HEQ5 clock

[Sirius Bizness]

Can someone definitively tell me if it is the top or bottom clock I should be using on my my HEQ5? I seem to find conflicting views. Did it change?

Also on the SynScan handset are we BST 'yes' (24/07/12) right now?

An accurate Polar alignment is really starting to frustrate me!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Photosbykev]

Enter the correct time and say yes to daylight saving. Yes we are in BST

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk. Blame Apple for the typos and me for the content

[Astro_Baby]

There are two clock positions on the handset. One is clock position and indicates where polaris is on the face of a clock. Ie if the clock posn says 1500 then polaris is where the 3 o clok position is on a clock face. If it says its at 1530 then polaris is halfway between the three and the four on a clock face.

The other time given is hour angle which is the time since polaris last transited....you can use this in conjunction with the ra scal on the mount to establish the propr posn for polaris. Heres how.....rotare the RA until the polaris marker in the polarscope is at the 12 o clock posn. Lock the ra temporarily. Now loosen the ra scale lock and rotate the ra scale until OO is showing under the index marker. Polaris , on your mount, is now at transit and the scale is ading O hours. Lets say the Hour angle on the handset is given as 4 hours, its now been 4 hours since polaris transited. So unlock the ra axis and rotate the ra acis until 0400 is showing under the index mark on the ra scale....loack the ra axis again. What you have done is rotate the mount to 4 hours past transit....clever eh......you need to make sure you have the right scale. The upper one is northern hemisphere from memory.

This is quite a simple method but it has its drawbacks. The eq6 scales usually woek quite well but the HEq5 scales often stick messing up the process.

Hope thats some help

[Steve Ward]

The top "Time" shows the next time Polaris will be at the highest point of its Circular motion .

The bottom Time shows where Polaris needs to be as viewed thru Polar scope imagining it as a clock face .

put the small circle in that position and then adjust mount to put Polaris in the small circle.

Astrobaby beat me to it , and words it much better.

[Sirius Bizness]

Thanks Astro Baby and Steve.

I was putting the Polaris circle at 6 o clock to start so that is where I may have been going wrong.

Yes the HEQ5 clock slips unless I am really careful.