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Not fully understanding Polar Alignment


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19 minutes ago, Anvil Basher said:

You sure you have it balanced correctly? I did a test with mine tonight and put only 1 weight on. There is no way on earth it would balance, definitely needs 2. I think that would put strain on the motor.

As i understand balancing, its balanced With one weight yes. Is it the 150 or the 200 you have?

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On 28/04/2019 at 05:56, Anvil Basher said:

I have my spotter scope dead centre on top, so when the scope turns I can get to the eyepiece . Are the eyehole or spotter scope hitting the legs like that at any stage? Without getting out the manual that came with mine, I am pretty sure they state to mount the spotter on top dead centre..........but I could be wrong.

Hi Guys

Going to throw a spanner in the works here

Correct mounting of the scope

Possible with a Dob, to have 180deg other way around

Have attached pic of my ED80 on EQ5 mount, which should very which way to mount the dob

I also use a car battery jump start battery pack to power the EQ5, as do most of my club members using EQ or Meade mounts

Been in the southern hemisphere, do not have a star light Polaris, to align to

I align the north leg, facing south, and using a compass, align the mount, allowing for magnetic variation, where I am is 11deg east

I also use a right angle spotting scope  

 

 

Skywatcher ED80.jpg

jump start pack.jpg

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Another thing worth mentioning with the eq5 upgrade is to be very careful lining up the motors. The set comes with 2 new cogs. I noticed on the ra motor that if you tighten the long allen bolt too tight it locks up the cogs. Plus the cog supplied is nearly touching the mount. On the dec one, again the bolt should be carefully tightened, the motor has a bit of side play and if not held correctly it will mis-align the cogs causing them to either lock up or not catch sometimes. Apart from that, the only part I did not think clever was putting all the cabling in the 2 sided plastic mount where you connect those 2 din plugs, on the same side so you have to sort of squish the 2 sides together to screw them up.

 

Anyway.........any luck?

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Thanks for your post @cletrac1922! I hadn't thought about a jump-start battery. When i feel comfortable enough I will take the kit with me somewhere less lightpolluted and i would need a battery. Had only seen this Sky-watcher ones, but this is probably better?

@Anvil Basher I followed a thread here on the forum on the installation of the motors and was careful not to tighten the allenbolt too much. "Too much" is a relative term though, so i dont know. Been at work a couple of days, so I am too tired tonight, but tomorrow i plan testing it again:) Only improvement i've done is upgrading the power supply, but thats also the only thing that is "proven" i didnt do correctly so i'm excited to see:) I will give an update on how it goes!

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Update:
Cloudy again yesterday, but I got to polar align properly before it turned bad. It now looks like its working, but its difficult to tell about accuracy. The scope at least points in the right direction. I also used the setting-circles to read out if the position was correct, but  I find the RA-clock to be too loose, like it snags in on the axis when scope is slewing. So either its pointing inaccurate or its snagging. Just have to have clear skies to control that i guess.

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  • 3 months later...

Update:
Dark season is back and i followed the tip about upgrading du more Ampere in my socket.

 

It worked!!!!!

 

Used 2 star alignment and calibrated after Mizar and Deneb. Mizar was right in my crosshair when i slewed for it. 
What a feeling! Then the clouds came in heavy so couldnt test further.

 

Now lets hope it works every time like that:)

Edited by masjstovel
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