another couple of questions

[rob1]

hi im going to order my first telescope a reflector on a eq mount and want to know if i will need to buy a collimator with it or can it be collimated without one? and also will i need to get a polar scope to be able to set the eq mount up properly or can that be done without one?

once again thanks for the great advice

rob

[tibbz2]

From my knowledge a collimator is certainly going to help, but you shouldn't need a polar scope for visual observing as rough alignment is fine

[Bizibilder]

You can collimate reasonably well with something like a 35mm film canister (if you can find one these days!) - just drill a 1.5mm hole in the bottom of it and push it gently into the eyepiece holder - look through it and align in accordance with the same regime as using a "Cheshire" collimator. Final "tweaks" should be done on an out of focus star using a meduim eyepiece. Eventually you will probably need to get a Cheshire but you can manage without for now.

A polar scope is not necessary if you are using the scope visually - you can cheat here and align the mount by looking upwards through the polar scope "hole" and getting polaris in the middle of the field of view - it will be good enough for visual work.

[nameunknown]

Depends on what you want to use the scope for. If its astrophotography then some mounts you would think of buying would have a buit in polarscope

1- collimating with home made collimator: http://www.stargazing.org.uk/collimate.html. If you don't move the scope about much then you need not collimate often. Mine is on a fixed mount and I never used my collimator on it.

(a Cheshire is just as easy)

2 - polar aligment without polarscope: http://www.astro-baby.com/simplepolar/simple_polar_alignment.htm