I have read the article by Trevor Hand on setting up a GEM, very informative, but he spent a lot of time on setting up the goto system. I have purchased a cheap ebay 114x1000 scope, and while limiting my viewing to only a fraction of what you guys with the better setups see, I intend to be able to use this thing properly, despite the quality! So far orienting the scope by observing sigma octanis is not an option, bad viewing, or just not possible with this gear. Will have to use the compass method. I know what right ascension is and declination, have set the lat. on the mount. My RA has to be set doesn't it? The dial moves around, not freely, like spinning, but you can move it. If I decide to view something within the meager range of this scope and use a star chart, I need declination and RA. I have aligned the finder scope to the main tube. i think I will get pretty bored gazing at the moon after a while. Any advice much appreciated.