Installing scope on the az-eq6 mount.

[ve1drg]

I have a new az-eq6 mount and a new telescope to install on the mount.

I was wondering which way is the proper way to attached the scope to the mount?

What I mean is, that when the scope is on the mount, is it facing to the left or right when you are looking over the side of the scope - at the mounting knobs on the other side of the scope.

What I am thinking is - could it be put on backwards if mounted pointing in a particular direction?

Or does the polar mounting procedure fix that?

[Oddsocks]

It makes no difference, you can mount the telescope tube facing either way, once the star alignment is carried out then the mount software knows where the telescope is pointing.

Whatever you feel is comfortable, and if imaging, which way you want the camera cables or heater tapes to run etc...

[Cornelius Varley]

From the manual http://www.firstlightoptics.com/user/AZ_EQ6-GT_instruction_manual.pdf

"The telescope should be mounted in a way so that it is on the right-hand side of the mount

when it points forward."

[jambouk]

I asked this same question when i first got the mount. It only makes a difference if the handset has "elevation limits" set which will subsequently limit how much rotation there will be in the declination axis, i think. I have that feature now disabled.

As i said in the other post, i've found that turning off the mount after polar aligning and then turning it back on with the scope roughly in the "home position" (weight bar pointing down, telescope pointing in he direction of polaris) before doing a star alignment results in a good star alignment, as otherwise i found when it slewed to the first star it often went to some very odd locations!

James