North - South

[Alienfox]

I am taking a very basic online course in Astronomy and I need to photograh Orion every week, so I have taken a few images with my camera on the tripod and there ok, but I really want a clearer photo because the earth rotation etc.

I have a Sky-Watcher 130p that I cant use for Astrophotography, however I do have a canon G12 that I can attactch to te top of the scope, my question is this, I dont have a permanat setting for my scope, it lives in my living room, so everytime I want to use it I have to set it up for facing North, works great and using my motor drive I can view stars really weel for some time, but I now need to face South, Iwas told about the equatorial flip, for some reason I cant get my scope to do it?  I'm sure it's just me, so I was wondering can I just lift the scope and turn it around and still use my motor drive as it has a north and south swith?

Thanks in advance.

Den

[Alkaid]

Den do you have the 130P with the EQ2 mount?

[Cornelius Varley]

This should help you http://www.astronomyboy.com/eq/

[Alkaid]

The easiest way I can explain it - if it's on the EQ mount - aim the mount at the north star Polaris. Then attach the 130P tube. Undo the clutches and swing the tube around to the south. You'll have the scope on one side now and the counterweight bar will stick out the other side. Do up the clutches / start motor drive. All done.

[Alienfox]

Den do you have the 130P with the EQ2 mount?

Yes I do?

[russ.will]

You'd only meridian flip on a GOTO scope which actually knows where it is. With a scope that is only driven in RA, it will keep driving until the OTA hits the mount's tripod legs.

This isn't an issue as you don't need to meridian flip. It's just a way of keeping the scope tracking for longer and doing it will just result in wasting time getting the scope back to pointing exactly where it was.

Russell