scope balancing issue

[bcfcciderhead]

I've been setting up my mount and scope and hope to use tonight, I've followed some good youtube videos about setting up the "home position" and balancing,

I have now got the scope balanced really nice in the mount but now the OTA is in the rings in such a way that the focuser is to high for me to use, if i turn the OTA so it is better to use the balance is lost (when the scope is in the vertical).

How do i get the scope in a comfortable postion to use?

This is driving me mad:mad:

[chemtom24]

i dont think turning the ota in its rings would affect balance *that much* would it? but if it did, can you not readjust the balance by either moving the ota further up or down the rings, or by moving the counter weights?

[bcfcciderhead]

I been told to balance the scope in the verticle,

i level the scope as normal by moving the OTA back and forth in it's rings (or dove tail) and then by moving the counter weights up or down the bar,

but then if you turn the OTA so it points straight up it will fall back down, this is due to the weight of the finder and focuser, but by turning the OTA you can get it to stay upright, but when you do this the focuser is to high when all back to normal postions,

I have since been in touch with the author of the video and he has told me not to worry about being level in the vertical if only used for visual work, this is more important if taking photos, so now overcome this little problem........thanks for the reply tho, just hope you could understand what i was on about, if not here's the video

[spaceboy]

I use a small set of steps. Can't be doing with all that hassle of spinning the OTA and risk it crashing into the ground or scoring the life out the paint work. Point in the section of sky you most look and get the OTA orientated so it is comfortable. The focuser will end up in an odd place when in the home position (pointing at Polaris) but the rest of the time it's in an easily manageable positions stood or sat on the steps. Not everyones cup of tea but I found it works for me

[bcfcciderhead]

Well if it works it can't be that bad, i got it all level now and marked where to put the weights & OTA back to after taken off so with an luck should be level once again.

Hope to get out later and try it all out, my leveling and home postions, well it can't be worse than last time i tried.

[chemtom24]

wats weather liek ur way? got miserable cloud again. im so sick of cloud. can count the number of decent nights on th elast couple of onths on one hand.

[bcfcciderhead]

just poked my head out the door and it's a bit patchy here so maybe not tonight, thsi weather sucks

[Bizibilder]

As long as you get your scope reasonably well balanced you should not need to rebalance every time you change eyepiece position. It will be "out" but not by much. Otherwise you will spend most of your time balancing rather than observing.

For photography, when you have a camera mounted instead of using eyepieces it is worth balancing critically (and then deliberately putting the mount slightly out of balance!!) An imaging run may well be for several hours so it is worth getting it right.

You will find that as you rotate the tube the finder/focusser will throw the thing out of balance as they are not symmetrically placed around the tube - very fussy folk may add small counterweights to "balance out" the finder and focusser although this is not normally necessary.

(Put it out of balance again?? For Astro imaging it is necessary to set the mount slightly "out" to help the gears that are driving the scope to stay properly in mesh - a perfectly balanced system can be a real pain with various tracking errors showing up in your "subs")

[Black Knight]

Point in the section of sky you most look and get the OTA orientated so it is comfortable.

That's what I used to do actually. Where I normally setup, I have no view north-east and east, so I just rotate the scope so the eyepiece will be in a convenient position for viewing mostly south and west. That does mean the eyepiece is at a really inconvenient and uncomfortable position when the scope is in the home position, but hey, it doesn't stay there long, so I don't worry too much about it!

[bcfcciderhead]

thanks for all the help guys been very helpful.

I got the scope balanced ok now and happy with it, was being a bit fussy to be honest,

it's like starting all over again with a EQ5 mount but i'm getting there the more i play and of course tips from your good selfs, just need a clear night