Home position

[CedricTheBrave]

This may sound silly but when I try to auto align it is miles off!

so can someone confirm to me where home position actually is as I was thinking it was pointing towards Polaris but now I think it may be 90 degrees to that so the Polar finding can see Polaris!

so much to learn even the basics are confusing

[Stephen]

Yes I think you have it 90 degrees off - the mount should be set up so the polar scope (the RA axis) is pointing at Polaris - the telescope then also points in this direction

[Jiggy 67]

Follow the link for a tutorial on the perfect home position. I'm sending from an iPhone so if it doesn't work then cut and paste

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Cornelius Varley]

the home position is counterweight straight down and the telescope pointing at the north celestial pole (not Polaris). To improve the accuracy do a 1 sar alignment from the home position and then park the telescope and switch off. Release the clutches and set the mount back to the home position. switch on again and the star alignments should be closer.

[CedricTheBrave]

how much should you have to adjust the position of the scope when it goes to the first star?

[cotterless45]

As a visual observer it's been from ten degrees to nearly centre. Some nights it's spectacularly accurate others I go back to Setup and do another 2 star align. So long as I get useable accuracy and tracking it's ok,

Nick.

[CedricTheBrave]

think I may have spotted my school boy error! long lat not lat long

[baggywrinkle]

One thing with the Skywatcher EQ5 mount is that to look though the polar scope the RA head is at 90 Deg to the mount. Park position is as discussed above, weights poiting down and the RA pointing north, but that does cover the polar scope so you cannot use that anymore.

I also have an iOptron mount and that does expose the polar scope to north in the park position.

[CedricTheBrave]

All fixed now thanks for the input I do feel quite stupid