Astromaster 130eq questions

[Jonalan34]

I just joined this site last night, I have some questions. Or seeking some advice from veteran users.

Anyone owns astromaster 130eq what does you do with Cg-3 german Equatorial Mount and tripod to put up in storage?

I have zhumell case that I got from telescopes.com or telescope.com. I do not want to risk damage the reflector with some weight bars and heavy mount in the case unless I have some more foams in the place.

What best place to learn how to use desc and asec on the mount to track the star?

When I tried use prism erected 45 degree adapter and it seem lose some lights that don't look same without adapter and when I use eyepiece without adapter it don't lose light of stars. Can it happens sometime? I got that adapter so I don't end up upside or inverted image with some eyepieces.

Thanks,

Jon

[AstroTux]

Hello and welcome to SGL.

I have the same 'scope but to a slightly different spec as it did not come with a 45° adaptor. I see from your location that you are in the USA - I'm in the UK. You will find a lot of people on this site with the same 'scope.

As far as storage is concerned I most of us tend to just put the entire scope and mount in the corner of a room so that it can be grabbed and made ready quickly for those occasional times when the British weather does not feature clouds :grin: !!

To learn how to use the EQ mount is quite straightforward. Your 'scope probably came with some instructions on how to set it up. You need to ensure the mount is polar aligned ( i.e. pointing at Polaris, the North Star ). This does not seem straight-forward for a newcomer but is quite simple and you should get the hang of it quite quickly.

Once you have done this you simply need to turn the RA slow motion cable to track an object, with an occcasional turn of the DEC slow motion cable to account for any small errors in polar alignment, You may want to consider adding a motor to the RA axis so that the 'scope will track any object for you.

The 45° adaptor is a new one on me. A lot of people try to keep the optics simple so that they get as clear a view as possible. More glass means more light is absorbed and lost from the image. Don't worry about inverted images - most of us get used to it. A trick that a lot of us use to ensure that we can see in comfort is to rotate the 'scope ( OTA ) in its rings so that the eyepiece is in a more convenient position for the object we are looking at.

Hope this helps.........

[Jonalan34]

Hello and welcome to SGL.

I have the same 'scope but to a slightly different spec as it did not come with a 45° adaptor. I see from your location that you are in the USA - I'm in the UK. You will find a lot of people on this site with the same 'scope.

As far as storage is concerned I most of us tend to just put the entire scope and mount in the corner of a room so that it can be grabbed and made ready quickly for those occasional times when the British weather does not feature clouds :grin: !!

To learn how to use the EQ mount is quite straightforward. Your 'scope probably came with some instructions on how to set it up. You need to ensure the mount is polar aligned ( i.e. pointing at Polaris, the North Star ). This does not seem straight-forward for a newcomer but is quite simple and you should get the hang of it quite quickly.

Once you have done this you simply need to turn the RA slow motion cable to track an object, with an occcasional turn of the DEC slow motion cable to account for any small errors in polar alignment, You may want to consider adding a motor to the RA axis so that the 'scope will track any object for you.

The 45° adaptor is a new one on me. A lot of people try to keep the optics simple so that they get as clear a view as possible. More glass means more light is absorbed and lost from the image. Don't worry about inverted images - most of us get used to it. A trick that a lot of us use to ensure that we can see in comfort is to rotate the 'scope ( OTA ) in its rings so that the eyepiece is in a more convenient position for the object we are looking at.

Hope this helps.........

Thanks.actually 45 degree don't come with scope, I bought it last week after saw inverted moon when I took picture of the moon.

I use case to protect my scope from dust, etc. still haven't decided on the mount and tripod. It is still sitting in live room downstairs and the scope is in case in my room while most eyepieces are in two cases.

I will be appreciate to hear more feedbacks from other too.

For the North Star, it may be difficult to do that due to location and some trees in the backyard, I was able find north star on my app star walk. I have done without align north star and still able find Jupiter and its moons. With that astromaster 130eq, I can see lot stars that aren't visible to naked eye.

Reason I need to learn how to use ra and dec when I use smaller mm eyepiece to find Jupiter or any stars.

Thanks