Confused to say the least

[Garry g]

Absolute newbie here. 

I have just purchased my first telescope a celestron 114eq, and a eq3 proscan goto and tracking mount. 

Well this 65 year old head of mine is well confused, just by the instructions for setting it up. I wonder if any members maybe able to help me here? 

I would like to join this club also but understand that because of covid 19 it is temporary closed. 

Regards 

Garry 

[Stu]

Welcome Garry!

Is there any particular aspect you are confused by, say polar aligning or using the handset, or do you need to run through the whole lot?

Plenty of help on here so others will be along soon I’m sure.

[Garry g]

It's the whole thing, can't seem to get my head around it 😁

[PeterCPC]

Does this help at all?

 

[Steve Clay]

Have a google about setting up. There are quite a few tutorials on utube. I can't help with the eq mount as I only use alt az.

Steve 

[Carbon Brush]

Hello Gary. Another welcome to SGL.

Lots of enthusiastic help is available on this site.

I think the first advice is to assemble the scope & mount in daylight.
Trying to understand a scope and mount in the dark for the first time can be daunting.
Maybe even assemble indoors for starters. I done this more than once to get my head around something.
When you see something you aren't clear on, just grab a picture and post it here.
 

[NGC 1502]

Hi Garry, welcome to SGL 👍

Good advice above.  I’d like to add - some instructions for setting up an equatorial mount are for imaging purposes, you need precise set up for that.

If you just want to observe then quite literally near enough is good enough -

I.   Find and set the altitude adjustment.  It’s usually just above the top of the tripod with a scale that goes from zero to 90 degrees.  Set your latitude as best you can. I’m in Essex so thats about 51 degrees. You only have to do that once, unless you take your scope significantly further north or south.

2. Identify the polar axis and point it north, turn the whole mount for that.

3. Balance the optical tube by shifting it within the tube rings.

4. Adjust the counterweight for balance.

5. Align the finder.

You’re pretty much sorted 😀

Ed.

 

 

 

 

[Cosmic Geoff]

You are not the first newbie to be baffled by the Synscan GoTo system, and I doubt you'll be the last.  It's a complex system. I recently acquired a Synscan upgrade for an EQ-5 and am still trying to make it behave.

Here's a run-down:

Familiarise yourself with how it is supposed to be assembled (indoors)

Set the mount for latitude (around 51-55 degrees in UK)

Identify the start position from the manual text and pictures.

Apply power, and practice entering the parameters in the correct format (indoors)

Select yes (1) and 1-star align (1, or scroll with keys at bottom of handset)

Pick a star and press Enter.  The mount will move under power, and come to rest hopefully pointing near the star you picked.  That's as far as you can go practicing indoors.

When you take it outside, do the polar alignment and then all the above again and proceed to finish the star alignment.  To escape from the alignment procedure when done, select another menu option.

Simple? No, it's not, but with practice you can tame it enough to do some observing.

If you have no ambition to do deep-space long exposure imaging, an alt-azimuth GoTo mount would be easier to manage.

 

[Garry g]

I thank you all for your assistance in this guess its one of those practice makes perfect or near enough situations lol. 

As for the close enough comment Ed. I like that, I can do that...... I think 😁

Appreciate all the help everyone. 

Update will follow. 

[Alan White]

Welcome Garry, for visual as others have said, near enough is good enough.

Like most things in life, something new and unfamiliar is always challenging.