where am i going wrong?

[Andy McK]

Lovely clear night so...

Assembled by TAL 2 on it's peir mount. aligned the mount, best guess north, tilted the mount to 52 deg (ish) and throo the finder and EP, see what I asume is Polaris, it's the only star I can see, so close to north and 53 Dec, it has to be, yes?

So I adjust the Dec and Az to put, what I think is Polaris, bang center on my 42mm EP, adjust my finder. So when i now move in the RA axis, I would asume Polaris should stay in the center of my FOV, it doesn't.

So either that is not Polaris or Im doing something else wrong

any suggestions?

[rory]

you shouldnt need to move anything id have thought to follow polaris, should apear almost stationary.

[Carbon Brush]

Is the pier on level ground?

If not you could have 50deg on the mount and 2deg on the ground.

Check the pier is vertical, measure in 2 places 90deg apart.

Preferably align the finder and scope in the day. Or at night on a known unmistakeable object, For example Jupiter. It is possible to look at different stars in the scope and finder without realising.

Rotate the tube in the rings without moving the mount. If object of interest stays centred, the scope optical and mechanical axes are coincident. They may not be if someone has moved the primary mirror.

Just a few starters...

[magic612]

Hmmm... depends. Polaris isn't exactly on the North Celestial Pole; it's off by about 1 degree. So depending on the eyepiece you are using it may in fact rotate out of the field of view.

Does the star you are looking at stay in the finderscope field? Or are you using a red dot finder?

Don't forgt it's not just putting the mount at the right latitude; the entire set up must be level as well.

[steppenwolf]

From your description, it sounds as though you are expecting Polaris to stay in the field of view of your Telescope eyepiece and finderscope? If this is what you are expecting then it won't happen - Polaris would, however, stay in the centre of the FOV of a Polarscope if you had one on your mount.

My apologies if I have misunderstood your issue.

[rory]

From your description, it sounds as though you are expecting Polaris to stay in the field of view of your Telescope eyepiece and finderscope? If this is what you are expecting then it won't happen - Polaris would, however, stay in the centre of the FOV of a Polarscope if you had one on your mount.

My apologies if I have misunderstood your issue.

yes, thats the way i read it too.

[Andy McK]

Just checked the pier, with me inclinometer showing vertical to the ground. in both vert. planes

I have thr RA "pointing up" at the North, @52 deg checked this again, on the mount and the OTA, give or take 52 deg.

I'm aiming the mount/OTA , at "home position" at the direction of Polaris, an this coincides with the assumed settings, so I adjust the Az n Dec to point the OTA at Polaris, center FOV.

When I rotate the RA 90 deg, I would have thought Polaris would still be in FOV (22mm EP) maybe not center, but still viewable?

The only thing I can assume, I cant be pointing at Polaris.....

I'll re check Stallerium...

Thanks all

[Andy McK]

Er, I think I'm lining up with HIP 7283.