EQ3

[Steve1976]

Hi guys and girls! I am a complete beginner to astronomy and recently received my first telescope (Skywatcher Skymax 127 Maksutov-Cassegrain with EQ3 mount).

I read the instructions and set everything up and it all appeared quite simple. I've since however screwed one of the t-bolt's in too tight for the altitude adjustment and I can't get it back out. (there are 2 t-bolts - if you screw one in you should turn the other one out and vice versa depending if you want to go up or down) To make matters worse, rather than just send it back to get fixed, I tried to unscrew it with a pair of pliers and now its bent! Yes I know it was very dumb!

Anyway its now getting fixed but my question is this - when I was 'playing' with the t-bolt altitude adjustment I could never get the scope higher than 65 degrees. I wanted to point the scope straight up (which is why I must have screwed it in too tightly) and get it at 90 degrees. The dealer says that you are not meant to do this. Is this right? Surely if it has a mark for 90 degrees it should be able to lean back to the 90 degrees and if not 90 why not say 80 degrees. There was nothing in the instructions to say never to go past 65 degrees. Can anyone please advise me? I thought it should be possible to point your scope directly up.

I also have an even sillier question about the declination setting. On star charts they will give the RA setting and Dec setting. On the eq3 mount there are 2 90 degrees and 2 0 degrees and 4 20 degrees etc. There even appears to be 2 pointers! Which one should I be using? For example if a star is located on dec 30 should I be turning the dec axis to the right or to the left 30 degrees? Nothing in the instructions about this for thicko's like me

Any help greatly appreciated !

[barkis]

I'm not sure I understand what you are trying to do here.

I doubt if the latitude scale goes as far as 90 degrees. Unless you live at the North Pole. The latitude is meant to align then polar axis according to the latitude of your particular site. Mine for example is 54 degrees 53 minutes. Anyhow, you can positiion the telescope to the zenith (Straight up) whatever latitude the mount is set to.

Regarding the setting circles. Quite honestly, these are so small as to be virtually useless, and also, unless you put your mount on a permanent pier, you will need to fight with the circles everytime you use the scope. They will just cause you more hassle than enough, and spoil your enjoyment altogether.

Learn how to set your mounts polar axis to the north celestial pole.

You can get your local coordinates from a GPS or Ordnance Map.

Buy yourself a book such as Turn Left At Orion, and learn how to find object by star hopping. A much better way to learn the sky.

Ron.

[GazOC]

Hi Steve,

You're not supposed to use those bolts to move the telescope, just to set the mount to whatever latitude you live at (say 51-54 degrees in the UK) and leave it there. That allows you to point the scope at any object and have the mount track it by just moving on one axis.

Hope that makes sense,

Gaz

[Astro_Baby]

You could take a look at my simple polar alignment guide here Simple Polar Alignment for Beginners

The mount, as Ron says, would probably not go to 90' on the altitude. I doubt any of my mounts do.

The scopes target position on the sky is based on its RA and DEC movement. A simple way to think of RA and DEC is this.

The altidude and azimuth (up and down and left and right) controls turn the scope in a vertical cross pattern like this +

On an EQ mount these are only used to align the mount to Polaris.

The RA and DEC controls move the scope in a cross shape like this X and this is what guides the scope in use.

I;d say lock the altidude and azimuth controls and slacken the RA and DEC controls - now try pointing the scope by hand with the RA and DEC controls loose - you will see the scope moves in a somewaht peculiar way BUT it can point to ANY part of the sky.

[Steve1976]

Thanks a lot guys. I wish I had joined this site earlier before I started playing around with things.

Just out of curiosity does anyone know how easy it would be to fix a stuck t-bolt with bent handle? I've just sent it back for the dealer to have a look at but I suspect I might have to buy a new mount (((