Advice for a total beginner?

[Malio94]

Hi guys, I'm a total beginner at astronomy and I'm just wondering if you guys have any good tips/tricks for getting better. I just recently got my first telescope. It's a 130mm reflector on an equitorial mount. Right now I'm having a lot of trouble using my scope. My main problem is finding objects. I find that once I find an object I want to look at I have a lot of trouble locking my mount down without it moving all over the place. My other problem is I haven't managed to get my motordrive to work properly. Does my ascension knob need to be unlocked for it to work? Basically I just suck at using my telescope and I was hoping you guys could give me some help, or point me to some good resources.

Thanks, Malcolm

[Sandraj]

Hi Malcolm and welcome, I can't help you as I have a Dob and know nothing about mounts etc, however, there are loads of great helpful people on here who will be along shortly to help you out, give it 24 hours for most members to log in after waking/work etc and I am sure you will have some good advice and help.

[baggywrinkle]

What scope do you have, always good to provide as much info as possible when asking for help.

Check out You Tube, you'd be surprised at how much is on there on setting up.

[PeterCPC]

You need to give more detail about your scope and mount for people here to be able to offer suggestions. +1 for You Tube.

Peter

[brantuk]

Hi Malcolm and welcome to SGL.

Did you attach the little spring under the motor to the mount? They're a pain to get on but once it's there the motor will work. When you move the lever on the side with a cam underneath it pushes against the spring and engages with the axis cog. Push it the other way to disengage.

Once you have your mount roughly polar aligned (using the altitude and azimuth screws) then you control the scope using only the RA and Dec clutches. It's counter intuitive but with practise you'll be able to point anywhere in the sky. Then engage the motor and it will track the object for you.

The clutches don't have to be tight - just tight enough so the scope can move on it's clutches without falling all over the place. "Firm" is the word I'd use rather than "tight". Tighten the clutches to track and loosen them off and disengage the motor to manually slew to an object. Hope that helps

[valleyman]

Download Stellerium , which is a brilliant bit of software(Free) for your skymap.

If you are running motors on the mount then the clutches need to be locked.

It can take a long time to get used to finding objects, You will only do with experience.

Just ask a question here and you will get lots of help.

Pat

[zillah]

Welcome to the group Malio94. I dare say you'll be flooded with offers of help by others. The only advice I can offer (as a fellow newbie), is to get one if the smart phone star map apps, the freebie ones are pretty good as a starting point for if your after something in particular, or in cases of 'oh, what's that?'

[Malio94]

Hi Malcolm and welcome to SGL.

Did you attach the little spring under the motor to the mount? They're a pain to get on but once it's there the motor will work. When you move the lever on the side with a cam underneath it pushes against the spring and engages with the axis cog. Push it the other way to disengage.

Once you have your mount roughly polar aligned (using the altitude and azimuth screws) then you control the scope using only the RA and Dec clutches. It's counter intuitive but with practise you'll be able to point anywhere in the sky. Then engage the motor and it will track the object for you.

The clutches don't have to be tight - just tight enough so the scope can move on it's clutches without falling all over the place. "Firm" is the word I'd use rather than "tight". Tighten the clutches to track and loosen them off and disengage the motor to manually slew to an object. Hope that helps

Ok ya I did manage to lock the motor in properly, I know you have to align a little screw with a flat part of the motor drive rod, but for whatever reason after I lock it down it doesn't seem to follow objects properly. But thanks for the tip on the clutches, I assumed that when moving the scope around the clutches should be fully unlocked. Now that I know that they don't have to be, that helps out quite a lot.

[Malio94]

What scope do you have, always good to provide as much info as possible when asking for help.

Check out You Tube, you'd be surprised at how much is on there on setting up.

Ok sorry my exact setup is as follows.

Telescope: Celestron Astromaster 130EQ-MD

(came with an equitorial mount and motordrive.)

Accessories:

20mm & 40mm Eyepieces

2x barlow

Camera:

Canon T5i (700D)

I only mention the camera because the whole reason I bought a telescope was for astrophotography.

[PeterCPC]

I don't know that set up but I'm sure that someone will be able to help you. Just a thought though, if it's not tracking properly it could just be a balance issue - have you balanced it all according to the manual?

Peter

[David_Pickles]

Hi Malcolm, Try looking up your local astronomy group and going along to one of their meetings - there will be plenty of friendly people there who will happily get you started. Mine regularly holds advice clinics where people can bring along their scope for help sorting out one problem or another.

Regards,

David