New to NEQ 6R

[Jonathan B]

Poor initial Go-To. Polaris alignment- I can rotate RA axis and it stays on the engraved circle, which is itself aligned.

Do  I have to rotate the RA so that Polaris is at the correct hour position at the start of each session, which then will not be the "home" position previously set?

[RolandKol]

33 minutes ago, Jonathan B said:

Poor initial Go-To. Polaris alignment- I can rotate RA axis and it stays on the engraved circle, which is itself aligned.

Do  I have to rotate the RA so that Polaris is at the correct hour position at the start of each session, which then will not be the "home" position previously set?

You should repeat, - Only if you move the mount, so once done, - do not touch and don't waste your time, unless you will feel something is really wrong going on (for example, tripod legs went into the ground deeper after the rain and etc).
And if you use it for visual, - not have to be very precise.

Even with a very good polar alignment the mount will miss the initial star during 3 or 2 star alignment procedure.. By a bit, but will miss, - it will not be spot on in the center.

Once you do 3 star alignment correctly it will be quite precise, but other variables may effect, - like leveling, balancing, also the type of the scope and the eyepiece... (the larger Focal length of the scope, the smaller eyepiece, - and all mistakes will be multiplied).

[Luna-tic]

On ‎06‎/‎02‎/‎2019 at 06:09, Jonathan B said:

Poor initial Go-To. Polaris alignment- I can rotate RA axis and it stays on the engraved circle, which is itself aligned.

Do  I have to rotate the RA so that Polaris is at the correct hour position at the start of each session, which then will not be the "home" position previously set?

1-Level the tripod, then attach the mount, balance scope and attachments, input necessary time and location data, as for any session. Place telescope in Home position. 

2-The HC will tell you the clock designation for Polaris. Don't worry if the time marks on the ring are upside down or at some angle; adjust the altitude and azimuth screws to place Polaris in the clock position indicated, assuming the top of the polar scope view is 12 o'clock. This will adjust the axes to the proper angle. The HC will also tell you your Alt-Az error once the polar alignment is done, so you can improve it if you want. I leave mine as -is, generally and am usually within 4-5 minutes of arc accuracy. Then I do a 3 star alignment. My go-to's usually have a star within the FOV of a 20mm EP.

I assume the NEQ6R is same/similar to the EQ6R-Pro that I have. It sounds like the PS reticle is the same

[Jonathan B]

Thanks for that.I see that  many folk say that 2 star works better than 3 star alignment but I'll try with 3. Here's hoping!

 

How crucial is levelling the mount?

[RolandKol]

1 hour ago, Jonathan B said:

How crucial is levelling the mount?

For visual, - it is OK to have more or less horizontal
Jut keep in mind, if you do all steps somewhere around good, - final result may be completely bad... mistakes tend to sum up...

Leveling is not a very difficult task, I would not skip it... just like balancing.... easy.

done once, - forget.