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Help to assemble an EQ 3-2 mount!


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Hello all,

Well on Christmas day, Santa finally brought me a SW 150P with an EQ 3-2 mount :) Thanks Santa!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway, I'm having difficulty setting up the mount using the setting circles. Does anyone know of a decent video guide to assembling the mount, and calibrating for my location? The instructions it came with aren't the best (or maybe I'm stupid :(:p) Hope this makes sense!!

And OMG, I think there are more clouds here than ever before"!!!!

Many thanks!!

Scott

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Could you be more precise as to the difficulty that you are having please? Is it an assembly problem or positioning the mount outside so you can use it?

By the way the setting circles are "not the best" (polite description!!) on modern mounts of the "EQ" type (all sizes) and are best ignored except for rough positioning.

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Hi mate thanks for the reply. I have assembled the mount correctly I think, it's the actually alignment I am having problems with, I.e the setting circles!! Maybe just best ignore them??

To be honest i think setting circles are only there for decoration. I have a scope with an EQ2 mount (I think). I have never touched the setting circles on the mount.

The main thing to do when observing is to polar align the tripod/mount so the polar axis is pointing as close to north as you can get it.

Dont sweat it about the setting circles.

I think setting circles on scopes are a bit like the appendix in modern humans. They both served a purpose at one stage but have now become useless.

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An Equatorial mount will, when polar aligned, only need to be rotated about the polar axis to "follow" the sky. The declination axis will not need to be moved once set for a particular object. Or to put it another way - one less thing to worry about when observing!!

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The setting circles won't be "highly" accurate but will get you in the right general area. You would of course need to be properly polar aligned and that will require a polar scope.

The benefit of PA is that an eq mount will only need to move in RA to track the stars (i.e. follow their natural movement relative to earth). So you'll only need to turn the RA knob (with periodic minor tweaks in Dec).

If you attach an RA motor then the object will stay in the ep automatically. :(

(However I'm not sure you can get a polar scope for an eq3-2 - I've only seen them for eq4, eq5, and upwards)

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Can I ask one more stupid question?

If I don't use the setting circles, what advantage is there in polar aligning the mount?

Cheers

Scott

A well polar aligned scope will keep the object you are observing in your field of view for longer.

If you are into taking images then a polar aligned scope will eliminate star trails from your images, so all the stars look like points of light instead of streaks.

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Can I ask one more stupid question?

If I don't use the setting circles, what advantage is there in polar aligning the mount?

Cheers

Scott

A pretty well polar aligned scope will keep the object you are observing in your field of view for longer.

If you are into taking images then a polar aligned scope will eliminate star trails from your images, so all the stars look like points of light instead of streaks.

The 1st time i used my scope with EQ mount, the Moon zipped across my field of view in about 3 mins. When i polar aligned the tripod/mount the moon took about 12 mins to travel across the same field of view.

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However I'm not sure you can get a polar scope for an eq3-2 - I've only seen them for eq4, eq5, and upwards

There is a polar scope for eq3-2 https://astronomia-px.rtrk.co.uk/shop/item/1335/Sky_Watcher_HM5_Polar_Alignment_Scope_EQ3_2/

You will have to remove the old mount before you try and fit new one though (screw in the 3 little screws on old mount then twist anti clockwise firmly)

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the (up)setting circles at an eq mount are pretty much useless as there is no accuracy at the scales they use but as mentioned before they can point you at the general direction of an object and then scan that area in order to find the target. last summer i tried out of curiosity to use them at an eq1 mount i have but i ended up using my rigel finder in order to find the objects i wanted (i was able to locate only m13 using the setting circles). before using the (up)setting circles the mount must be polar aligned as best as possible. you can check this video for the use of the (up)setting circles How to Use Setting Circles

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Don't bother using them for a while - take time out to get used to aiming the scope and having a look! I didn;t bother for many many months and hardly use them after a couple of goes. I had the same mount for a while and they're pretty much decoration as others have said.

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