Achieving balance

[Woodsman]

Hello

I have a skywatcher 300 Newtonian/ NEQ6 PRO mount on a fixed pier  and I am having difficulty in achieving consistent balance. I can balance RA with the counterweight shaft horizontal and DEC with the tube horizontal but as soon  as I move  either the counterweight shaft or the tube away from horizontal  the balance is  totally disturbed and I need to add weights to the balance shaft or to manually restrain the tube from moving. I am obviously doing something wrong but having studied several Youtube "how to" videos I am lost. I previously had no problems with a 6 inch tripod mounted  Orion Newtonian. Can anyone help me please?

[wimvb]

I live so far north that for accurately balancing the scope in RA, I first have to lower the mounts latitude setting. In the extreme case of an astronomer on the North pole, RA balancing wouldn't work at all. So, where from are you observing/imaging?

Second, for a Newtonian, the balance point will shift with RA/DEC, depending on how the focuser is oriented with respect to the mount. Most imagers will have the focuser pointing in the same direction as the counter weight shaft. For observing, you'd probably want to turn the scope in its rings until the focuser is at right angles to the cw shaft.

[Waldemar]

You will need to balance your scope in three ways:
RA, DEC and radial. The last one presents the problem for you, because as Wim already mentioned the focuser is on the side of your Newtonian and therefore disturbs the radial balance. You will have to compensate that with weight on the opposite side of the OTA, or turn the scope in a way so the focuser will be in line with the cw shaft, which will make it only suitable for imaging... For visual use of a Newtonian an Alt/Az mount is the easiest.

Edited August 16, 2019 by Waldemar

[Woodsman]

Good morning Gents,

Thank you for the observations and advice. You have given me some other things to think about/try.  I am located at about 53 north so if I lower the latitude setting by how much can I do so and will that not make alignment (and hence tracking) inaccurate?

I guess the comment about which mount to use reminds me of the old joke "if you want to get there I wouldn't start from here" .....I wish I could chop and change but the budget won't stretch !!!

I currently have been doing only visuals but I would like to try some imaging other than the lunar efforts with my Orion/Canon EOS 45D that I dabbled with. I read somewhere that a Newtonian such as I have is probably the wrong scope to use so I wouldn't wish to splash out on an expensive camera could you recommend  a suitable entry level for  trying DSO with my scope/mount setup?

 

 

[wimvb]

21 minutes ago, Woodsman said:

 I am located at about 53 north so if I lower the latitude setting by how much can I do so and will that not make alignment (and hence tracking) inaccurate?

You can't. Any change in altitude setting implies doing a new polar alignment. But ehen you achieve balance, you either leave the setup as is after redoing polar alignment, or you mark the devetail bar and counterweight shaft for next time. 

[Waldemar]

You should be able to do some DSO imaging with your Canon, that scope and mount, although a 300 mm Newt will need some correction, depending on which one it is. You'll have to keep in mind that this is a big scope, catching a lot of wind and it  will act as a sail, and thus making it very hard on your mount to keep it under control. Shielding it from the wind will make a big difference. 
Also keep in mind to put the focuser with camera in line with the cw shaft for the balance.
I would also like to advice you to read the book "Making every photon count" https://www.firstlightoptics.com/books/making-every-photon-count-steve-richards.html. That will give you insight in the do's and dont's of imaging and will save you a lot of trouble and money... Polar alignment needs to be as precise as you can get it. Any misalignment will make it harder or even impossible to guide!

[tooth_dr]

There are a couple of guys on here currently using this set up.  I also used a 300pds on an EQ6Pro and like you balance was critical. Doing as above is the only way. You need to take into account the finder, but it is possible to achieve perfect balance. I’m at 54 deg N so very similar. 

[wimvb]

+1 for Making Every Photon Count. 

Your Canon probably isn't modified for Ha imaging, so don't expect too much regarding emission nebulae. You can image star clusters, galaxies and reflection nebulae with your camera. Because your scope is reasonably fast (f/5), there will be misshaped stars (coma) in the corners. A (second hand) coma corrector is quite cheap, eg Baader mpcc or skywatchers coma corrector.

The NEQ6 is a very decent mount, and combined with the right scope, you should be able to enjoy it for a long time. But the 300p telescope is like a sail on any mount, and as @Waldemar wrote, you will need to take care where you put it. For imaging, you can in due course, invest in a more suitable telescope.

For visual use, you should rotate the scope in its rings, so that the focuser is at right angle to the counterweight shaft. Polar alignment isn't super critical. Start with putting Polaris in the center of the polar scope. Then use the polar alignment routine in the handset to improve alignment. A two star alignment should then put any dso within the field of view of a low power eyepiece.

Edited August 16, 2019 by wimvb

[PlanetGazer]

This videos helped me the most when I learned my way around EQ mounts, hope this helps

 

 

 

 

[Woodsman]

Thank you all for the helpful comments. I hesitated before posting my dumb questions on this forum but I have been very encouraged by your replies. I don't expect to have the skill to produce startling images but anything vaguely recognisable will give me great satisfaction rather like my first stab at a lunar image  attached (I had to use a 2x Barlow (?) lens in order to achieve a sort of focus and guess the exposure)