starwatcher 200p eq5

[WenD]

hello

i have just taken delivery of my eq5 reflector telescope OMG what a beast and i wonder if i have made a mistake, i bought it as a first go at astronomy and specifically so i could attach my slr camera when i become more confident...but i am struggling to put the thing together properly, i have spent ages levelling it (by watching a u tube video !)

But I am struggling to get anything aligned the manual is just so confusing i honestly feel out of my depth already

i managed in the finderscope to get jupiter in the cross hairs then looked through the finder and nothing .......forgive my stupidity but what am i doing wrong, i did at one point think i had jupiter and what looks like three moons below it and one above but it lasted seconds i blinked and it had gone.

what am i doing wrong i think i need a one to one tutorial or an idiots guide to setting up an eq5 .....

[Velvet]

I would suggest you look on you tube there are a lot of how to guides on there. Or find your local club and they will help. This is the set up i had for my first too. its very good for visual

but a little difficult for astrophotography through the scope. The weight limit on the mount is taken up mainly by the OTA, finder etc. Adding DSLR puts it right on the edge.

It is possible but not easy as balance etc needs to be perfect.

I now have this set up for visual and an NEQ6 mount for AP. You can mount a DSLR directly onto the mount without the OTA and image with a decent lens on the camera.

Velvet

[nephilim]

This vid will show u how to polar align an EQ mount BUT dont worry to much about that to start with, u only need to be aligned'ish' wen observing, exact pa is needed for AP, as for jupiter flying away, it wont stay in the field of view very long, try & use your lowest mag ep (25mm or there abouts) as fow the finderscope alignment, its almost impossible at night especially if you've never used one b4. Your best bet is to do it in the daytime with something like a streetlight at around a mile away, it'll be alot easier to do. A 200p for a newbie isnt going to be easy but its not impossible, it'll just take practise, persevere & you'll be glad you got it. BTW i'm taking delivery of the same setup as you on Friday (although i'v been using a smaller EQ mount for a while now) Good luck.Steve

[Brentmeister77]

Hello, I'm new to this as well! I spent hours watching videos and reading before I ordered my scope so I had some idea of how to work it. The eq5 manuals are notoriously difficult to understand. Try reading astro baby's guides ( google search) and astronomy shed's videos on youtube. I found them really helpful.

With the finder scope I set it up during the day. I got a distant house arial in the crosshairs then looked into the 25mm eyepiece then tweaked the scope and finder scope until both lined up.

Targets do move across the fov quickly with increased magnification. I just keep nudging ra and dec knobs to keep the target centred. This probably isn't the right way to do things but I am new to all this and its a massive learning curve so I just want to master the basics. It's all a bit daunting!!

Phil

[Lordanum]

I too have just bought a 200P on an EQ5, been plagued by cloud but hey ho! Some good vids on youtube for setting up so try there, i have had probs with the finder scope alignment. A couple of nights ago i locked on to jupiter and ..........WOW i was like a kid, i saw some surface detail and surface rings wow and all the stars, i was totally in awe. I used a 32mm camera projector eyepiece to hunt then banged a barlows 2x in and bob's your aunty! Incidentally i did a rough polar alignment using the ipad app sky walk for direction. Good luck!

[Astro Imp]

For basic visual use the first thing is to get the finder scope lined up, as Phil says above do it during the day, do this as carefully as you can, you will find it very difficult without. As for polar aligning, set the altitude scale to your longitude (about 52ish where you are but check on Google maps) and point the north marked tripod leg to north (use a compass). This will give you very rough Polar alignment but should do to get you started.

[WenD]

many thanks all of you replying so quickly, I will try and follow all your tips and get back to you with how I get on