Scope Balance

[Earl]

Now im personally very unbalanced I can fall over standing still !

How do I balance my Scope with the Weights

How far along the Dovetail does the Scope have to go?

If I fit a Guide scope I will also need to fit extra weights?

[Digz]

Hi Earl,

From my limited experience I have done the following to balance the scope on the DEC axis (I think I have this the right way around):

fitted the dovetail bar centrally and slid the scope back and forth until that was balanced.

Unfortunately I need an extra counterweight to balance the scope properly on the RA axis.

As I understand it balancing should be done with everything you need fitted therefore the guide scope should be fitted and then you balance, the weight of this will determine the need for an extra counterweight.

HTH

[John]

It's all a matter of experementing. The counterweight slides along the counterweight bar as I'm sure you know. If you add extra weight to the scope-side (including 2" diagonals, eyepices, finders etc) that will need to be counterbalanced as well by moving the weight further along the bar, or even getting another weight if needed.

[themos]

http://stargazerslounge.com/equipment-help/93170-balancing-equatorial-mount-right-way.html#post1338828

[LukeSkywatcher]

For just the scope tube........................usually half way along the counterweight is good. If you add anything to the business end of the scope such as a camera etc.........then you have to move the CW further down towards the ground.

Essentially you are looking for the centre of gravity of your setup so it is not top heavy and falls over either frontwards or backwards.