Quote:
Originally Posted by erick
All set up and I started using. So far I have only performed a relatively rough polar alignment - mainly pointing it towards south is the issue. A compass on the ground a little distance from the scope is fairly rough. Being level and setting the altitude is easier. It does have a polar scope but getting down trying to use one of those, particularly for the SCP with its almost non-existent bright stars, seems like the height of machochism to me  . This coming weekend, I will (promise) learn the basics of drift aligning. |
I just recently bought my EQ6 and it came with a polar scope with a reticle for both north and south hemispheres. First one I have ever owned
. I decided to try it when I first set the EQ6 up in the obs... forget it! There are easier ways.
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...ht=polar+align
Quote:
Originally Posted by erick
What's good?
Motors and gears! Tracking, tracking and tracking! So nice when you have a 5mm eyepiece in place and Jupiter in the FOV, and it pretty well sits there while the RA motor does its job. A little tweak of the DEC control buttons from time to time
Pointing the scope is a challenge. With a dob, my brain easily copes with left/right and up/down. A scope on an EQ mount does not go left/right nor up/down! I was getting better after a few hours but sometimes it would just not go where I wanted it to. I was a little frustrated getting it onto 47 Tuc, for example, so I guess it is an issue near the SCP. Actually it was probably no worse than a dob near the "dob hole". |
Yep. You'll get used to it
. Think Ra/Dec young padiwan...
Quote:
Originally Posted by erick
Also, finding those damn lock levers once I had the target in the finderscope was annoying - as you move the scope to the target, those lock levers always go and hide on the opposite side of the scope to where your brain last remembers them to be!  I found it useful to have an assistant to find and lock them while I held the OTA on target. Now that doesn't seem right!  |
Does your mount have GOTO or just drive motors? If you have GOTO, you shouldn't be messing with the clutches. Once you are aligned, then just drive it where you want it to point and leave the clutches engaged
. If you just have drive motors then I can understand what you're doing
.
Quote:
Originally Posted by erick
I also gather that if you end up in position with the counterweight bar doing its best to point to the zenith, you forgot to do a flip somewhere along the line!  |
Yep!
BTW that line would be the meridian...
Quote:
Originally Posted by erick
So there are my thoughts. I'll spend more time with it and will try some photography so I can at least say that I've tried. But I have a feeling that an EQ and Eric weren't meant for each other. |
Give it a chance Eric!
Al.