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EQ3 ?

Kevdan

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Kevdan

Kevdan

Posted
Posted

Hi all,

I have just been to pick up my first scope a second hand Skywatcher 150

I bought it from the well known online auction site, But when I got home I was suprised to find it on a mount that I thought was an EQ2 but it has a position for a polarscope and the manual for an EQ2 doesnt mention any polarscopes, I have read the manual for an EQ3-2 and it shows a position and a scale for time etc. but it is somewhat different to a EQ3-2 so could this be an EQ3.

Oh, and you can all blame me for the clouds being as I got a scope today.

Kev.

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tomw28

tomw28

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Hi Kev,

The 150P is supplied with an EQ3-2 mount when new so I assume this is what it has still. As it you got it from a "well known auction site", I would guess that it is reasonably likely the seller was pretty clueless and advertised it as being on an EQ2 mount.

Enjoy your new scope!

Tom

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Kevdan

Kevdan

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So it's good news then, thanks guys,

Couple of things I noticed though, The printing on the 24hr clock dial is very faint, there should be a small RA minute marker plate which is missing and the date circle spins freely (dont know wether it should or not), Can this be repaired ?

Kev.

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  • 11 months later...
JamesF

JamesF

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The faintness of the printing on the 24 hour scale may be a hindrance when trying to polar align the scope as you need to align the date with the current time to rotate the polar scope to the correct position (if you look through the polar scope you'll see it has a an offset circle to represent the position of Polaris relative to the Celestial North Pole). To be honest if you remarked the hours, halves and quarters with indelible ink that would probably get you close enough. There's sufficient mechanical error elsewhere in the system that a few minutes either way is not going to make a huge difference.

The fact that the date ring spins is not a problem as there should be an index mark on the edge of the polar scope that you align the ring with. On the ring you'll find a zero mark together with various amounts east and west of the meridian. You align that with the index mark for your longitude, then when you turn the RA axis, the scope and date ring also turn. It would be handy if it locked in place though as I often forget to check mine.

As for the missing RA marker, I have to admit I've never used it. I assume it's there because RA actually changes over time and RA figures are always given relative to a given year (2000 at the moment, AFAIR). To be honest, if you're really worried about that you're probably using the wrong mount and should be drift aligning :D

If you want to use the polar scope you'll need to run through the alignment procedure. It's not difficult, just a bit of a faff. AstroBaby has all the details explained on her website for the EQ5. It's pretty much the same for the EQ3-2. When I did it I found that my polar scope was floating about at the top end and was never going to align properly. I fixed that by fitting an O-ring down the tube the polar scope fits in (just like the Skywatcher finders do to locate the front end). It does a reasonable enough job for planetary imaging.

James

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