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polar align eq5

scarecrow

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scarecrow

scarecrow

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had my first go at setting up but eq5 goto last night and i think i did ok but the polar align is what messed me up. I got my mount set up in home position and got everything balanced. When i tried polar aligning the mount i couldn't see a thing through the mount scope. I could see Polaris clear in the sky and the mount was in the right position but it was just all black. I could not see the diagram as it was pitch black out side. I did have the cap off and scope turned before you ask.

Is it best doing the alignment when it is fully dark or when you can just make out the stars?.

Another question im taking my scope down to the coast next weekend and the altitude there is 2 meters. Problem is the mount cant go that low as there is a small bar in the way.

I did get the scope aligned to 2 star but it was off on other stars.

Thanks for the help

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ScubaMike

ScubaMike

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had my first go at setting up but eq5 goto last night and i think i did ok but the polar align is what messed me up. I got my mount set up in home position and got everything balanced. When i tried polar aligning the mount i couldn't see a thing through the mount scope. I could see Polaris clear in the sky and the mount was in the right position but it was just all black. I could not see the diagram as it was pitch black out side. I did have the cap off and scope turned before you ask.

Is it best doing the alignment when it is fully dark or when you can just make out the stars?.

Another question im taking my scope down to the coast next weekend and the altitude there is 2 meters. Problem is the mount cant go that low as there is a small bar in the way.

I did get the scope aligned to 2 star but it was off on other stars.

Thanks for the help

Hi Scarecrow,

I don't understand why the altitude would matter. The altitude refered to is not your height above sea level, it refers to your position above/below the equator.

When you say you couldn't see anything through the mount scope, do you mean the polar scope in the mount? Maybe you need to check that you have roughly aligned the mount north, and have the altitude set to your approximate position.

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skfboiler

skfboiler

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Shining a red flashlight into the reticle should help. To keep my hands free, I bought a flashlight that goes around your head that has a switch for both white light and red light. Not only I use it to look into the reticle for polar aligning, I use for fumbling around the scope to see at night to preserve my night vison.

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bcfcciderhead

bcfcciderhead

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Can't help much with the polar scope as i'm still getting my head around this, but what i will say is if your not taking any photo's then don't be so fussy with a true alignment, just get polaris in the polar scope and when setting up the GOTO star alignment it should be ok.....worked for me.

As for moving to the coast, don't worry, all you need to do is keep the latitude scale set to the location you are at i.e 51degrees,

this is to ensure your mount will be at the correct angle to locate polaris (i think)

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BertUK

BertUK

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polar aligning need only be done once if its done right but for a first timer it can be quite daunting,if you really are struggling you are welcome to give me a call on my mobile and i will try to help you,pm me if you want my number and i,ll be glad to help

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scarecrow

scarecrow

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thanks for the help. Yes i was using the polar scope on the mount but i couldnt see any star and the mount was set up facing north with a compass. I had a play again last night just trying to see a star through the polar scope and the one i found was out of focus the a fair way. Is there any way to change the focus of the polar scope.

About the altitude on my google earth it says i am 55m so i set it as that on the mount is that correct?. Where i am going at the weekend it shows as 2m but the mount does not lower to that amount so how do i set that up correctly?

Thanks for the help

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bcfcciderhead

bcfcciderhead

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thanks for the help. Yes i was using the polar scope on the mount but i couldnt see any star and the mount was set up facing north with a compass. I had a play again last night just trying to see a star through the polar scope and the one i found was out of focus the a fair way. Is there any way to change the focus of the polar scope.

About the altitude on my google earth it says i am 55m so i set it as that on the mount is that correct?. Where i am going at the weekend it shows as 2m but the mount does not lower to that amount so how do i set that up correctly?

Thanks for the help

No, the altitude setting is set to the LONGITUDE setting of the location i.e 51 degrees north, not your altitude above sea level.

Find you long/lat cor-ord of yyour site and it will be the north figure, try google earth for this, write down the co-ord of where your going post them on here and i will let you know what it is and what to put into your GOTO

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bcfcciderhead

bcfcciderhead

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yep set you latitude to 50 as Chemtom24 says, you might not need to touch that again.

I live in South Wales and took my scope on holiday to West Wales, some 150miles away and mine stayed at 51, i also bought the scope from Swindon and was set to 51 there so i have never had to touch it as yet.

You will find that by setting to this you will find Polaris easier as it will be set at the correct(ish) height, your just need to move the mount left or right to centre it, try taking the polar scope out and just find polaris in the hole....i did it last night (i can never tell if i got it or not), found the star, put the polar scope back in and it was centre, not where it should be on the little diagrames but ok for visual use with a GOTO, i dont think this would be any good for photo's.

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bcfcciderhead

bcfcciderhead

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UMM not sure on that, all mine have been very easy

they is a web site "longitude latitude finder" i think it's called, it gives your location in a number of formats and one of them is in the GOTO format.

I thought google earth also shows them in the GOTO format, pretty sure mine does

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steelfixer

steelfixer

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Hi there

I think unless i have read this wrong you have missed an important point.

To Polar align the EQ5 mount you have to turn the OTA horizontal to allow for the Polar scope apature to open on the front of the mount.

This is probebly the reason you cannot see anything through the polar scope.

Thanks

Graham

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glowjet

glowjet

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Your question on Polar scope adjustment, if it is the standard Skywatcher one you will find that the eye piece will screw in and out to focus the cross hairs on your target, if the target image is out of focus, look at the long black tube which holds the objective, you will see a knurled locking ring where it enters into the thicker part of the body of the scope, if you unlock this you can turn the tube to focus the image, all this, is of course, best done in daylight, so when you look through the scope the cross hairs, Polar screen and target are all in sharp focus HTH.

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g0ibi

g0ibi

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I have the same mount, I use a program called Polar Finder (Google it!) Just set Polaris on the edge of the inner circle (anywhere on the circle) using your Azimuth and Latitude bolts and thats it. You can practise this in daytime.

Hope this helps

Ron

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