Very good tutorials, I am enjoying all of them. I have seen another tutorial on using the RA clock, but it was rubbish, and I came away none the wiser, unlike yours witch made perfect sense. I now know how to use that technique. Thanks.
Best tutorial I've seen for this. The manual for the heq5 pro goto mount makes this sound so complicated and I've never managed to do it. I'm confident of being able to do it now, thank you
Great tutorial, hours of head scratching and failure to get the mount to goto with any accuracy before i found this tutorial. Thanks Dion keep up the good work
Hi Dion, I will hopefully bump in to you at Astrofest 2015. But this and others from you are great little videos and thanks so much for taking the time to put them together. This one especially saves so much time in the polar alignment aspect. Because it's so awkward to bend down to look at the polarscope I use a little hand camera with a articulated screen focused on the polarscope reticle. I have also replaced the two bolts ( Latitiude ) with bog standard ones from screwfix and use two cheapy ratchet spanners. They work and lot cheaper than those specially made ones going for £50+. One way to ensure that the little circle is right at the botom of the big circle is a little trick that Chris from Eqmod tells in one his videos. You get polaris right in the cross hairs and then use only latitude bolts to bring it down to where it intersect with the big circle. At this point all you do is move the RA axis and get the little cicle to polaris. I hope this makes sense. Best Nalin.
Just got my NEQ6 and all the bits to setup guide scope etc. Not even gone outside yet with it. Off to Morocco next month so making sure I have everything sorted! Very good vid on how to setup for Home Position and Polar Align!
The AZ-EQ5 has two RA circle locking screws. Same as the Declination circle. Instead of the setting circles, I use the SynScan hand controller to display the AX1 and AX2 values and use for the ninety degree rotation. Very accurate. Alas, I don't have a Pole Star to look at.
I've just bought an EQM-35 Pro mount. Having issues with getting the reticule to line up with 12 O'clock at the top with the bar at the bottom. Anyway. I have also been wondering what the heck those dials were for and how to use them. I've spent 7 hours today searching until now. Flipping fantastic tutorial matey. I'll bloddy search here first next time. Great work.
Brilliant tutorials,saved me a lot of hassle.Astronomy shed website if absolutely full of great advice on everything you need to know,so thanks for that.Love the Christmas tree comment around 2mins in to the video :)
This is the first Polar Alignment instruction I actually understand. Thank you! Just one thing I don't understand, is after you've read the HA from the syncs handset and rotated the mount to the correct clock position, it won't be in the home position. I'm guessing this won't matter after you've done your star alignment?
@OriginalAstroTard Thanks for the feedback, meridian flip is no big deal, it's only the mount moving over to the other side of center, basically the mount needs to do it's circle in two halves, right and left. Alignment can run out a little with a flip though and that's where cone error comes in, look for the video on cone error.
This video is so helpful, as are you others. I’ve subscribed to your channel. Would you consider grouping the videos into Playlists? It would make them more accessible
Too Bad I sold my EQ -6 I now have a CG-5 it is more portable but does not have any circles at all Not even a clock around the polar scope... What I do now is make the polar circlet parallel to the counter weight bar and then position the counter weight bar so that it is parallel to an imaginary line between Kochab and Polaris This also works quite well Thanks for the Tutorial in the event I get a Eq-5 Clear Skies from Arizona
Your videos have been a valuable service to me and I greatly appreciate the time and effort that goes into them. After watching the setup videos, I was able to setup my mount, achieve a polar alignment, 3 star alignment and search for objects. Before that, I was thoroughly confused by the manufacturer’s cheesy-chineesy documentation. Do you have any videos on performing a Meridian Flip or are you planning on posting one? Again, thanks for all you do!
@freebz1985 Just use a marker to add a mark of your own, you can either use a spot of tippex or I use a fine line permanent marker. Another option is two luminous green self adhesive stickers, stick one on each of the two rotating surfaces and then add marks with pen as above.
@MikeinOtttawa Thanks for the comments, yes the SW manuals are lacking lol, I recommend my series of 4 vids (so far) called complete mount & scope setup parts 1 to 4
@OriginalAstroTard I'm not sure I understand your question, the accurate home positioning exercise only needs to be performed every blue moon, just to check nothing has strayed, as for polar aligning, you need to polar align every time you set up, unless of course you're on a permanent pier installation. This video is actually an early one and you can just follow the 'complete mount and scope setup' videos as they include most of whats in this one anyway.
@astronomyshed I understand. The "home" setting is a one time deal that's checked occasionally. The alignment your doing "is" the polar alignment that's performed each time the mounts setup. It's just an example of an easier and more accurate way to perform a polar alignment that can be practiced in the house or the garage. Wow, talk about being a bit thick.
Question, at 5:50 to 6:55, your initial setting for horizontal was 90 and vertical was 0. Shouldn't it be 0 for the horizontal and 90 for the vertical? The scope in the vertical position would be 90 degrees declination as it is pointing at polaris and the scope horizontal would be 0 degrees declination as it would be pointing at the celestial equator. Thanks for the great videos and detailed content.
I would agree this is correct. astronomshed's disagreement is wrong. If your scope is at the starting point as instructed in the video by leveling mount, getting RA in correct position, then getting Declination axis in its correct position to the RA you now have your starting point. Now you add your scope to the mount like you did nikosf3n. I would then use a cross-hair eyepiece reticle. Then just moving the Latitude and azimuth center Polaris in the cross-hairs your pretty darn well aligned.
@originaltrilogy1 Unfortunately, not living in the southern hemisphere, I honestly don't have a clue. I wouldn't know where to start, sorry. I do beleive though that the 'ice in space' forum is based in Australia and someone there will definitely help.
Thanks again, I have moved to a small village (20 houses, hardly a village) in the north pennines, its nice and dark so Im thinking of resurrecting my astronomy hobby but with photography added. I need to buy everything and the EQ6 seems to be a very good mount and tripod for the money, could you explain how the tracker system works please. I would like to do long exposure astro photography and Im just trying to gather the information I need.
I just thought I would mention that, after you do the home position trick by using the spirit level, once you have the RA in Home position, mark the RA and fixed points of the mount with a line or as I did a little bit of tape. Do the same with the Dec and you will only have to do this step once, which mean you can leave your clock set for Polar Alignment.
Hi there - these tutorials are perfect, but having "fun" with my EQ3-2 with synscan and a polarscope. I've used a mini level to set RA, but when returned to 0, the weight bar is pointing at about 7 oclock if looking at the mount face on. As it has motors, I'm also assuming this is the reason why I can't turn the Dec circle? cheers
When you put it into the home position and used the dials, are the values you used specific to your time or is it irrelevant and you use those values all the time?
Thankyou AstronomyShed ( great name ), I think the pivotal ( forgive the pun ) words are " if its set up properly" Some folks say this mount is not accurate enough and you need to do lots of short exposures before it loses tracking, and stack them. I asked if yours was accurate because I couldnt believe that what others were saying. Do you use a separate tracker scope?
@astronomyshed After performing this procedure, should the mount be returned to the “home” position before the physical polar alignment is performed? By re-polar aligning, are you saying that the procedure outlined in “complete mount and scope setup part2 (polar aligning)” should then be followed after the previously mentioned procedure? Thank you for your time, Sir William
on this video on the time 9:22 on the hand controller under the polaris HA 23:26 ha has clock 6:16 does it means the position of the polar finder small cercil will be around 6 a clock position after you set the ceril clock of the mount to 23:26 for example. nother words same position as the polar finder chart is telling us. if so my eq6 shows one hour late 7 for example is anything wrong cause mine does not mach now with polar finder chart for one hour. thanks Refet
The reticule, in fact whole polar scope, should only rotate when you turn the RA of the mount, putting it at the bottom, because it 'inverts' being a mini refractor, means that it's 'really' at the top which would be a polaris transit.
If you don't have polar scope, if you get the mount to home position and put the telescope on it, then you find polaris through the telescope moving only the base and lat, isn't this going to give you a good polar aligment? I tried this on my bresser 70/700 and it worked pretty good. I know it's not perfect though.
Hi if any one can help me. have eq6 pro ver 3.12 . What is the next step based on this video? my point is ,do I have to bring the scope to home position befor I do star alligment ar I contunue from this position of the 23 hors transit ?
Afraid not, what you have to remember is that you align the mount, not the scope, on a scope with a very wide field of view you 'may' see polaris off to one side if you do the above.
Hi Dion. I'm a bit confused here. You mention about which numbers to use on the RH Circle in which you use the top numbers that increase clockwise as the video shows increasing to the right. However I read that the easiest way to tell which numbers to use is that you move your telescope tube to the East via RA only and if the RA circle numbers increase as they pass the pointer those are the set of numbers to use in the Northern Hemisphere. Your numbers you say you use, seem to increase (top numbers) only if you move your scope via RH to the West or counter clockwise in the video!!? Are you in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere, as I thought the U.K. is still Northern. I have a Celestron ASGT mount and the manual tells me to use the top numbers for Northern Hemisphere which is where I live, but my top numbers increase to the left (counter clockwise) where your numbers increase to the right. As I move my scope via RH to the East my numbers increase (if the RA circle moves with the scope) which agrees with the Celestron manual to use the top set of numbers. My RH circle is at the same location as yours near the polar finder scope except my top numbers increase from right to left. Help I'm confused here. Also shouldn't the Declination circle when in home position be at 90 instead of 0 as you show? Thanks Dion
As explained in the video, some mounts have the numbers set differently re top/bottom. The 90 degree or 0 is irrelevant as we are only using those scales as a measure to turn the axis through as near to exactly 90 degrees as possible, so in effect you could use 90 to 180.
evere scope is different i am searching for years to find a good tutorial how to setup my scope . no way there isnt . collecting dust .thanks to meade to make not one good tutorial mine is 15 years old never used . dus to lag of information. i dint know it was so painmfull and hard to understand and i am not he only one realy sad.
I think you set the time incorrectly (11 minutes into video). You set it to a fraction under 23:30 (about 23:29). Each marker is 10 minutes, so for 23:26 you would want to be just a fraction past the halfway point of the last two markers.
Very good tutorials, I am enjoying all of them. I have seen another tutorial on using the RA clock, but it was rubbish, and I came away none the wiser, unlike yours witch made perfect sense. I now know how to use that technique. Thanks.
Best tutorial I've seen for this. The manual for the heq5 pro goto mount makes this sound so complicated and I've never managed to do it. I'm confident of being able to do it now, thank you
Great tutorial, hours of head scratching and failure to get the mount to goto with any accuracy before i found this tutorial.
Thanks Dion keep up the good work
Great that there are still people taking the time to create these awesome tutorials.
Great vid, tought me everything I needed to know. Thanks!
This massively helped me and far better than reading the manual - thanks for doing this video.
Hi Dion,
I will hopefully bump in to you at Astrofest 2015. But this and others from you are great little videos and thanks so much for taking the time to put them together. This one especially saves so much time in the polar alignment aspect.
Because it's so awkward to bend down to look at the polarscope I use a little hand camera with a articulated screen focused on the polarscope reticle. I have also replaced the two bolts ( Latitiude ) with bog standard ones from screwfix and use two cheapy ratchet spanners. They work and lot cheaper than those specially made ones going for £50+.
One way to ensure that the little circle is right at the botom of the big circle is a little trick that Chris from Eqmod tells in one his videos. You get polaris right in the cross hairs and then use only latitude bolts to bring it down to where it intersect with the big circle. At this point all you do is move the RA axis and get the little cicle to polaris. I hope this makes sense.
Best
Nalin.
Just got my NEQ6 and all the bits to setup guide scope etc. Not even gone outside yet with it. Off to Morocco next month so making sure I have everything sorted! Very good vid on how to setup for Home Position and Polar Align!
The AZ-EQ5 has two RA circle locking screws. Same as the Declination circle.
Instead of the setting circles, I use the SynScan hand controller to display the AX1 and AX2 values and use for the ninety degree rotation. Very accurate.
Alas, I don't have a Pole Star to look at.
Great video. Just bought an Atlas Mount and your directions are much better than those with the mount.
what a great site mate, you have a great easy way of explaining stuff.
a definite subscribe. cheers. Alan
I've just bought an EQM-35 Pro mount. Having issues with getting the reticule to line up with 12 O'clock at the top with the bar at the bottom. Anyway. I have also been wondering what the heck those dials were for and how to use them. I've spent 7 hours today searching until now. Flipping fantastic tutorial matey. I'll bloddy search here first next time. Great work.
Brilliant tutorials,saved me a lot of hassle.Astronomy shed website if absolutely full of great advice on everything you need to know,so thanks for that.Love the Christmas tree comment around 2mins in to the video :)
Thanks, Great tutorial. Finally got my mount setup how it should be :)
Thanks for the feedback Carlos, glad it helped.
Top marks, top tutorials. I'm hoping to buy the smaller eq3 pro mount with a 150p. This has convinced me to go ahead. Many thanks.
Thank you for a nice simple easy to understand Video keep up the good work.
@RonHuizer Thanks for the feedback Ron, I appreciate it, glad the vids helped
This is the first Polar Alignment instruction I actually understand. Thank you!
Just one thing I don't understand, is after you've read the HA from the syncs handset and rotated the mount to the correct clock position, it won't be in the home position. I'm guessing this won't matter after you've done your star alignment?
@OriginalAstroTard Thanks for the feedback, meridian flip is no big deal, it's only the mount moving over to the other side of center, basically the mount needs to do it's circle in two halves, right and left. Alignment can run out a little with a flip though and that's where cone error comes in, look for the video on cone error.
Excellent video. Really helped me
@wearefused Hi, no, the pre set up is a one off but it's good to just repeat it occasionally, but re polar aligning you are correct.
This video is so helpful, as are you others. I’ve subscribed to your channel. Would you consider grouping the videos into Playlists? It would make them more accessible
@AstroRef68 Yes, once you have polar aligned, move the mount back to home position and then do your star alignment.
Too Bad I sold my EQ -6 I now have a CG-5 it is more portable but does
not have any circles at all Not even a clock around the polar scope...
What I do now is make the polar circlet parallel to the counter weight bar and then position the counter weight bar so that it is parallel to an imaginary line between Kochab and Polaris This also works quite well
Thanks for the Tutorial in the event I get a Eq-5
Clear Skies from Arizona
Really useful video. Thanks
@mattedug Thanks for the positive comments.
Top job, thanks.
Your videos have been a valuable service to me and I greatly appreciate the time and effort that goes into them. After watching the setup videos, I was able to setup my mount, achieve a polar alignment, 3 star alignment and search for objects. Before that, I was thoroughly confused by the manufacturer’s cheesy-chineesy documentation.
Do you have any videos on performing a Meridian Flip or are you planning on posting one?
Again, thanks for all you do!
@freebz1985 Just use a marker to add a mark of your own, you can either use a spot of tippex or I use a fine line permanent marker. Another option is two luminous green self adhesive stickers, stick one on each of the two rotating surfaces and then add marks with pen as above.
Thank you mr astronomyshed, this was help me so much :)
@mik310s Many thanks, I always appreciate feedback.
@MikeinOtttawa Thanks for the comments, yes the SW manuals are lacking lol, I recommend my series of 4 vids (so far) called complete mount & scope setup parts 1 to 4
@OriginalAstroTard I'm not sure I understand your question, the accurate home positioning exercise only needs to be performed every blue moon, just to check nothing has strayed, as for polar aligning, you need to polar align every time you set up, unless of course you're on a permanent pier installation. This video is actually an early one and you can just follow the 'complete mount and scope setup' videos as they include most of whats in this one anyway.
@sbooder
Thanks for the positive comments. Much more info on my site.
Great video when you are setting up Polar Alignment using this method do you need to set your latitude as well. thanks u in advance
@astronomyshed I understand. The "home" setting is a one time deal that's checked occasionally. The alignment your doing "is" the polar alignment that's performed each time the mounts setup. It's just an example of an easier and more accurate way to perform a polar alignment that can be practiced in the house or the garage.
Wow, talk about being a bit thick.
Question, at 5:50 to 6:55, your initial setting for horizontal was 90 and vertical was 0. Shouldn't it be 0 for the horizontal and 90 for the vertical? The scope in the vertical position would be 90 degrees declination as it is pointing at polaris and the scope horizontal would be 0 degrees declination as it would be pointing at the celestial equator. Thanks for the great videos and detailed content.
Very usefull :)thanks
I would agree this is correct. astronomshed's disagreement is wrong. If your scope is at the starting point as instructed in the video by leveling mount, getting RA in correct position, then getting Declination axis in its correct position to the RA you now have your starting point. Now you add your scope to the mount like you did nikosf3n. I would then use a cross-hair eyepiece reticle. Then just moving the Latitude and azimuth center Polaris in the cross-hairs your pretty darn well aligned.
@originaltrilogy1 Unfortunately, not living in the southern hemisphere, I honestly don't have a clue. I wouldn't know where to start, sorry. I do beleive though that the 'ice in space' forum is based in Australia and someone there will definitely help.
I use a guide scope but only because I do 10 minute exposures mostly and I want pin point stars
Thanks again, I have moved to a small village (20 houses, hardly a village) in the north pennines, its nice and dark so Im thinking of resurrecting my astronomy hobby but with photography added.
I need to buy everything and the EQ6 seems to be a very good mount and tripod for the money, could you explain how the tracker system works please. I would like to do long exposure astro photography and Im just trying to gather the information I need.
@ImmersionImagery photographic memory lol Glad it helped.
I just thought I would mention that, after you do the home position trick by using the spirit level, once you have the RA in Home position, mark the RA and fixed points of the mount with a line or as I did a little bit of tape. Do the same with the Dec and you will only have to do this step once, which mean you can leave your clock set for Polar Alignment.
Hi there - these tutorials are perfect, but having "fun" with my EQ3-2 with synscan and a polarscope. I've used a mini level to set RA, but when returned to 0, the weight bar is pointing at about 7 oclock if looking at the mount face on. As it has motors, I'm also assuming this is the reason why I can't turn the Dec circle? cheers
When you put it into the home position and used the dials, are the values you used specific to your time or is it irrelevant and you use those values all the time?
Hi, great video where can we get the small thumb screws from.
Thankyou AstronomyShed ( great name ), I think the pivotal ( forgive the pun ) words are " if its set up properly" Some folks say this mount is not accurate enough and you need to do lots of short exposures before it loses tracking, and stack them. I asked if yours was accurate because I couldnt believe that what others were saying.
Do you use a separate tracker scope?
@astronomyshed After performing this procedure, should the mount be returned to the “home” position before the physical polar alignment is performed?
By re-polar aligning, are you saying that the procedure outlined in “complete mount and scope setup part2 (polar aligning)” should then be followed after the previously mentioned procedure?
Thank you for your time,
Sir William
on this video on the time 9:22 on the hand controller under the polaris HA 23:26 ha has clock 6:16 does it means the position of the polar finder small cercil will be around 6 a clock position after you set the ceril clock of the mount to 23:26 for example.
nother words same position as the polar finder chart is telling us.
if so my eq6 shows one hour late 7 for example is anything wrong cause mine does not mach now with polar finder chart for one hour.
thanks Refet
@MsMelibum Have you got latest firmware installed in your handset? maybe it needs an update, all files are on the OVL/Skywatcher site.
The mount is if it's set up properly as it's what I use.
The reticule, in fact whole polar scope, should only rotate when you turn the RA of the mount, putting it at the bottom, because it 'inverts' being a mini refractor, means that it's 'really' at the top which would be a polaris transit.
@astronomyshed I did I pres NO for it.
Will se when is good weather on go to .
I have got up to setting RA using level, got a bit lost i set the circle to 18 then nipped it up. Where do you gte the zero from thanks in advance
I have my mount on the home position but I don't have a polar scope to do the next step. What do I do?
Eh up! Stonkingly good tutorial!
@MrKellogg76 Thanks.
If you don't have polar scope, if you get the mount to home position and put the telescope on it, then you find polaris through the telescope moving only the base and lat, isn't this going to give you a good polar aligment? I tried this on my bresser 70/700 and it worked pretty good. I know it's not perfect though.
@AstroRef68 Have you taken into consideration the one hour daylight saving time?
Hi if any one can help me.
have eq6 pro ver 3.12 .
What is the next step based on this video?
my point is ,do I have to bring the scope to home position befor I do star alligment ar I contunue from this position of the 23 hors transit ?
my synscan doesnt have the polaris transit time at the end of inputting all the info at the setup any ideas??
I would like one for SH too! Why do you set it to 6pm - are you referring to the time that you set it?
@OriginalAstroTard 100% correct! ;o)
Afraid not, what you have to remember is that you align the mount, not the scope, on a scope with a very wide field of view you 'may' see polaris off to one side if you do the above.
Is this mount accurate enough for long exposure astro photography ?
Hi Dion. I'm a bit confused here. You mention about which numbers to use on the RH Circle in which you use the top numbers that increase clockwise as the video shows increasing to the right. However I read that the easiest way to tell which numbers to use is that you move your telescope tube to the East via RA only and if the RA circle numbers increase as they pass the pointer those are the set of numbers to use in the Northern Hemisphere. Your numbers you say you use, seem to increase (top numbers) only if you move your scope via RH to the West or counter clockwise in the video!!? Are you in the Northern or Southern Hemisphere, as I thought the U.K. is still Northern. I have a Celestron ASGT mount and the manual tells me to use the top numbers for Northern Hemisphere which is where I live, but my top numbers increase to the left (counter clockwise) where your numbers increase to the right. As I move my scope via RH to the East my numbers increase (if the RA circle moves with the scope) which agrees with the Celestron manual to use the top set of numbers. My RH circle is at the same location as yours near the polar finder scope except my top numbers increase from right to left. Help I'm confused here. Also shouldn't the Declination circle when in home position be at 90 instead of 0 as you show? Thanks Dion
As explained in the video, some mounts have the numbers set differently re top/bottom. The 90 degree or 0 is irrelevant as we are only using those scales as a measure to turn the axis through as near to exactly 90 degrees as possible, so in effect you could use 90 to 180.
RUclips isn't the place for this level; of Q&A, take a look on my website at astronomyshed and all the info you need is there.
this video is very good! but in German it would bring me more ;)
Any chance of a southern hemisphere version?
No one cares about the bloody southern hemisphere!!
@astronomyshed Hi thanks a lot for your great video and your respond.
Refet.
@CityRecordsKC Entschuldigung ich spreche kein Deutsch
@freebz1985 If I knew what the DC was I might be able to help, but you've lost me with that accronym.
@marcusgrover Actually brian lives near me ;o) No I'm not joking. He likes a curry too and goes to my local indian.
evere scope is different i am searching for years to find a good tutorial how to setup my scope . no way there isnt . collecting dust .thanks to meade to make not one good tutorial mine is 15 years old never used . dus to lag of information. i dint know it was so painmfull and hard to understand and i am not he only one realy sad.
I think you set the time incorrectly (11 minutes into video). You set it to a fraction under 23:30 (about 23:29). Each marker is 10 minutes, so for 23:26 you would want to be just a fraction past the halfway point of the last two markers.
Don don't do astronomy no more!
Nope, Dion don't ;)