Mount Advice AZ-EQ Avant

[Dean Hale]

Hi All

I've been reading this forum the past couple of weeks and have learnt so much around refractors, reflectors, eyepieces etc (thanks all)- however i ignored the advice to purchase a Dob and went for below

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-az-eq-avant/sky-watcher-explorer-130ps-az-eq-avant.html

For a complete beginner it's fascinating what can be seen with it, so more than happy. 

I'm getting to grips with the mount and probably me being thick however i have one question - do you know what this knob is for in the attached image. In the basic instructions it says 'horizontal adjustment knob', however if i turn it nothing happens - it just unscrews? There is another on the opposite site, again exactly the same.

Many thanks

[dobblob]

Those opposed screws are the azimuth adjustment. They bear on the post on the top of the tripod to move the mount left or right. Looks like you may need to release the cap head screw in the slot to allow this.

[Dean Hale]

Thanks for the advice. I'll give that a try

[Dean Hale]

Thank you. I loosened the screws ever so slightly (Hope I understood what you meant) The ones next to the spirit level in the image and now when I turn both of the screws  together the base now moves. 
 

I’ll be glad when this is over and I can join a society for some tips. I need them.

[DaveL59]

you'd only really need to adjust those if you are tweaking the polar alignment, which presumes you are using the mount in EQ mode - from the pic it looks like you are, perhaps?

If you are have you also got the latitude angle set, if not then you'll have to be making RA and DEC adjustments to track an object. Once you have latitude adjusted for your location and the head polar aligned, you'll only need to adjust RA to track which makes things a little easier when observing an object for any length of time