Regarding orientation of the scope and a question about balancing

[VigdisVZ]

Greetings SGL

After a few sessions I have some practical questions about setup and usage.

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First question:

When I visually observe with my 6" newton on my NEQ6 I sometimes find that the focususer and finder scope comes into an awkward position, and I have to loosen the OTA and twist it (while risking balance). Is there a trick to how you set your scope to avoid rotating it, or should I simply use an extra ring around the OTA to indicate where its balanced (much like Astronomy Shed shows in his setup vids).

Second question:

Is there a trick to rebalanacing when I swap from observing to imaging ie shift the balance by adding my DSLR. Should I perhaps balance twice during setup and mark the position of the OTA, or should I rebalance, then restart the mount and redo alignment?

Thirdly:

There is a trick where you offset the balance a little bit to increase stability during tracking, wich way should I tweak the balance for this?

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Thanks for reading.

Carl

[cantharis]

It helps if you have the eyepiece pointing in the direction of the balance weight arm.

[steppenwolf]

First question:

When I visually observe with my 6" newton on my NEQ6 I sometimes find that the focususer and finder scope comes into an awkward position, and I have to loosen the OTA and twist it (while risking balance). Is there a trick to how you set your scope to avoid rotating it, or should I simply use an extra ring around the OTA to indicate where its balanced (much like Astronomy Shed shows in his setup vids).

A common solution is to use an embroidery hoop in front of one the tube rings - this grips the tube but rotates against the side of the tube ring so that with the pressure from tube rings released, the tube can be rotated to a comfortable orientation without slipping. The tube rings should, of course, be re-tightened after orientation adjustment.

Second question:

Is there a trick to rebalanacing when I swap from observing to imaging ie shift the balance by adding my DSLR. Should I perhaps balance twice during setup and mark the position of the OTA, or should I rebalance, then restart the mount and redo alignment?

Marking the two balancing points with a small pieces of label material (or even masking tape) just behind the rear tube ring works well for me. Always aim for the focus tube to point at the RA axis when imaging. This gives a good balance laterally, moves the centre of gravity closer to the mount and finally gives you a known position for working out camera orientation to suit each object that you want to image.

Thirdly:

There is a trick where you offset the balance a little bit to increase stability during tracking, wich way should I tweak the balance for this?

What you want to achieve here is the RA drive under constant load. To do this, you set the balance so that the side that is 'rising' is the heavier - this could be either the counterweight side or the telescope side depending on what part of the sky you are imaging in.

[VigdisVZ]

This clears up a few things for me. Thanks guys!

[Jiggy 67]

It helps if you have the eyepiece pointing in the direction of the balance weight arm.

Agreed, I find that if you start with the eyepeice pointing down, when you move the scope to the South and the East (where I find most of my targets to be) then the eyepiece will be in a managable position, after a few attempts you will find the best position to start with but ultimately, there will always be a need to twist the tube, one of the disadvantages of a Newt

[Jiggy 67]

Forgot to say, I find the position of the finderscope even more awkward than the scope eyepeice, solved this by buying a right angled finderscope.....lifesaver!!

[VigdisVZ]

Thanks for the input, gives me something to figure out during this extremely cloudy autumn.

[Tinker1947]

I have a plastic 1 Metre (cut to length) Measuring stick came from DIY store very cheap, ordered a extra long Jubilee Clip from E-Bay this goes round the tube above the top ring, slacken the 2 Ring adjusters so you can spin the tube to get the EP at the right angle,I would balance for the imagine session, when you viewing a little bit of in-balance won't hurt, I believe the correct way for the weight balance is a tiny bit heavy on the East side, in my case the side the weights are positioned......

The telrad has another base on the other side of the tube so it to can be position in a veiwable position

[Matt Scunthorpe]

Im not sure i understand the extra ring (or the blue strip in your photo), is this so that once the ring have been slackened to bring the EP to a comfortable position, you know where the tube should sit in the rings because of the blue strip sitting next to the rings.

[Tinker1947]

Once you have balance the tube, attach the blue ring, then as you turn your tube to aligne the EP, the balance stays the same.....