EQ6-R Pro Reticle and home questions

[69boss302]

Im a little confused on something with my EQ6-R Pro. I can polar align it just fine but it doesnt seem to match up what Ive been told or what I see in some videos.   My Process:

- Level tripod while having it point North

- Mount the EQ on it and dial in my latitude.

- Loosen RA clutch and extend CW bar and level it to 90 degrees.   -- This is where things go loopy for me (at least in my mind). From what I understand, at this stage, if I look through the PA scope my reticle should show 0 at 12:00. It is not, Its at 2:00 and theres nothing I can do to change it.  I continue to adjust the green RA dial to read 6, then lock it.

-Once I have RA leveled, I lock it and loosen Dec clutch, and level that.  Set dec dial to 90, and lock it.

- Now I turn the RA to 12:00 on the RA dial and the DEC dial to 0

Im under the understanding that this is now my home position.  However if I do all that, now my PA Reticle is showing 0 at 5:00 or so and my OTA is pointing 45 degrees off to the right.

If I ignore the numbers on the reticle I can PA just fine but I am pretty sure Im missing something.

Thank you

Bob

 

[barbulo]

The green dial is of no use to me. 
What you have to bear in mind is that the 12:00 position is at the top of the reticle (relative to the horizontal ground) regardless the position of its 0 position. Normally, polar scope reticles are not 0 - 12:00 aligned from factory, and I wouldn’t bother fixing it. 
You can turn the RA axis until 0 is at the top (checking the horizontal movement of Polaris when turning AZ knobs) and then placing the star in the right place of the reticle. Another way could be adding/subtracting the difference when the CW bar is leveled (2 hours in your case) when positioning Polaris in the reticle.

HTH

[69boss302]

Thanks @barbulo Thats pretty much how Im doing it now. I just level everything up then visually get 0 to 12:00 and then line up Polaris. Thank you for the confirmation!

bob

[Jiggy 67]

The clock numbers in the polar scope are irrelevant, you just need to match the view in an app, such as PS Align Pro, in your polar scope. However, if you want to get the numbers correct, use this method but the mount must be level to do it:

Place Polaris at the centre of the polar scope. Then using altitude bolt only, place Polaris at the top of the circle. Rotate in RA until 12 o’clock is on Polaris. The polar scope is now calibrated correctly (assuming it’s central in the mount). Now carry out PA and when complete return to the home position..

If I’m understanding correctly, everything you’re doing with the dials is to obtain an accurate home position. It’s hard to follow but is basically what I have done to get a very accurate home position. Instead of doing it every time you set up, just mark the mount up with a permanent marker so you can return to the correct position every time without having to go through the whole process as per this video

 

Edited October 19, 2021 by Jiggy 67