pointing EQmount to South cel. pol

[gilbert]

Hi.

I'm re-discovering the night sky with my old telescope, but I'm having trouble finding the south celestial pole, and tracking stars (i'm using a simple motor drive for an EQ1 mount)... it has been aroung 10years since I used my telescope (a little reflector)...who can help me out? I'm confused about the motor drive too, it has a N / S switch on it - is this north / south, and do I set it to south (being in the southern hemesphere) or do I switch it to north when looking at things in the nothern part of the sky???

also, in Sydney, are we at -34 deg right?, and is that what I set the mount's latitude/tilt to? if not what should I set it to for observing in Sydney?

I've had a quick look through other posts, but I couldn;t spot anything much relating to this, so thanks, and sorry if this has all been answered somewhere else in these forums...

[rogerg (Roger)]

The N/S switch will be for what hemisphere you are in, so leave it on S for the southern hemisphere, no matter where you are pointing it in the sky.

I'm not sure on exact lat/long of Sydney but that sounds about right, and yes, you would set your altitude of your mount to that (the angle at which it points up at the sky).

If you level the mount reasonably acurately (the base of it being nice and flat), then angle the altitude up at 34 degrees, then use a compas to get it pointing roughly south, you should be well in the right ballpark area for tracking the sky, for just visual observations.

Beyond that, you can get more complex with more accurate alignment techniques, but I doubt you need to do that at this stage.

Hope that helps

[ving (David)]

like roger said
and welcome aboard
let us know how you go ok

[gilbert]

Thanks, that all seems to make sense to me...now I just have to wait for the cloudy weather to pass... always the way! but we're always greatfull for the rain...

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Hi Gilbert,

My little EQ1 and motor drive like yours gave me a chance to get some half decent pics with an ED80.

It can track quite well for a small outfit. And I never perfectly aligned mine with the SCP.

Here is a pic of 47Tuc Globular Cluster with the EQ1 sort of pointing South

[Doug]

Ken, that is a rather nice Image. Was it captured with your webcam or something else?


Doug

Originally Posted by ballaratdragons

Hi Gilbert,

My little EQ1 and motor drive like yours gave me a chance to get some half decent pics with an ED80.

It can track quite well for a small outfit. And I never perfectly aligned mine with the SCP.

Here is a pic of 47Tuc Globular Cluster with the EQ1 sort of pointing South

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Originally Posted by Doug

Ken, that is a rather nice Image. Was it captured with your webcam or something else?

Thanks Doug,

It's taken with a modded Toucam, using Long exposure and captured in 'Desire'.

I took my EQ1 and ED80 over to Leons house and just plopped it down in the back yard. My EQ1 was sort of facing South, and after assisting Leon with his LX200, I aimed the ED80 at 47Tuc and began capturing.

Just a fluke I guess