Polar Aligning

[Celestron_130EQ]

Hi,

you may have seen my earlier post about my CG-3 mount and if not then i shall bring you up to speed. Firstly i am having tremendous trouble Polar Aligning. when i look at Polaris with my naked eye i can see it perfect. But when i look through my scope all i see is a few stars and cannot see if Polaris is there or not because i don't know how to identify it. So i thought i had find it and tried to look for another star using the setting circles, Dubhe to be precise but i was no where near it. So what am i doing wrong. Any advice is appreciated.

P.S - had a look at Jupiter and saw 2 red bands and 2 moons which i am pleased as Jupiter is low and my 5 inch reflector is not the biggest in the world.

[Sam]

How far have you got with setting the mount up? Did you line up North and set the latitude? Sorry for the question but it's just to ascertain how far you've got.

[Whippy]

What you have to remember that when you're doing polar alignment, you are aligning the mount, not the scope. For visual observing, all you need to do it get it close to Polaris and you'll be good to go.

Tony..

[Celestron_130EQ]

So Whippy you mean you got to point your mount towards Polaris and your scope where exactly?

[barkis]

It does not matter where the scope is. As Tony said, the axis of your mount has to be lined up with the Celestial pole, which for ease, can be Polaris if you are content with just observing. If you want to do long exposure Imaging, then a more accurate alignment has to be done.

Ron.

[Celestron_130EQ]

But when the scope was facing north and i used the R.A and Dec of Dubhe in Ursa Major it was in the wrong place. Am i doing anything wrong? :scratch: :?

[barkis]

Here is an image of what I believe is your telescope.

The red line goes through the polar axis of your mount. This part has to point as near to polaris as you can get it. Once you have done that. the declination and RA rotational axis, will allow you to point the telescope wherever you want to. Don't pay any attention to the setting circles, they are probably too small to be of any practical use to you.

Ron.

(click to enlarge)

[barkis]

You can disengage the slow motion controls, to allow you to quickly move the scope to face south or wherever you want. Re engage them when you wish to track your target .

Ron.

[ash]

.....and don't move the tripod :nono: just move the scope around it's RA + DEC axis and be prepared to find yourself in some odd places

Andy

[Celestron_130EQ]

But if i were to use the Setting Circles would i be anywhere near the object i am trying to find or are setting circles only good on expensive models?

[barkis]

The circles are usable, but their graduations are very small, and you will have difficulty moving from one object to another, because you need to look for the coordinates in a book or chart, and since your scope has no drive, the object you were looking at prior to the one you want to too find next, will have moved out of view.

Setting circles are fine, but they work better if the are on a driven scope, and they are at least 6" in diameter. Believe me, they will cause you lots of frustration. You will be happier learning how to star hop to find objects. It takes time, but soon you will become very familiar with the sky, and it will then be easy for you. You have to stick at it though, don't give up when things get a bit tough for you. Fortitude and stickability is the key to success. You will soon be the whizz kid of the stars, able to find unseen objects at will. Don't be tempted to use high power eyepieces unless you are looking at a bright planet or the moon. Magnification won't change a stars appearance, unless it is a double star, in which case a higher magnification will help.

Ron.

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

Just so that you know, you have to calibrate the upsetting circle on the RA axis (the one that Ron's red line goes through) every time to cope with the fact that the stars appear to travel across the sky. Aim at something that you know the RA of, move the setting circle to show the correct reading and you're done.

Kaptain Klevtsov

[Celestron_130EQ]

What do you mean by Star Hopping? and my 4mm eyepiece arrived this morning which i will (hopefully!) use for lunar and planetary observation.

[Celestron_130EQ]

"..you have to calibrate the upsetting circle on the RA axis"

What do you mean?

[Kaptain Klevtsov]

The setting circle can (has to) be rotated to suit the local time as you have to take account of the fact that the stars seem to track across the sky during the night, just as the sun does during the day. If you point your teelscope such that its pointing at a star, then without driving the mount it will not be pointing at the star after an hour because the star will have moved. The setting circle will still read the same however as the mount hasn't moved. Each time you set up you will have to point your 'scope at a star with a known RA. Then you adjust your setting circle so that the reading is correct. Moving the 'scope after that will give you true readings from the setting circle. The Dec. one doesn't need any adjustment BTW.

Upsetting circle was my feeble attempt at humour as these things are very good at getting people frustrated.

Kaptain klevtsov

[barkis]

Keep the 4mm for observing the moon and the bright planets. The field of view using that eyepiece will be quite narrow, and if you stay slightly away from the moon, the surrounding brightness will help you back on target. The bright planets the same, but not so much brightness to help. Get used to the working and use of the scope using low powers. Once you are familiar with how you need to move the telescope to target objects, then you can increase magnifications, but not too much, unless of course you are on the moon.

Star hopping is a great way to find invisible objects. You need a book, or star chart.

A great starter book is "Turn Left at Orion", you must have seen it mentioned on here a few times.

You learn to Identify the stars in a constellation, and by doing so, you can locate any deep sky object in the vicinity. Again, it takes a lot of practice, but soon it will all fall into place for you.

You must persevere though.

Ron.

[Celestron_130EQ]

I bought the Phillips Astrobox which contains a Star Finder, Star Chart and a book about Stargazing with telescopes. Its very good and i use it to find constellations and stars. Anyway using the Star Hopping Method do you need to use a Alt/Azimuth mount or just manually operate the equatorial mount. Does this mean that the equatorial mount was a waste of money?

[Jeff RV]

No not at all, the idea of any EQ mount is once aligned, you only have to turn one knob or have one motor driving in AZ to keep in alignment with your target.

Jeff.

[Foo Fita]

I had the same frustrations when I started a few months ago. This website helped me understand it more. http://www.themcdonalds.net/richard/astro/writings/setupEqPolar.shtml

FF

[Celestron_130EQ]

Great Website it helped me understand it more. So what everyone saying is that i have to align my mount not my scope and to use the R.A and Dec i need to find another bright star and then use them?