EQ setup, some pointers

[wimvb]

Just thought I'd share my newbie experience with other newcomers.

I bought my first (and so far only) scope some two years ago.

The scope (Skywatcher Explorer 150 on EQ3-2 mount) came with manual, which did help some, but not quite enough.

First experience

Align the finder scope with the main scope. Couldn't be done. Whatever I tried, the finder just wouldn't align right. What the manual doesn't tell you is that to be able to align the finder, you first have to make sure that the scope is collimated. Mine wasn't.

First Item on wishlist: laser collimator.

Nowadays I check collimation every time I use my scope. And nowadays, when a star is centered in my finder scope, it's dead center in the main scope.

Second experience

Aligning the polar scope. Fixed this with some help from among others, Astro Baby: http://www.astro-baby.com/HEQ5/HEQ5-1.htm

Third experience

There's sooo much to align, it gets confusing.

So here's some help, a sketch I made with all the alignments I know of so far. (There may be more, I just haven't figured them out yet.)

Alignment 1: Polar scope reticule needs (gray in picture) needs to be aligned with RA axis

Alignment 2: secondary mirror (red) needs to be aligned such that light from a laser collimator inserted in the eyepiece holder, Points at the center of the primary mirror (yellow). This is collimation step 1.

Alignment 3: primary mirror (yellow) needs to be aligned with the optical tube (light blue); this is collimation step 2.

Alignment 4: finder scope (purple) can now be aligned with main scope

Alignment 5: optical tube needs to be aligned with RA axis (cone error correction). For this there are usually set screws on the dovetail bar below the main scope (green)

Alignment 6: RA axis needs to be aligned with Polaris = polar alignment

Alignments 1 and 5 only need to be done once

Alignments 2, 3 and 4 are relatively easy to do (if you have a collimator).

Just my € 0.02

Wim

(there is a clear sky tonight, but I have a cold   )

[des anderson]

NICE ONE....Its trial and error,you seem to have most of it sorted.Hope the cold gets better.Des

[laudropb]

Very nice informative post.