Align EQ6

[milan]

hi all grateful for a little more help too....

got the EQ6 today and now attempting to align it (if this is hard i cant imagine what its going to be like trying to take photos?!)

when looking through the pole finder should you be able to see all the stars against the line drawings of the constellations (such as casseopia) or do you take a rough guess to point it at polaris and then keep adjusting it so as you rotate the scope you gradually find that the stars will align over the line drawings?

im not sure how much sense that question makes, it makes sense in my mind but thats not always a good thing LOL

[Milamber]

The real stars in the sky will not be visible in the pole finder. The pole star will, and you have to align the pole finer graphic representation inside the finder with the real-world stars (i.e. in the same orientation) whilst making sure that Polaris is in the circle.

Arthur

[milan]

okay so basically you look through the polar finder with one eye and keep the other eye open and look outside the polar finder to locate UMa and Cassopiea? i.e. the polar finder doesnt have the field of view to show UMa and Cassopeia

Effectively your just trying to get UMa and Cassopeia orientated roughly so that Polaris is in the dot?

Just curious about accuracy here.

[Milamber]

Yes, that's about it. For accuracy you need to do a bit more but in reality the Synscan can cover a multitude of sins by allowing for any some alignment errors when you align on actual stars in the set up procedure itself.

Good idea though to get it as close as you can first though! Having said that, after a few weeks you'll do what everyone does and just dump it down in roughly the same place and let the handset sort it out

Arthur

[milan]

LOL. I think i know where the confusion has come from now. Am i correct in saying that the two knobs at the front are used to move the head left and right? (i know the t knobs are for latitude) Think this is where it was going wrong as i couldnt see how to move it left and right to get polaris in the right place.

Also i guess the easiest way to align in the first place is with a compass?

Can you tell we have never had an equatorial mount before??

[Keithp]

Got an EQ6, but just in the middle of imaging with a new setup. I'll reply here how I set up.

Regards

Keithp

Ps I'm a newbie, guided by these excellent people:headbang:

[Milamber]

Hard because when you set it up, you need to think about Alt(itude) and Az(imuth) - up/down and left/right respectively. Then, when you are using the mount, you swap over to RA and Dec - Right Ascension and Declination respectively.

The two knobs move the mount in Azimuth, the large lever-type things one either side of the main hinge are for adjusting the Altitude. *Only* these are used for setting the mount up. So point the mount roughly north, (you will need to *slightly* loosen the big bolt that holds the mount to the tripod so you can move the mount in Azimuth (left/right) ) and go through the aligning with Polaris bit... then once all is OK you should tighten the bolt underneath again and make sure the twol flat-handled bolts on the Altitude axis are tight against each other.

Then you can turn on the Synscan and the fun starts!

Arthur

[Psychobilly]

Wait till you use the hand box to slew to do a manual slew to a star for the first time... it becomes almost second nature after a while... although you may find yourself tilting your head a bit...infact quite a lot....

[milan]

Well finally worked it out and managed a 3 star align on our first attempt.

Hardest bit was aligning the polar scope reticule! 3 tiny allen bolts in the pitch black!