Setting up NEQ6 pro mount

[Matt Scunthorpe]

Forgetting all this brain-ache stuff, I have found that if you want to do some quick observing with minimal set up, just point the mount roughly North, swing the scope around to wherever you want to look, tighten the clutches , don't do any aligning with the handset, just use the handset to switch to Sidereal Rate tracking (it's in the manual). This will not track perfectly, but you will be able to keep the target in the eyepiece by using the direction buttons.

I find that if I want a quick session and just plonk the tripod roughly facing north, a 2 star alignment is still good enough for the mount to know 'where it is' for automatically turning to objects. You might need quite a bit of adjustment to get the desired alignment stars. Much easier if you want to look at stuff you haven't seen before and cant be arsed to manually find it. Takes 5 mins top.

Matt.

[souls33k3r]

Sounds like a winner to me coastliner. 

Might i say, lets be cowboys and do it your way Coastliner? lol i mean all what will happen is we will learn from our mistakes and that's the fun bit of this hobby.

I'm sure tomorrow night i'll be tinkering with the home position setup indoors and then do the PA when i take my kit out the day after when it's clear skies.

[Coastliner]

I'm away for the weekend, and besides, it's been wall-to-wall cloud here for bloomin' weeks. We're all having to take vitamin D tablets:-). On the basis of this thread I'm itching to get out there now.

[souls33k3r]

ha ha ha ha ... i'm glad i have given you that itch ... 

speaking of which, just seen the forecast again and it looks terrible for stargazing for me too Sunday still looks good though

[souls33k3r]

So as it happens the weather was turning out to be very clear so thought i'd go with the routine of setting the whole equipment up indoors and get familiar with it. 

Now i live at 51 degrees so set up my beast mount up to that. Next thing i took everything apart, took the mount out and what do i get, pointed roughly towards nothing and zip! I absolutely struggled doing polar alignment. I couldn't see polaris or quite honestly wasn't even sure what i was looking at even though with the naked eye i know where polaris was (roughly). I couldn't see the NCP or whatever that it through the polar scope so kept on lighting up the torch to see where it was and then frustration kicked in after an hour worth or struggle i dismantled everything back again put it all back in the box.

So disappointed with my ownself that i couldn't even do a polar alignment. Such a beautiful night to stargaze and i ended up with nothing

I know i was supposed to see "cassiopeia" through the polarscope but i couldn't. I don't know what i've done wrong HELP!!!! 

[CodnorPaul]

You won't see Cassiopeia through the polar scope but you should see Polaris. Did you twist the mount head 90 degrees to open up the whole in the tube and have you decreased polar scope brightness?

Sent from my HTC Desire 510 using Tapatalk

[souls33k3r]

Yes I did twist the mount head so that I could see the stars.

Not sure about the brightness part. Sorry I was trying to do. It without reading any instruction manuals and got the complete mount built off the YouTube video. Which went pretty well to be honest.

So here's what I did and my issues.

1) I set my mount up outside facing roughly due north.

2) I then leveled the tripod and fixed the mount on the top of it and making sure that the mount was set up to 51 degrees because that's my latitude

3) I moved the mount head so that I can see through the polar scope

4) I looked through the scope and all I could see was stars. I didn't know which one was the polaris and when I kept on looking with the naked eye I thought the scope was pointing to the rough estimates of polaris but when looking through the polar scope I didn't know what I was looking at.

5) I was unable to see that printed chat on the scope, because I wear glasses I thought I need to either put them on to see the chart on the polar scope. By putting the glasses on didn't make single bit of difference.

[Tinker1947]

I think i explained how to do the PA without the need to look through the Polar Scope, so i won't go over it again......

[souls33k3r]

Tinker, yes you have indeed mate. I came back inside and went through this thread once again.

Will be going through your way when I get clear skies next. Ta very much

[Skipper Billy]

I think I read somewhere in this thread a suggestion to use a compass to align the mount to Polaris.

I am fairly sure that Polaris is at True North rather than Compass North in which case you will have to allow for Variation or you will be up to 7º out depending where you stay.

You can find your local variation here - http://www.threelittlemaids.co.uk/magdec/index1.html

[Scott]

I have the same mount and went through most of the same problems. The first thing I'd point out and I can't stress this enough. It's not simple. some steps can be simplified but its not simple.

You've got to remember that you are trying to point a relatively thin tube at an object sometimes billions of ly away so its going to need to be set up pretty damn accurately. The mount needs to know where your home position is so it knows where to go. If your satnav didn't know you were at x co-ords, how is it going to take you to y?

Don't expect anything to work first time...if it does, it's a bonus . Watch the vids you started on youtube. everything is done for a reason and I'm guessing that the author of the vids knows more than you do .

Take your time, do it right and the results will eventually come. If it takes 2 hrs the first time then it takes two hrs. next time might onl take 1 and eventually you get it honed.

As someone has suggested, if AP is your goal, them http://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/making-every-photon-count-steve-richards.htmlis a good place to start.

Sorry if I sound harsh but at the end of the day, you are trying to take images of distant galaxies etc, not a snapshot of your partner in ibiza

Best of luck...it'll come

[souls33k3r]

Cheers auspom. Well AP comes way later. First things first, got to do some visuals and see the most I can and revisit those points in sky in different times of the year to see how they change