Setup Equatorial mount help please

[Chris Hopson]

Good Evening all, 

                              Now do I feel silly, but I really do need some help on setting up the scope in the picture.

It is my neighbours, and they have had trouble getting to grips with it, so I thought I could help. Wrong! 

I've collimated the primary and secondary with a baader laser I used to use with my dob, but I've never used an equatorial mount, and don't want to give them incorrect advise on how to use it. 

So I don't think it has a polar scope, but could of course align the RA to north. But then what? The counter weights brush against the RA slow motion control and the telescope sort of looks upside down?

so as you've worked out by now, I haven't got a clue what I'm doing. Hahahaha. 

Can someone workout if I've assembled it correctly please and give me some advise to pass on?

Thanks

 

chris

[Lerxst2112]

SGL member Astrobaby has a quick guide on setting up an EQ mount here http://www.astro-baby.com/simplepolar/simple_polar_alignment.htm. EQ mounts seem daunting at first but if you have a go setting it up in daylight you'll soon get the hang of it. It's not that bad.

 

Hope this helps

[Chris Hopson]

Thank you Lerxst2112

[Peter Drew]

To make things a little easier, the first thing I would do would be to remove the telescope from the rings then turn the rings assembly through 180 degrees and then put the telescope back in the same direction as in the photo. This would result in both slow motion adjustment handles facing the front where they can be reached more easily. The declination movement controlled by the longer handle has a very limited rotational operation, for large movements you need to unclamp the axis to do this, reclamp afterwards and carry on with the handle. The shorter handle operates the right ascension motion which follows the movement of the object in view, this has potentially unlimited rotational operation but as you have found, in some positions the telescope clashes with the handles. Finally, make sure the telescope is well balanced on both axes, the gearing on these mounts is easy to damage. 

[Chris Hopson]

Thank you Peter, That has been very helpful!

 

Chris

[skfboiler]

If you follow that Astro Baby polar alignment guide you should be well on your way.  In addition to that here are a couple of videos by David Fuller from eyesonthesky.com that helped me with my EQ mount.  Subscribe to his channel as he has a lot of other interesting videos on astronomy.

How to Align an Equatorial mount

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plx6XXDgf2E

How to use an Equatorial mount

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7HVDKAZ6eM

 

[Chris Hopson]

Thank you skfboiler, great videos, very easy to follow.

 

Chris

[freewheeler]

I consider myself technically minded but I wouldn't have got my head around the equatorial mount without the help from this forums members. My epiphany moment came when I understood the following. The mount is based on the celestial sphere. In the celestial sphere the North (hence North Star) is the highest point. Every movement away from the North star is downhill. In the Garden the north star is,  let's say, 45 degrees up from the horizon. You RAISE the telescope to point at the star immediately overhead but the dials indicate you are LOWERING the telescope. Once I realized why this contradiction is occurring all other things fell into place... eventually. 

[Chris Hopson]

 After watching the videos and doing a bit of reading, I have a much better understanding of the equatorial mount. So I would like to thank you all for your input and

encouragement!

I have to say, I'm impressed with this little scope. Optically it performed very well on the moon, and the mount did hold the scope steady enough for steady seeing. I think the slow motion gearing is its biggest let down, but for the cost of £90 new, my neighbour did well i think. Anyway, I've  given it back to its rightful owner and gave them a quick view of the moon last night, and they looked happy.

Regards,

 

Chris