[AstralTraveller (David)]

Chris,

Sorry to have gone quiet on this, I hadn't forgotten you. I just got busy and then got the flu. So today I was too sick for work but well enough to pull out my EQ5 and have a look see. Now I'm confused. I'm also very annoyed that there are no instructions with the scope nor on the Celestron web site

On mine there are two independent scale rings. The main one has two scales running in the opposite directions (for N and S hemisphere) that go from 0 to 24hrs. The second one goes from 0 to 12 and then 0-12 a second time (ie has two lots of 12hrs) and I'm buggered if I can see what that is about.

The main ring works for pointing in that if a set it to 0 and rotate the RA shaft to the east the reading on the lower scale increases. However when I let it track the reading also increases!! The RA of an object does not vary and so the reading should remain constant when tracking. There is a small locking screw that didn't seem to do anything useful, but now I have a theory. Perhaps I'm meant to lock it when I engage the RA lock, so that the ring doesn't move as the RA shaft turns. Then one unlocks it before moving in RA. That's clunky - to say the least!! I'll test the theory when I have the chance but it won't be tonight.

Meanwhile, have you had any success? I do want to get this sorted so anything you've found would be great .

cheers,
Dave