HEQ5 Pro RA index scale

[Pandora]

Hi, I am a newbie around here so please forgive me if this is a noob question... having recently acquired a used HEQ5, I am trying to learn the mysteries of polar alignment. I am confused about the RA index scale as mine appears to be different from the one shown in the HEQ5 manual, i.e. my scale reading left to right (24hr clock) is at the bottom with the scale reading right to left is at the top. Now the manual advices to use the upper scale for the northern hemisphere... as my scale is inverted to the one shown in the manual (as is the one in Astro Baby's pics) am I right in assuming I should use the lower scale (left to right) and ignore the advice in the manual? In fact the HEQ5 manual seems to be a less than successful chinese to english translation. I used Astro Baby's excellent web pages for wrestling the HEQ5 to the ground and at last seem to have an inkling of what is required... I just wanted confirmation on the RA scale I should use. Perhaps the answer is staring me in the face; RA = right ascension... 'go (left) to right' young man! Apologies if this has been covered (to death) previously. Regards, DaveH, Hampshire, UK

[Pandora]

D'oh, I just noticed I have the word 'Vacuum' posted above my profile pic! <?> I hope that's not an indication of of whats in my head... lol

[Kevdan]

Hi,

Ok so the rings are useless but what I used to do with my eq3-2 was to look on polar finder which is freely downloadable here put your co-ordinates in and it will tell you where polaris will be http://myastroimages.com/Polar_FinderScope_by_Jason_Dale/ Then I roughly set the small reticule to where polaris should be, I fyou get polaris in the centre of the circle, rotate the ra axis 360' whilst looking through the polar scope you should see polaris follow the line of the bigger circle untill it gets back to its centre, if this is the case then your aligned, sometimes I'd not even bother with putting polaris in the circle, as long as its on the line of the bigger reticule and when rotated it stays on th eline then its aligned. Hope this helps.

Kev.

[Viv]

I do exactly the same as Kev.

There is also an ipod/phone/pad app : TakAlign - does exactly the same thing ................

[Pandora]

Ok, thanks Guy's, it seems that the RA scale index is not a lot of use then. Although I do use it to set the RA @ 90' with a spirit level then zero and lock the RA to find the mount start position. I did already d/load Polar Finder by Jason Dale... great little real time prog. I will continue to use that to match up Polaris into that little 'bubble' in the orbit circle in the polar finder.

Regards, Dave

[Kevdan]

If its pureley visual work then accurate alignment isnt nessesary, so no need to be too involved.

Kev.

[Pandora]

Well, initally it is casual visual observing, but I seem to have a special webcam... a philips SPC840K ToUcam that can be used for astrophotography... pure luck when I purchased this several years ago that it had the Sony CCD sensor, certainly no foreward thinking on my part that day. So I will be trying some timed exposures with the SPC 840 then using Regstax to obtain a pic. I also have a DSLR with a 'T' adaptor; but hey, I should try walking before I run eh! lol

I am still looking for my star... apparantly a bloke called Peter knows where it is?

Dave