[Wavytone]

Ha, understand your plight ! I seen you are in the UK ... if all else fails I suggest you find an astro club near you and make friends with a seasoned observer who knows how to set this up.

What you have is a very serious kit - well beyond beginner level so you face a steep learning curve. However I’m quite sure the locals will be keen to help in return for a look through it.

Unfortunately I’m in Sydney, which is a wee bit too far away.

Ok... from the ground up:

1. Tripod goes on the ground. When setting up it helps significantly if the tripod is levelled so the top is accurately flat, use a clinometer or smartphone app and adjust the legs accordingly. It’s like wrestling with a bagpipe spider.

2. Wedge bolts onto tripod. The purpose of the wedge is to tilt the scope so the fork tines point at the north celestial pole (Polaris is close enough) and it has adjustments accordingly up/down (altitude), and left/right (azimuth).

3. Telescope bolts onto wedge, with the tines of the fork pointing at the north celestial pole. The pole is at an elevation above the horizon equal to your latitude.

For a first approximation use a star map to locate Polaris, and use a clinometer to adjust the wedge so the fork tines are inclined above the horizon at an angle equal to your latitude. I leave it to you to figure how this is done in detail.

4. Eyepieces are usually marked by focal length eg 40mm, 25, 12 or 9. Start with the one that has the longest focal length - probably 25, 30 or 40mm. This will give the lowest magnification, to make this easy.

Once you have an eyepiece in the back focussing is by means of the knob on the back of the telescope. That you didn’t find focus is not a surprise, most noobs miss it completely at first try. Turn the knob more slowly and pay attention to what you see as you do. It will focus, guaranteed.

Eyepieces with shorter focal lengths mean more magnification. Focussing becomes more critical and so does tracking the object. Use these only on the moon or bright planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Mars etc).


5. Plug into power and it should track, ie make the stars stand still despite the rotation of the earth.

6. Strongly suggest you buy a copy of Norton’s Star Atlas, or one of the books by Patrick Moore - in addition to the maps these provide a wealth of how-to stuff for beginners. Then Sky Atlas 2000, or the app Sky Safari Pro.