I am mind boggled!!! lol

[tingting44]

Howdy Ho guys and gals

not really a question just thought id share my thoughts lol......

I sold my 1st ever mount that i have owned last week which was SW's AZ GOTO (i kept my SW 130p), today i took delivery of my new (to me) EQ5 with polar scope and dual axis motors....ever since i was thinking about getting rid of my AZ mount maybe a month of two ago i have been non stop reading and wathcing video's (work and child permitting lol), but none of that has prepared me which i found out today! lol, im so mind boggled i remember feeling like this when i 1st got my SW130p with the AZ mount (i didnt know what way the scope went, where the EP went, just totaly overwhelmed).... now i thought i had prepared myself for the EQ but i dont think so lol, im soooo confused,  the main things im frazzled about is.....everything, and i mean everything! lol im not going to pressure my brain too much tho tonight, its sat in the corner of the living room with my 130p on and thats good enough for tonight lol, needless to say the mrs is not happy with the extra size upgrade lol but hey ho.....

But on a serious note i cant figure out the date/time wheel on the polar scope at all! and its soo weird to point at an object as with my AZ mount i use to go left/right/up/down to get to the object....now i can only rotate and move up/down, i feel like i want to pick up the mount and turn it round lol

im sure it will all come to me when i actually get out under the stars a few times, but right now feel overwhelmed...

i know it was the right decision to move to an EQ as i want to go further in my DSO imaging, so just got to tell me brain that now lol

all the best

Martin

[swag72]

If you want to do AP Martin then the EQ mount is a natural choice.

If it's any consolation, my mount and scope sat in a shed, boxed and unopened for 10 months as I was just too scared and confused to try to get it setup. Nothing made sense!!! You'll get there, don't worry!!!

[tingting44]

If you want to do AP Martin then the EQ mount is a natural choice.

If it's any consolation, my mount and scope sat in a shed, boxed and unopened for 10 months as I was just too scared and confused to try to get it setup. Nothing made sense!!! You'll get there, don't worry!!!

that does make me feel better lol (sorry)... thanks pal, cant wait to get first light.......well not really first light.....well yes it will be first light for the polar scope haha but you know what i mean, only going to get the chance to try this saturday (with work) and i bet its going to be cloudy i am excited tho to harness the beast as in EQ loool

[Alien 13]

Dont worry all will become clear just break the tasks into managable chunks most of which can be done indoors in the daytime.

If its a standard manual button button pressing motor control system then download "polar finder" it makes setting up polar alignment so much easier to understand and do.

And welcome to the world of imaging.

Alan

[lonebod]

Take a look on YouTube. There are videos on there to help with things like the polar alignment etc. Hope they help.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

[LouisJB]

+1 for online videos, I think I understood the polarscope and initial setup from a youtube video. Best thing is to get a sense of it and set it all up during the day. Including calibrating the polarscope. Then when you go out, you can see if the polarscope is in the right position (after rotating time to date on the circles) by looking at the star patterns for the Big Dipper, they should correspond to the angle of the constellation in the sky at the time.

I actually cheated, I set it all up then verified it using Stellarium, by picking some arbitrary date and time and checking the polarscope and Stellarium on that day and time agreed. I was able to do this in the day with a coffee to hand and it gave me confidence it would be right when fumbling around in the dark.

Good luck, you'll get it. Once you get the celestial coordinate system (declination and right-ascension) and how the sky moves over the night and over the days of the year, you'll basically be home and dry

[ronl]

This is what you need to watch

[tingting44]

sorry for long delay, thanks guys for all the comments, i do remember with my AZ scope it probably took a couple months to get use to it, then it became 2nd nature to setup, guess i just have to get use to the EQ and get enough hours in when cloud permit

[ramstar]

If you want to do AP Martin then the EQ mount is a natural choice.

If it's any consolation, my mount and scope sat in a shed, boxed and unopened for 10 months as I was just too scared and confused to try to get it setup. Nothing made sense!!! You'll get there, don't worry!!!

Well that's a relief -I thought it was just me! My first ever EQ mount which I've had since last Sept has only within the last week made it from the garage to the lounge. I have followed Astronomysheds' setup guide up to the point where I'm in the 'home' position but haven't summoned up the courage to go further!

What's making it worse is the fact that there's a (new to me) APO 100ED Evostar Pro in the garage waiting for something to sit on.