EQ5 Mount slipping.

[Nikonman]

I am noticing that when aligning my Skywatcher 200 pds that ever so slowly things move in the eyepiece, or if it's a higher magnification disappear completely. I thought I had everything balanced but am struggling to think of any other cause. All comments gratefully received. 

I align with everything unlocked and then lock the head and twiddle the knobs to fine tune (sorry but that's as technical as I get).

[Steve Ward]

Sounds like you need to get Polar Alignment sorted first before anything else.

[ronin]

Sounds like it is simply the rotation of this planet we are sat on.

Unless you have motors and have aligned the mount then things will drift out of view. - 0.25 degrees every minute. If yoiu had a magnification of about 100x then it is about 1 minute to drift from centre to edge. Then it falls off.

[Nikonman]

I'm sure you are correct-I admit it I'm stupid. Thanks for your help.

[RichM63]

Nah, you are not stupid, simply frustrated and looking for help.

Properly aligned but with no motors, Jupiter for example will drift accross a high power 6mm EP as you watch it, idem the moon.

If you don't have motors, you need to keep a hand on the RA screw at the least.

To keep the view for longer, you could use a low power EP.

Cheers,

Rich

[Dave_D]

lack of knowledge does not equal stupid the comment above by Rich sounds the most likely cause though. 

[Nikonman]

Thanks for the kind words. It has certainly been more noticeable with a 5mm eyepiece.

[Steve Ward]

Sorry , I didn't realise you had no motors ... 

[Nikonman]

No problem, that is the upgrade when funds permit. Thanks for trying to help.

[brantuk]

With a 5mm eyepiece in a 1000mm scope you're viewing at 200x magnification. Objects will drift across the eyepiece pretty rapidly when magnified that much. Try dropping it down to an 8mm giving 150x mag and the drift will be a lot slower. It'll give you a better chance at finding narrower objects too.

I usually find stuff using 20-25mm eyepieces, then once the object is central I'll pop a shorter eyepiece in and recenter, then  repeat until I find a useable magnification. Bear in mind some objects will only need 30x to 50x magnification.

Concentrate on polar alignment too. The more accurate you get it, the less you'll need to use the Dec control, and you'll find yourself only using RA to track.

[Nikonman]

Yes that makes perfect sense, thank you I'll certainly be following your advice.