Help with a DEC dial on a EQ6 mount

[Christine100]

 I  am new to using a German equatorial mount. I know I won't be using the rings for finding anything in practice, but just want to understand them. My question is that I have a Skywatcher EQ6 mount and the DEC ring has 4 quadrants each of 90 degrees. When I go to a star of known Dec and RA, the manual just says that I should use the 'proper'segment when calibrating the Dec Dial. How do I know which is the proper segment, as I can't see any difference in the 4 quadrants. Thanks for your help.

[michael8554]

The Dec circle goes 0-90, 90-0, 0-90, 90-0.

If you pick the wrong quadrant the Dec reading will go DOWN as you Swing UP.

So if you have set the Dec on a star at say Dec 30, and swing to the Dec of your target at say Dec 40, if you use the wrong quadrant you will actually be at Dec  20.

My first telescope about 20 years ago was a Russian TAL-1, and I didn't know it had a Southern Hemisphere RA circle.

Oh the hours of fun I had until I sussed it.

Michael

Edited April 10, 2020 by michael8554

[Christine100]

Thanks for the reply. I will check that out. I don't really understand why I need 4 quadrants.  I can only have a dec of 0 to 90 can't I? why do I need 3 others. Are there different ones for the southern hemisphere? I did catch on to the different RA thanks. 

 

[Merlin66]

Christine,

The Dec circles...

You need 0 to +90 (northern hemisphere), 0 to-90 (southern hemisphere)

The "extra" is to make it easier to read the circle, depending on the orientation of the telescope.