just turned 60 and a newbie ! need help :-)

[Tezb]

Hi

Thank you for letting me join your community 🙂

I just turned 60 and just got given my first scope so a total newbie, its a Skywatcher  BK1309 EQ2, looks good to me, prob not brilliant but its a start.

Anyway i have put it all together but am lost on 2 items, the first is what is this piece of loose silver metal as in the pic for and should it be loose flopping around ???, and second my dust cap has two raised parts near the middle, one comes off leaving a appx 2" hole, the other is fixed as moulded so don't come off, again i can see nothing referring to this hole ????

Any help would be most appreciated

 

Thank you :-)

 

[Ags]

Welcome to the forum! 

[John]

Hello and welcome to the forum from another 60-something astronomer 🙂

The loose silver thing is used when a motor drive is installed on the mount. I think it is a form of clutch mechanism ?

If you don't have a motor, you can just ignore it.

The hole in the dust cap reduces the aperture of the telescope to around 50mm. You can tape (firmly !) solar filter film (Baader make some good stuff) across the rear of the hole (completely cover it) and safely observe the sun using the small aperture and filtration delivered by the solar film. Not to be tried without proper filtration in place !!!

It's probably best to tape the dust cap onto the scope when doing this as well, just to be sure. Don't use an optical finder either to view the sun - best remove it or cap it completely.

Sorry for the warnings - better safe than sorry as they say !

Some people also use the small hole, without a filter, when observing the moon to cut down on the brightness but that has the disadvantage that you loose the resolving power of 130mm and replace it with the approx 50mm of the hole in the dust cap.

The moulded raised area on the dust cap holds the cap you have removed to reveal the hole on the other side.

 

Edited October 21, 2023 by John

[inedible_hulk]

43 minutes ago, John said:

The loose silver thing is used when a motor drive is installed on the mount. I think it is a form of clutch mechanism ?

As John says, it’s the clutch for the drive which can be added to this mount. Welcome to SGL btw 😊

[M40]

Hello Tezb and welcome to the site from a well into the sixties ex Harlowite. Ask away with any questions, plenty of clever people on here that can help. All the best.

[Tezb]

I just found the motor drive in another box ! that's great information guys thank you so much, i look forward to a clear sky to get my eye in now lol !

[inedible_hulk]

I found the supplied spring which works with the clutch to be next to useless.

A short fat elastic band wrapped between the two attachment points was much more effective.

[dave34]

I think your questions have been answered, so its just a big welcome to SGL from me, WELCOME.