Rotate the Tube?

[Rick Parrott]

Excuse Me Dumb! :help:
After all these years of only occasional sky-watching, I am still wondering is there a "best" position (rotation) of my Newtonian in it's mount? I have not found an ideal tube position, nor really an ideal height for my EQ mount. Any "rule-of-thumb", or is it simply a fact of life that you need to play with this (depending on my looking south, north, up etc!)

[Brian W]

Fact of life is you need to play with it. One of the reasons dobsonian mounts really caught on was how easy they are to use.

However for a reasonable price you can find a set of rotating mounting rings that make moving the tube a lot easier.
Brian

[ZeroID]

I reckon you need a rotating neck sometimes ... !!! :rofl:

[Waxing_Gibbous]

Brian's right. Get the rings that allow your tube to rotate.
A fixed Newt on a GEM will keep your Chiropractor in school fees forever!!

[OneOfOne]

When I used to have a Newt mounted on a GEM I had exactly the same problems. The only "best" position I found was to have the eyepiece pointing straight out to the side when in the home position. This will usually ensure that the eyepiece won't point to the ground, but that is about it. In some positions you will still need a flip top head and others you will need to lean out over the top of the tube without moving it.

I found Antares (Canada?) make rings, but never got around to buying them. Excellent quality roller bearings, but not very cheap. Otherwise I have seen some DIY ideas using garden hose to hold the tube and something to loosen it. Whatever ideas you try, you would need to make sure the tube doesn't slide out!

[RobF]

Another thought - do a Google on "Wilcox rings"....

[Rick Parrott]

:thumbsup: Thankyou all, I will give the rings a look! Another dumb question... what is "home" position?

[multiweb]

A 90 degrees diagonal will help in any position. The real neck killer is an SCT, not a newt IMO. :)

[erick]

Here is an idea - see attached.

This is from Astronomy Technology Today - a great online magazine. See here:-

https://www.astronomytechnologytoday.com/Default.asp

[Jules76]

When I get around to it, I'm planning to try out this solution by Astro Baby. Looks pretty good and is much cheaper solution.

http://www.astro-baby.com/articles/rotating%20rings/Rotating%20Rings%20Project.htm

[supernova1965]

This pic shows home position