Aligning ETX 70 !! Eh?

[Bart]

Is it me or is there a black art to aligning these simple scopes? Or is the second hand one I bought dodgy. It appears to be more effort than its worth.

Any help greatly appreciated, thanks.

Barry

[Daddystu]

Hi Barry,

Assuming the following;

You're polar aligning.

You've entered the correct time, date location info.

You're mounting on a tripod like the deluxe field tripod.

-Probably a few other assumptions too (like etx 70 method = same as etx 125) but i'll give it a shot.

1) Orient the tripod so that the 'north' leg is pointing north - roughly.

2) Use a spirit level to ensure that the scope is completely level.

3) Ensure telescope is in correct home position (ie roughly 180 degrees clockwise of the anti-clockwise hard stop)

4) Loosen dec clamp and tilt tube to vertical - retighten.

5) Loosen latitude adjuster and adjust to your latitude.

6) Make micro-adjustments in both previous steps to center polaris (or exact NCP)

7) Boot up autostar and do the 2 star alignment using a star close to celestial equator at right angles to the meridian then a star on the meridian but far from the celestial equator.

I think those are the steps I use.

If problems persist it may be a fault or you may need to recalibrate the motor and accurately retrain the drives assuming you havent done these steps already.

[NGC 1502]

Hi Barry, this link http://www.weasner.com/etx/techtips.html has loads of info on all the Meade ETX scopes.

Hope you find a solution.

Regards, Ed.

[Bart]

ThAnks gents

I seem to be able to get it near, it must be a levelling issue, I feel. Thanks for your help

Barry

[ronin]

Start a new location for you.

Enter your location 51.9 N (51 54), 8.5W (8 30)

Enter the time zone - not sure what Cork is as it may be on European. ??

Stick a bubble level on the base of the ETX and adjust the legs so the base is level.

Stick the bubble level in the eyepiece holder and get the tube level .

Aim the scope due North NOT magnetic North.

Select the easy align option, enter the assorted bits like time, Date, DST (= No)

If you have a 25mm eyepiece use this as with the wide field a good proportion of the universe should be in view.

Just in case someone did a reset check that it thinks it is an ETX70 not 60.

[Bart]

Thanks again

Don't remember inputting a location!! That might be it! My thanks again folks.

Barry

[ronin]

The scope will keep the last one that was used, so where did the person you bought it from live as that will be what is in the handset.

If the person did a reset all berfore sending it to you then the handset would have asked for the scope type, location, timezone, mount type (Alt/Az or Eq) and a few other things. So it sounds as if their location is the one in the handset.

Generally if you have the data more or less right then alignment is easy, the view on those is so wide that not getting the alignmnet star in view is actually difficult. Noisy little whatsits when slewing however, and they sit there sort of grumbling when they just track.

[Bart]

The scope will keep the last one that was used, so where did the person you bought it from live as that will be what is in the handset.

If the person did a reset all berfore sending it to you then the handset would have asked for the scope type, location, timezone, mount type (Alt/Az or Eq) and a few other things. So it sounds as if their location is the one in the handset.

Generally if you have the data more or less right then alignment is easy, the view on those is so wide that not getting the alignmnet star in view is actually difficult. Noisy little whatsits when slewing however, and they sit there sort of grumbling when they just track.

Ha! I was genuinely surprised by the noise! No one stated it and I never thought of it actually. You're right they just grumble tracking.

[Daddystu]

They're a beautiful piece of kit when you get them all set up right though. I had jupiter dead centre in my webcam (high mag) for nearly 2 hrs last night. All gotos were perfect too. Thats on a 9 yr old ETX125. I'm going to be sad to see it go.... its mine for another 2 hrs

[ronin]

Fairly basic and locating a star is a bit of a pain as there are very few named stars, you have to find and enter something like the SAO number. Finding the SAO number can be difficult I tend to use Wikipedia and luck.

Need it for things like PanStarrs = think PanStarrs is close to Omega Pisces for the next week and that is SAO 128513.

If you keep it and make use of it then 2 considerations:

1) You can, if happy enough, make a mains adaptor from a PP3 connector and a circular socket from Maplins - NEED TO GET THE POLARITY RIGHT - then get a 9v (adjustable) mains converter - again Maplins £14 - and use mains. Be careful as they are an odd design, they can just go round and round there is nothing inside to limit the number of rotations. They can rotate clockwise to whatever is chosen everytime. Basically they either strangles itself or pulls the power connector out. I made one and it strangled itself.

2) Astro Engineering used to make a solar filter for the EXT 70, glass and metal and screws into the front, so it is not going to fall out. Not sure of the present cost and probably have to go through SnS althoiugh try Green Witch as they do a far bit of AE items.

Strange for a short refractor but it provided one of the best views of Jupiter I have had, not any size but very clear and sharp.