your new kit and also thank you for the cloud that's now made its way over to Bristol!

James

[garethmob]

ooooo it is going to be a interesting mix compaired to the dob! i can see maybe astrophoto questions tho

[Black Knight]

Well, I feel the clouds are half my fault, since it was I who sold Dave the scope! Thanks for the very kind words Dave, it was great meeting you and your "tribe" today .

You should be able to get by without using the setting circles at all if you don't want to - I tried but gave up on them completely!

For reasonably accurate polar alignment there is a tool called (funnily enough) PolarFinder on the internet, but I don't have a link, sorry. But as has been mentioned, AstroBaby's guide is a good place to start. But for visual use, you can probably get away with being a little imprecise.

Have fun.

[Dai150PL]

The Polar Finder app can be found on page two of Astro babies guide.

[bcfcciderhead]

Thanks for the replies guys, Had a look at Astro-baby site and one the simplest guides i have found, thanks for the heads up Dai,

also downloaded Polar Finder, which should help