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setting cercles EQ5

Vince1963

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Vince1963

Vince1963

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Hi fellow SGL fans. anyone know how good the setting circles are on a EQ5?.. been watching a video on youtube by "astronomy shed" and the guy seems pretty knowledgeable and he says that the setting circles on a Eq5 are "next to useless", I am very interested in getting familiar with this method and its my understanding that if the scope is polar aligned accurately then i should be able to find any object (given the capability of my scope) in the night sky using the coordinates from say sky charts or stellarium. :)

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eddy

eddy

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LOL VINCE! LOL

Sorry that was meant to be "Nothing BUT success with them"

I find them really EASY to use and pretty accurate if you take your time with them and make sure you're using them right!

LOL Sorry!

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Islander

Islander

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I'd say they're pretty useless other than as a rough guide - the dec circle on my EQ5 isn't fixed and can be rotated by hand quite easily and I'd assume that it's the same with others so you've no guarantee of it being correctly set. They're also far too small to get the level of accuracy that's really needed.

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eddy

eddy

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Like i said ive had no real issue with them at all and have all been pretty close using my scope and a little bit of nouse.

I set them up on a known star usually Betelgeuse as its easy to find lol, set the dec/RA circles to its known co-ordinates and then away i go onto my next target, once there, lock up the RA circle and observe/image do what ever you want, then when you're ready to move, unlock the RA circle and move on to your next target.

How it can a) be difficult or :) not very accurate to a point of getting lost is beyond me lol

They get me to within viewing range on a low powered eyepiece, which for me is good enough, i can then cross reference the surrounding stars with Stellarium and fine tune it up from there.

I think classing them as "useless" isnt quite right, since im sure a lot of people (including myself) use them everytime and dont have a problem AT ALL with them.

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Vince1963

Vince1963

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Hi Alexxx, thanks for your input, I guess its looking like is ok for rough alignment but not so accurate for anything else, as Islander says they're a bit sloppy. for polar alignment i will be using the polar scope in the mount, lets hope this works better lol. Vince

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eddy

eddy

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Hey Vince, yeah the DEC circle does rotate, if you rotate it, but moving with the scope they tight enough to follow the mount so once they are setup (1sec job) they're good for the evening, just a case of checking the DEC circle before every session.

But yeah, if yours are moving all the time, and dont 'bite' to the mount then id look @ trying to tighten it a little, how you'd go around doing this, i have no idea...apparently the DEC circle SHOULD be set at the factory and not move at all, but hey ho, its not the end of the world :)

To me, that isnt a problem, but if they move freely without touching them and wont rotate with the mount, that could be an issue and would need sorting on the DEC axis

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Kedvenc

Kedvenc

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On mine the dec circle does not move but has not been factory set. This is adjustable but needs some fiddling. The RA cirlce does seem to be very sloppy and if I move the scope around at a normal 'pace' it will slip a lot. Once I realised how much the RA circle slipped I decided it was not even worth bothering with. Not very helpful I know but on my next clear night I think I'll give it a go using them but I don't hold out much hope of them being much use.

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eddy

eddy

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How do you mean the 'RA Circles Slip'? When you slew the scope to a new target? Could be worth trying to move the scope at a slower pace, ive found that out to, moving too fast and they do slip somewhat, so move it slower and they'll be just fine :)

Patience is a virtue and all that! :)

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Viv

Viv

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TBH - I don't bother with the circles either - yet ....

Search Polar Align.

It's a bit of software, that will tell you where polaris should be.

Look through the reticle, put the polar marker, in the same spot, then put polaris in that spot.

if that makes sense .......................

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  • 3 weeks later...
Nurse Roberts

Nurse Roberts

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definatly not usless, but also definatly not accurate. as stated earlier, they will get you to within a couple of degrees of your object, which is within the range of my finder scope, then it really is a case of fine tuning. but that isnt neccesary a bad thing. teaches you patience and the reward for locating something is so worth it.

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Cypher

Cypher

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Once I realised how much the RA circle slipped I decided it was not even worth bothering with.

I think mine is the same, it just sticks and doesn't always rotate as you move the axis. When I try to lock the setting circle it seems to jam up the RA axis in places.

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