getting it all wrong.

[Woody]

Gday mate.

You use the two, smaller black knobs at the front of the mount, just below the front Latitude bolt.

[bibbsy]

noooooooooooooooooo i thought they just held the mount on the tripod,so all i had to do last night was twiddle about with those and i would have done it ? oh my god lol.

[bibbsy]

The following users were not found:woody.....hmmmm the gods are against me,would not let me send a pm to you,thanks for the offer of help tho woody,i shall try again using those front knobs and if i fail i shall come calling lol.

[Woody]

You got it:)

Tighten one as you loosen the other and it will move the mount left or right on the tripod.

Once you do polar align a few times it just becomes second nature and you look back at all the errors you made beforehand and giggle...I know I do!

Just the other night I was showing an interested friend my setup. I was setting up and starting to align and I couldn't make out any stars through the polarscope. The front cap was off, the counterweight shaft was down but still nothing. I was stumped. Of course I had forgot to rotate the dec axis 90 degrees so it was blocking the view!!

[nicnac]

the two screws that hold the EQ head the tripod at the front end have a bit of play either way so when you have set up facing north (tripod legs) you can fine tune the head setting with them thats the left/right and then as said before, the two screws front and back of the head to alter the up/down.

dont worry bibs, you get there, its all in the curve

[Woody]

If you just click someones username, there should be the option to pm them in the dropdown box.

[bibbsy]

thank you woody and nick,well at least im getting exercise every night lol,and longing for that day when i can look back and laugh at these mistakes

[nicnac]

this may help

and no worries pal

Polar Alignment of your Equatorial Mount - McWiki

[bibbsy]

thank you nick

[astro mick]

Hi Bibbsy.

Sorry to hear of your difficulties,and you are getting lots of good advice.My tuppenceworth,are you using the scope visually,or for imaging.

If visual,i would first align the finderscope with the main scope during the day,and try and maintain that alighnment.

At night assemble your mount so that it is facing North,and adjust your Latitude(51-53)whatever it is for your site.Make sure the DEC arm with the weights is facing straight down.Place the tube into the dovetail,and again make sure it is facing due north,basically as you see most scopes in pictures of EQ mounts.

Lock both the R/A & DEC locking bolts."Dont touch these again".

When Polaris is visible,stand back from the scope and see if you are pointing roughly to-wards it.If not manually move the whole mount to some where near.

Look through your finderscope,and see if you can see Polaris.If you cant but think you are somewhere near,"Using the Latitude Adjustmen bolts to raise or lower the mount,and adjusting the Azimuthe bolts,located at the front of the mount,you should be able to bring Polaris into the view of the finderscope.

Then put a low power eyepiece into your scope,and polaris should be there.

Insert a higher power,and again using the said adjustments bring polaris back to the centre.

When done tighten the Lat/Az Bolts whilst looking into the eyepiece,to make sure Polaris is still central.

This should be adeqate for GOTO viewing.

Mark the Tripod legs on the Pavement.

If imaging,then the use of the Polar scope will be needed,or Drift alighnment.

Hope this and the other comments get you going.

Mick.

[bibbsy]

thanks mick,

just for viewing with the goto,i had polaris in the view finder but didn't know how to bring it over into the small circle of the polar scope,but with all these top tips i might....just might get it right soon lol.

[MG1]

Hi bibbsy, did you follow the links to the astrobaby tutorial or youtube links? They really do help get your head round it all.

The manual doesn't help either....keep us posted as to how you get on.

CS

[bibbsy]

hi mg1,

yup i did read it but i think thats where i came unstuck,thought i had to adjust those small allen keys around the polar scope to bring polaris into the small circle....doh lol,i now know its nothing to do with those i will get there in the end,even if i have to pay someone to do it for me lol,thanks for the link and help yes indeed will keep you guys posted when i get it right,think there will have to be a party

[astro mick]

Hi Bibbsy.

Sorry to hear of your difficulties,and you are getting lots of good advice.My tuppenceworth,are you using the scope visually,or for imaging.

If visual,i would first align the finderscope with the main scope during the day,and try and maintain that alighnment.

At night assemble your mount so that it is facing North,and adjust your Latitude(51-53)whatever it is for your site.Make sure the DEC arm with the weights is facing straight down.Place the tube into the dovetail,and again make sure it is facing due north,basically as you see most scopes in pictures of EQ mounts.

Lock both the R/A & DEC locking bolts."Dont touch these again".

When Polaris is visible,stand back from the scope and see if you are pointing roughly to-wards it.If not manually move the whole mount to some where near.

Look through your finderscope,and see if you can see Polaris.If you cant but think you are somewhere near,"Using the Latitude Adjustmen bolts to raise or lower the mount,and adjusting the Azimuthe bolts,located at the front of the mount,you should be able to bring Polaris into the view of the finderscope.

Then put a low power eyepiece into your scope,and polaris should be there.

Insert a higher power,and again using the said adjustments bring polaris back to the centre.

When done tighten the Lat/Az Bolts whilst looking into the eyepiece,to make sure Polaris is still central.

This should be adeqate for GOTO viewing.

Mark the Tripod legs on the Pavement.

If imaging,then the use of the Polar scope will be needed,or Drift alighnment.

Hope this and the other comments get you going.

Mick.

P.S.Put your lowest power eyepiece back into your scope,usully around 25mm.

You can now unlock your clutches and do your star alighnment.

Good luck.

[astro mick]

Sorry about the duplication of my reply.Dont know what happened there.

Mick.

[philhas]

Now I remember why I bought an Alt-Azm mount!

[astro mick]

Bibbsy.

For viewing,i dont think you need to bother with the polar scope.

As long as you,ve got Polaris in a medium-high power eyepiece,thats good enough.

You dont need imaging accuracy.

Mick.

[bibbsy]

thanks mick,

i only have 10mm,15mm and 25mm,should i use the 10mm first then change over to the 25 ?

you mention unlock the clutches to do the star alining ? ive had them locked up to now.

[steelfixer]

Bibbsy what are you like.

I did tell you about moving it left and right yesterday. lol

Where abouts are you in Essex.

If you are not that far from me in Suffolk I will come over and show you how to do it.

Graham

[bibbsy]

im quite a long way from you graham,very near to lakeside shopping centre but thank you for the offer,very kind of you.

i think ive got it now,i have the right altitude,just need to twiddle those two front knobs to move it left or right lol,but confused now about the clutches,i thought they had to be locked off when doing the star alining ?

what i cant understand is.....i had polaris in the polar scope but just outside the small circle,was that not close enough ? as the star alining on the goto was still not correct.

[astro mick]

Ok Bibbsy.

Once,you think you have the mount alighned,all the clutches still locked,and Polaris sitting pretty in you 10mm eyepiece,your ready to go.

I assume your going to do a 3 star alighnment.

Switch on the power,and your Handset will spring to life.Follow your manual,but normally,it will display its current Version,then steer through this, and it will ask for your Site Location.You can get this from Google Earth.Enter this accurately,then it will ask you for the Date(Month/Day/Year.)Its important to get this sequence right.Next it will ask for the Time,usually in the 24 hour format.Then it will ask for Daylight saving,which at the moment is "Yes" as the clocks have,nt gone back.

Eventully it will say start star alignment.Say yes,and it will ask for 1.2 or 3 star alighnment.I usually go for 3.

It will give you a list of stars,you are looking for one over in the East,it depends whats in the list,but East it must be.

Press enter and the scope should slew somewhere near the star.

Look in the finderscope,if its way off but can still be seen,"now you can release the clutches,and center the star.Now centre the star in your 10mm eyepiece.

Lock the clutches,and press enter.It will now ask for your second star.Look for one due South thats presented in the list.After choosing one press enter and the scope will slew to that.This time the star should be closer to the finders cross hairs,but will still need centring in the eywpiece.

!!!!!!Dont release the clutches this time!!!! but using your hand control centre the star.Press enter.For the Third star you want one in the West,so again choose one from the list,and press enter.

It will slew towards that,now repeat the centering "Without releasing the clutches."Use the hand control.

On pressing enter,hopefully it will say "Alignment Successful"

If it does your up and running.

Do "NOT RELEASE THE CLUTCHES AGAIN.as this will upset the alighnent.

Use the Hand control to centre the object.

I,ve just described how a lot of Hand controllers operate.Read your instructions as it may differ slightly.

Hope all thei helps.

Mick.

[bibbsy]

thanks mick i'll run through that again,but its pretty much how ive been doing it,first star was not even in the main scope,it was way out,so i released the clutches and moved it,locked the clutches and moved onto the second star,way out again,not even in the main scope.....AND HERE COULD BE A PROBLEM LOL,i released the clutches and moved the scope to the star,onto the third and the same again,it said "Alignment Successful" so i chose planets from the hand set and selected jupiter....coz even this half wit now knows were that is lol,scope came around but fell well short of the target.........thats when im seen standing in the middle of the lawn scratching my head.but i shall try again following you to the letter lol.

[Luke]

tfirst star was not even in the main scope,it was way out,so i released the clutches and moved it.

Ah yes, you just leave the clutches alone while you align and use the hand controller to bring the stars into view!

Also don't worry if the first star seems to be quite a bit out, my first star is usually out by quite a lot.

I have a very low power 40mm eyepiece that I use first while getting the star in view and getting it in the centre of the view, then sometimes switch to a higher power eyepiece like a 13mm and again centre the star using the controller to get the alignment more accurate.

i.e. low power to help you get the star in view with minimal hassle, get it as central as you can, then pop in a higher power eyepiece, and hopefully the star is still in view and you can then again centre it.

Once you've got all this down to a fine art, you can one day consider imaging, which has about 45,253 things that can go wrong LOL.

I'm into imaging for two years and still make mistakes, usually self-inflicted such as putting dew heaters on without pulling the dew shield out (!!) but I love it!

Best of luck for your next session.

[bibbsy]

thanks luke,i did want to learn astrophotography when i bought this gear a couple of weeks ago but after having all these problems just trying to get the goto to work i think the photography side of the hobby may well be a no no,i can see me pulling what little hair remains from my head in frustration lol.

[astro mick]

Ah Yes.

This could be your problem.You can only move the scope maually on the 1st alighnment star.After that its all done with the hand controller.

Just a point after alignment succesfull,switch back to your lowest eyepiece.That way there,s a very good chance you,ll spot your object easier,as it will proberbly be somewhere in the field of view.

You can then increase the magnification,as you want.

Bet you cant wait for a clear sky.

Regards.

Mick.