South facing first time set up

[knobby]

Yep, pop the mount back over so the weight points down then turn the scope back round till its pointing up/North... Does your head in doesn't it... I love my Dob

[Luna Unicorn]

I was thinking that!! haha

[Luna Unicorn]

Ive done the meridian flip. NA di took photos of each one. North- south- meridian flip south and they all look differnt -- that must be a good thing! haha

[Luna Unicorn]

now got to get it out of the meridian flip back to home north

[Luna Unicorn]

done and had a few practises going through to the three differnt postions!

[Bizibilder]

Lesson 2: (Just when you thought you had mastered it! (He He... .). In the real world in order to track an object you use the slow motion knobs (or do you have motors? You don't say).

Attach the knobs on thier flexible cables - there should be a littl "grip" screw to tighten up so thay don't keep falling off. To use them you align your mount with your chosen target by using the axis locks and then lock both axiis. You then slowly turn the knob that controls the Polar axis (confusingly called the RA or Right Ascension drive!!) to keep your chosen object in view.

A couple of things may happen: firstly every time you twiddle the knob the whole set-up will wobble about! This is normal for a heavy scope on a light mount and, whilst it will never go away, you will get better at controlling the scope with the minimum of wobble. (One good thing about motor drive is that wobble is more or less eliminated.) Secondly you may find your chosen object drifts out of view and you will need to occasionally tweak the other (Declination) slow motion knob to get it back into view. This is due to any slight error in your polar alignment. If your mount is perfectly aligned this correction will not be necesary. However for a portable mount spending hours over precision polar alignment will waste more time than the occasional tweak of the Dec axis. Polar alignment still needs to be good but you can get away with not perfect.

If you have motors then just use the locks to allow you to find your target and then switch the motor drive "on". The scope will track the object automatically - you may need to put in slight corrections using the buttons on the control box from time to time. just remember to keep an eye out for the motors trying to drive the scope into its own mount (not that anyone on this forum has ever done that... ).

[knobby]

Think you've scared her off

[Luna Unicorn]

Hey!! No sorry not scared me! I just been busy.ill give that ago!!

Although i am trying to align my findeescope but my eye piece shows the image upside down!!! Not sure why! The finder scope shows the image upside down that is correct isn't it!!

[Bizibilder]

The finder scope does have an upside down image - this is quite "normal" for refractor telescopes. In Astronomy the additional lens that would be needed to "turn the image the right way up" simply introduces more ways to degrade the image (more glass, accurately made surfaces etc), so Astronomers prefer not to use the lens and have an upside down image. It isn't a real problem as, when looking through a scope, you have no real reference as to what is "up" and "down" so it doesn't really matter. Things like binoculars and bird-watching scopes do have this extra lens and hence an image that is the right way up.

[knobby]

So how you getting on :-)