beginer in need of help

[arnie30uk]

Hi all, i have some advice i would like to ask and would appreciate any help you guys could provide.

First of all here is my equipment: skywatcher 200p eq5 goto, dfk21aus camera.

Now here is the problem, and i really appreciate its asking a lot here but here goes.

I really am quite new to astronomy and i am keen to learn, and understand i have quite a lot of learning ahead of me. My main concearn though is that

im having trouble understanding how to polar align my scope, and am getting confused about park positions, i,e: how do i set the park position? is setting the park position smething thar needs doing before i polar align? and am i to assume my synscan will not be able to do accurate star alignment untill all the previous has been set up correctly first? i appreciate this is a lot of info to ask of you all and to be fair i should have probably started off with a less complicated scope for a beginner, but my main aim is astrophotography and understand that a properly aligned scope is best for this. Although i have acheived some ok (ish) shots by manually finding planets i would love to be able to do things properly. I very much apreciate you all taking the time to read all this and for any help you can provide. many thanks.

p.s heres my first attempt at a pic of jupiter. need to work on getting the colour right lol

http://img690.imageshack.us/img690/2503/0vpk.jpg

[itmo]

I think all scopes work so that you tell them to park, then you dont touch the scope and when you power up again, it doesnt need to be aligned. But If you move it, you need to align it again. Polar alignment is quite simple if you have a polar scope. Drift aligning is more accurate though. 

[itmo]

and you dont have to setup the park position before using the scope. You need to have a rudimentary polar alignment and then align the goto. 

[Astro Imp]

Have a look at the "how to videos" at Astronomy Shed:- http://www.astronomyshed.co.uk/

HTH and good luck.

[arnie30uk]

Hi all, thanks for your input and thanks for the link astro imp i'll check them out now. many thanks again