Hi Guys,
I started off by the book (Celestron GT EQ5) .... pointed the scope 169 degrees south, leveled the mount by the bubble level (built in), set the tilt to my latitude (27.5 ish), did the two star align ........ so, apart from drift align it should be roughly right! - wrong
.
Each time I set it up and select the first of the two stars, the scope is pointing well below and to the right of target. So, I move the scope into position and move to the second star - same thing as first, well below and to the right.
However, once aligned to the second, the scope moves between the two alignment stars with a fair degree of accuracy..... Problems start when I want to view another target - usually ends up well off
, but will return to either of the alignment stars quite nicely.
No amount of tweaking has fixed the drift alignment tho......
The time, date and timezone are all correct (more correct since I realised the date had to be entered MMDDYY).
So, tonight I went back to basics and ignored the built in bubble level and the tilt scale and I think it was better, tho the initial alignment stars were still well off target.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3168/...feb005f50b.jpg
I have some dumb questions....(please see attached image)
Should point "A" (the base of the tripod) be level or should I trust the bubble level? As it stands, when the base is level, the bubble level is way out (lots).
The scale "B" should be set to my latitude, should this correspond to the angle of the scope "C"? I cut a triangle to the correct angles, placed it on the scope and put a spirit level on the triangle..... when this is showing the correct angle, scale "B" shows about 4 degrees higher than it should.....???
So, either I have a mount with two fundamentals completely wrong or I've missed something obvious (wouldn't surprise me none).
I'm also a bit wary of the index marks on the two mount axises, they are just two very dodgy looking stickers. Should I trust them, should the counter-weight arm be vertical at the RA axis start point or pointing about 5 o'clock?
Sorry bout the long winded post but I've been fighting with this for nearly four weeks now and it's starting to get the better of me
.....
Would appreciate any advice....
Thanks in advance.
Peter