Setting cirlces on CG-5 mount

[AlanThorpe]

Hi there,

I have just joined the forum the other day and must say it's a great source of information!  

A few weeks ago, I upgraded to a Celestron G8N 1000mm 8" Newtonian and am hoping to find much more objects in the sky.....if the clouds ever give us a break!

My other scope is a SkyWatcher 5 inch Netwonian, which has very basic setting cirlces on the EQ2 mount. The CG-5 mount seems to have a much more substantial scale, so I'm hoping to have some luck and arrive at near enough the right spot in the sky.

Just wondering if anyone has any advice on using the setting circles with this mount.

Whenever we get a clear night again, I was planning on polar aligning the scope, then find an easy target like Polaris, or one of the stars in the Plough to calibrate the setting circles.

Looking forward to hearing your views on this, thanks in advance for your help! Apologies if this has been answered somewhere else previously.

Thanks a million,
Alan

[glowjet]

I am afraid you may find the general consensus of opinion is that the setting circles on these mounts are so small as to be virtually unusable. The positions of stars and other heavenly objects is listed in degrees, minutes and seconds, both in RA and Dec, that means one small degree division on the setting circle needs to be subdivided into 60 for minutes and a further 60 for the seconds, in other words a rather difficult task. However, I seem to recall that some forum members have reported some degree of success, using the degrees to get into the area of the target and then use a good widefield eye piece. Another practice is to set the circles to a good visible object, not far from your chosen target, then add or subtract from the positional table data given, to give just a small amount of movement using the divisions on the circles, again using a widefield eye piece you can sweep slowly in declination and in all probability and a little luck, you may come across your intended subject, HTH    

[AlanThorpe]

I am afraid you may find the general consensus of opinion is that the setting circles on these mounts are so small as to be virtually unusable. The positions of stars and other heavenly objects is listed in degrees, minutes and seconds, both in RA and Dec, that means one small degree division on the setting circle needs to be subdivided into 60 for minutes and a further 60 for the seconds, in other words a rather difficult task. However, I seem to recall that some forum members have reported some degree of success, using the degrees to get into the area of the target and then use a good widefield eye piece. Another practice is to set the circles to a good visible object, not far from your chosen target, then add or subtract from the positional table data given, to give just a small amount of movement using the divisions on the circles, again using a widefield eye piece you can sweep slowly in declination and in all probability and a little luck, you may come across your intended subject, HTH    

Hi John,

Ah great, thanks a lot for your reply there. Yeah, sure it will help a to point in the very general direction of what I'm looking for, once I've aligned it accurately......looking forward to trying it out anyways. At least the scale is a lot larger than on the EQ1 that I have!! Sure it's a bit of craic anyway!

Thanks again and sure I'll let you know how I get on!

Cheers,

Alan