Why |am I struggleing to see stars thro polar scope?

[Johnboy2011]

I have a 6 month old EQ6 and recently I have been struggling to see polaris. It seems to be much dimmer than before and can disappear as I adlust the alt/az bolts. I also tried with the mount off but it is almost like the view is patchy.

The scope is orientated to clear the view of the polar scope, both caps are always kept on. Has anyone else had he same?

Thanks,

John

[barkis]

You do realise you have to rotate the declination axis to reveal a hole for the polar scope to get access to the sky, and after you've removed the blank cover on top of the mount.

My apologies if you are already aware of this

Ron.

[jgs001]

John, be worth checking the polar scope during the day... see if there's any crud on the objective... that could reduce the brightness, not sure what might cause the star to vanish though...

[PunkJay]

I spent about an hour trying to figure that out last week :-/

You do realise you have to rotate the declination axis to reveal a hole for the polar scope to get access to the sky, and after you've removed the blank cover on top of the mount.

My apologies if you are already aware of this

Ron.

[Carl M]

Is the counterweight shaft fully extended? You could try and dim the polarscope illumination also which might help.

[spaceboy]

Take the polar scope out and give it a clean simplz.

[Cornelius Varley]

Whilst its out check that it is in focus.

Peter

[Johnboy2011]

Doh, counterweight bar! Just realised I have been using the ED80, much lighter than the 9.25, so I haven't had the bar extended fully to keep the weight near the mount.

Feel a bit silly now!

Thanks for the replies.

[Jessun]

I have done all of that! Plus it took me a couple of days to realize I even had a polar scope hidden under the white end cover. The manual was a French bad photo copy, and I thought they were having a laugh when it said to point this strange device to Polaris. I turned the box up side down to make sure is wasn't there!!

[Daniel-K]

i also done this when i got mine but mine had the wires from the motherboard in the way so i had to take mine apart at night in catoninas garden as he very kindly offerd to show me how to polar align