Watching a perpendicular object in sky

[shyam]

Hi

i could not watch jupiter yesterday as i was late and by 11 pm planet was on top of me exactly perpendicular. I tried best to on tripod to locate the planet but my efforts went in vain and was painstaking . I am afraid whether tripod is set properly or not. I dont know as a newbie  using a astromater 114 eq newtonian with standard tripod provided .

Thanks

[Moonshane]

Could you please add a photo of your scope set up?

[shyam]

Sure i will send it tomorrow 

[D4N]

When you view something directly to the South with an equatorial mount you may find that you can no longer track it because the scope will hit the tripod.

The solution is to perform a meridian flip, this is a flip in RA so that the scope and weights exchange sides.

If you are viewing an object near the South try to start out with the weights on the West side then you won't need to do a flip as it crosses the meridian.

[ronin]

I assume you mean an object at the zenith by the term Perpendicular.

If so that is not uncommon, it is often referred to as "The Hole". Scopemounts tend to go a bit off when you attempt, even the manual dobsonian has a bit of a problem owning the the movement that the operator has to perform.

On a refractor and SCT the preoblem is that the scope is vertical and the eyepiece is often inaccessible as it will be tucked away inside the mount itself.

I do not think there is a lot that can be done unless you alter the legs on the mount tripod so that the whole mount is angled but that throws off all the RA/Dec movement. There unfortunately positions where things just do not quite work. There is a historiv scope here that cannot view around Polaris and the polar axis, the equitorial mount that is employed makes that impossible, but it can view the zenith. So swapping one restriction for another.

[D4N]

Ah yes, I just noticed the location.  Planets can get too high at lower latitudes,this is something that planetary imagers in Northern Europe can only dream of as there is far less atmospheric distortion near the zenith.

 

I'm lucky if I get a planet over 20°.