Star Alignment HEQ5 go to HELP

[seeingstars]

Hi All,

OK OK I think I might have started to run before I could walk but what the heck...

I am really struggling to get this up and running, I have (with help) found that my long & lat needs to be in "old money" not decimal, so now have that sorted (I hope). Tripod is pointing due north with the weight bar pointing down, so which starts do I choice for the 3 star alignment then???? And should I balance the scope first or after alignment is done????

I mean is there an idiots guide to starting out without having to look a twit by asking complete strangers on a web forum....

Laugh all you will thats fine but please if you can lend a hand....

Thanks

S:D

[Astro_Baby]

Sound slike I should be writing a new guide soon

Ok the mount faces North - you will need at least a half decent polar alignment before you do anything else.

For a simple guide go HERE Simple Polar Alignment for Beginners

For a more advanced guide go HERE Astro Babys HEQ5 Polar Alignment

Scope is balanced before you do anything at all. Do that right at the start.

Once you have polar alignment enter you date/time on the handset and remember its american so MONTH / DAY / YEAR

Put the Lat and Lon in (as you ahve already discovered). I usually let the mount pick its own three stars. But then where I observe from I have an all round view.

Hope that gets you a bit further along.

[glowjet]

I do not think you will find anybody on this forum finds the difficulties associated with beginners and the setting up of scopes as anything but lighthearted, it is not an easy subject to get your head round and many people stumble on the way, have a look at : http://www.themcdonalds.net/richard/astro/writings/gotoSetupAsGt.shtml this is a complete series of articles on setting up through to star aligning, hope this helps.

John.

[seeingstars]

Astro Baby

I am now your new biggest fan have bookmaked both pages but especially liking the "Idiots guide"

WOW who new it would be so complicated (to me any way)

Thanks for the help

S

[seeingstars]

Glowjet,

Have bookmarked that page too thanks very much...

Sarah

[RADCOM]

It's always nice to see that there is someone almost as stupid as me on the astronomy forums (only kidding seeingstars) lol. I'm going to South Africa soon and I've heard the sky is very nice there, any South African gazers here?.Anyway I have been reading various guides on polar alignment and it all seems like gobbledygook to me. It would probably be best if I went out with someone and they showed me "how to" a couple of times. Thanks for the links btw.

I have just bought an astrotrac TT320X-AG and polarscope; I have a tripod and a dslr I just want to take some semi decent pictures of the sky:) Are there any computer programs than can automatically set up the guiding tracking and control the camera too? I love computers I can get along with them but this latitude azimuth RA etc is very confusing

[swag72]

I feel your pain Sarah - My scope and mount sat in the box unopened for 8 months as the whole polar alignment stuff was far too complicated to me. I finally got the scope out a couple of weeks ago, and am now sailing through the whole setup process. The astrobaby idiots guide was excellent to follow.

I now have a little chant to myself when I am setting up so I remember what to do and in what order. My biggest opiece of advice that I learnt the hard way (ie awful alignment) is that once you have set you time, polar scope and polar aligned the scope - Then put the scope back to the home position, with the weights facing down. If you don't do that, you'll never get the stars to align.

I thought I'd never get there, but with some perseverence, you will get there.

[brantuk]

You won't find anyone here laughing at you for struggling with first alignment. However you might find them smiling "knowingly" and remembering how they first struggled with it themselves

At first it seems horrendously difficult but do remember this is only cos it takes a lot of words to describe it on a forum, and cos it's strange and new.

Once the process is learned, and it "clicks" in the mind what it means and why you're doing it, it really becomes an absolute doddle, especially in the Northern Hemisphere where we actually have a pole star which is easy to see - those poor antipodeans don't even have that.

Remember to use a regular dark site when learning, use the Plough and Cassiopea to find the pole star, and use a compass to know which way is "generally" north. You'll soon get a feel for picking it out straight away.

Appreciate that you are trying to line up your mount and scope with Earths axis at your particular Latitude so it points at the Pole Star.

For a quick and "dirty" method when observing only (this won't work for imaging), just point your mount due magnetic north and use the scale to set the latitude for your location. You will be close enough at that for manual controlled observing.

It will only need a little fine tuning to get spot on from there for imaging and/or electronic goto.

[RADCOM]

Thanks chaps and chapettes I found some youtube videos that take the scariness out of it

YouTube - How to polar align your Equatorial Telescope mount

[RADCOM]

I can't edit the earlier post so I'm going to double post. This is by t=ar the best explanation of polar alignment I've found so far Polar Alignment of your Equatorial Mount - McWiki