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Wow......... polar alignment

Moonshane

By Moonshane
in Discussions - Mounts

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Moonshane

Moonshane

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Having just got a new to me HEQ5, I am already impressed with it's build quality and robustness, it's really heavy duty.

Little design features are very thoughtful such as the retractable counterweight bar and as I found out last night, the integrated illuminated polar scope. I was a bit frustrated the night before as I didn't know it was illuminated but did some reading and then plugged the power in .....et voila!

I checked the polar scope was collimated to the mount first by looking at a distant Mancunian tower and there was no deflection when rotating the ra 180 degrees so I was in business to align. Did this last night and tracking was then excellent at 300x for long periods with no need for any adjustment at all.

For my visual observing this is enough and it's an extremely simple process without the need to be looking at the setting circles etc. I just orientated the polar scope to what the sky showed, moved polaris into the 'diamond ring' (using the dec and azimuth bolts) and I was good to go. I should think it's now close enough to negate further adjustment for a while unless I change location.

Looking forward to trying the goto skyscan handset next!

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Guest

Guest

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Nice to read that you did not encounter any issues with the PA routine.. And I wish you lots of fun with your HEQ5 I have AZEQ5 and I am also amazed from the quality..

cheers

Martin

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Moonshane

Moonshane

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2 minutes ago, PhotoGav said:

You’ll be putting a camera on the end of your scope soon!

How dare you?! ?

Nah, I have zero interest in imaging currently but it's great to have a better mount and I think that the main advantage of goto for me will be less contortion and back ache.

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xtreemchaos

xtreemchaos

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5 minutes ago, Moonshane said:

How dare you?! ?

that's what I used to say Shane, now I muse about 40 years of images Ive missed, its a case of turning sight into matter, matter that you can keep and show others, I still do as much vis as ive allways done. glad your loving the mount. charl.

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Moonshane

Moonshane

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Never say never I suppose but I just enjoy visual so much plus there's enough wires and faffing about setting the mount up as it is, well, compared with my dobs anyway. That said, the benefits of tracking, GOTO to come and the pinpoint stars of the 120 equinox are worth the effort. I wonder if I could get my 12" f4 onto the mount in due course?

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Moonshane

Moonshane

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So last night I tried and failed due to clouds to get the goto working. That said, it kind of worked. I Never got a gap big enough to see one star at a time let alone three. The scope was broadly in the right place each time so not far off and I reckon if I can get the three star alignment actually done it will be better.

One thing I have realised after resorting to the manual this morning is that (I think) you can use the rate button to increase the speed of slew during alignment? I hope this is the case as otherwise it takes and age to move the scope to centre the star if it's a bit off.

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wookie1965

wookie1965

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48 minutes ago, Moonshane said:

So last night I tried and failed due to clouds to get the goto working. That said, it kind of worked. I Never got a gap big enough to see one star at a time let alone three. The scope was broadly in the right place each time so not far off and I reckon if I can get the three star alignment actually done it will be better.

One thing I have realised after resorting to the manual this morning is that (I think) you can use the rate button to increase the speed of slew during alignment? I hope this is the case as otherwise it takes and age to move the scope to centre the star if it's a bit off.

You can Shane and I would get A illuminated reticule eyepiece makes the mount much more accurate. Slew speed is 2 then whatever you want up to 9 and enter.

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Stu

Stu

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Good stuff Shane. How things have changed eh? I recall at one of the PSP talks years ago, you picked up an EQ mount and turned it around to point the scope at something else  ? ?

EQ mounts still have their challenges but I enjoy them too now for visual, either goto or non if i am just doing lunar/solar/planetary. I can't seem to enjoy star hopping with an EQ so Goto makes life much easier.

 

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Captain Scarlet

Captain Scarlet

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Also check for parallax with the polar scope - my AZ EQ6 polar scope had terrible parallax (and so did my AstroTrac PS too, actually).

Actually maybe don't check, as fixing it was a real pain: the objective tube, which needed to be adjusted, was extremely firmly cemented to the main housing. Why thread-lock wasn't used I have no idea. I eventually had to resort to a vice and a Stilson to unscrew it <gulp>.

Magnus

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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On 25/09/2018 at 13:11, Moonshane said:

Never say never I suppose but I just enjoy visual so much plus there's enough wires and faffing about setting the mount up as it is, well, compared with my dobs anyway. That said, the benefits of tracking, GOTO to come and the pinpoint stars of the 120 equinox are worth the effort. I wonder if I could get my 12" f4 onto the mount in due course?

I love hating the cables. The more cables I have, the more I love to hate them. Win-win!!!!

:Dlly

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Captain Scarlet

Captain Scarlet

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14 hours ago, Moonshane said:

when you say parallax do you mean check the polar scope is aligned with the mount? if so I did and it is ?

I mean when you move your eye around while looking through the PS, with parallax the crosshairs move around relative to the view (or vice versa) - properly adjusted the crosshairs should always stay in exactly the same place vis a vis the background. A polar scope is not dissimilar to a rifle scope, imagine if what the scope was "aiming" at was different depending on where the shooter's eye was! Nothing (or everything) would get hit!

Cheers, Magnus

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Stu

Stu

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6 minutes ago, Moonshane said:

I think I'd be best not even thinking about that! ? For visual and with a three star alignment I am sure I must be close enough. ?

Agreed Shane! I did not even bother accurately polar aligning the GP-DX first time I used it, after aligning it was giving pretty good results. It will be permanently setup, so I will align it 'properly' but that will still only be a fairly rudimentary look through the polar scope, will be enough for visual to hit and track targets I'm sure.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Moonshane

Moonshane

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There was a bit of a wobble when I got onto targets which I narrow down to right ascension backlash. I adjusted this out but then the motor was binding slightly. Backed it off and there's now no binding and no backlash so hopefully, will be a bit more sturdy.

I am finding that the tracking on solar is not quite as reliable on the HEQ5 cf the EQ5, although this could be that I am not putting the N leg down accurately enough or possibly that I am not selecting solar tracking rate? It could of course be variances in level of the legs too as I don't tend to worry too much at night as I have polar aligning off to a tee now - other than when I forget to rotate the weight arm!

I'll try some things out and see how I go.

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