Finally....a clear, concise and easy to understand video on this subject !! I've watched many "how to use an EQ mount" videos from various presenters but this is by far the best I've seen. Also, many thanks for NOT drowning-out the commentary with some trashy 1980s music which many other presenters insist on doing.
Thankfully, I did not fall in a hole walking virtually backwards but instead, the mystery of the equatorial mount was revealed in less than 6 minutes. Brilliant, simple, visual explainer. So much so that I was able to explain it to my son who just said "I get it". Thank you for making this video.
Very well explained sir. I have been doing astronomy and astrophotography now for 11 years, but although I have learned a lot of stuff in that time, I never quite got my head around an EQ mount and how they work compared with an alt-az. In fact, it took almost two years before someone told me the differences between the two types, and that was a chap doing a presentation at Flagstaff Observatory in Arizona who was showing us the telescope used to find Pluto. Now I've managed to loan an NEQ6 from my astro society I really want to learn how it works, and how to use it. I will even do my own little video on it once I am a bit more familiar with it.
Thank you! This was so helpful. I spent 2 hours last night with my first scope trying to follow the moon and it was a total nightmare, but now I see these simple things I need to do first to have a better second go. I’m so glad I found your videos :)
That’s great I’m glad it helped. Equatorials are not at all obvious at first use so it’s sort of ironic that many scopes aimed at new astronomers are supplied with them. Clear skies!
Absolutely Brilliant! Great, simple explanation I can understand. You've answered so many questions and put my mind at ease ( My first EQ mount is arriving soon) Thanks so much! Happy New Year!😀👍RI USA
i really like how you explain this :-) i also think the manual eq-mount is what beginners need to understand to enjoy night sky watching easily following the movement of stars. the SW starquest or AZ-EQ avant just fits for that purpose. too many people explain eq-mount only with emphasis that it is a tool to track stars for photos and gives a version of explanation needed for such an accurate polar alignment, and that scares beginners about eq-mounts. thanks!
Thanks for the great yet simple explanation. I have searched everywhere for StarQuest EQ mount, as I feel it is simpler and easier to use than a German EQ mount, but cannot locate any at all. I have a Celestron C6 SCT scope that I would use with that mount. My understanding is the Sky-watcher StarQuest mount is only available in the UK and Europe in a beginners telescope kit and not available in any way in the US. In fact, I cannot even find parts or a parts diagram for that mount anywhere. I spoke with a Sky-Watcher rep here in the US and he told me that Sky-Watcher has no intention to sell that mount in the US. Thanks again for the video.
It is a shame that Skywatcher don't offer the mount on its own. It's not perfect but as long as it's used for visual observing with an appropriate payload of scope then I really like it.
Thank you for your content. I enjoy watching your videos and you seem very genuine and nice person. I seriously considered getting that StarQuest Mak of yours after watching your video but now I'm more towards Explorer 150pds with eq5 mount. I think it's worth 200€ more from Explorer 130pds with eq3 mount (which I also considered). I think I could manage with 150pds for years and could event expand to astrophotography later on. I love planets but I prefer Explorer for being more "all-around" scope compared to narrow field of a Maksutov. Once more, thank you for these videos!
Midnightlazycat Thank you for the positive feedback, it is much appreciated. The 150pds is a good choice. I love Maks but unless you are interested in planets then a Newtonian is a more versatile choice to begin with. Astro is more relaxing with low powers and bright, wide fields of view and a Newt of 130 or 150 offers these. The StarQuest 130 Newt is a strong package but a good 150 (or even 200!!) will last you longer. Clear skies, Graham
Excellent, easy to understand explanation of how an equatorial mount works. I use the level on my iPhone to level the tripod and the compass app you mention to align the mount (you can use settings on iPhone to set compass to True North instead of magnetic north). Even though I already knew how to set up the mount, your video makes the process of tracking the stars using RA much more understandable. Thanks!
excelent! One question please: I just bought a new skywatcher120/1000 rig with equatorial neq5 and I'm still learning the equatorial (before it had a 70mm with altaz mount. Once I managed to put it in parking position (orient the tripod to the north with a quality compass, level the tripod , level right ascension and level declination and adjust latitude of Madrid), can I consider that I am aligned with the polar? even if it is fake alignment? because sometimes you want to see the moon during the day or because there is something that does not allow you to see the polar. And Would you know how many degrees you have to deviate to true north in the location of Madrid, since the compass will indicate magnetic north?
You guys are lucky, down here its not so stright forward. Thanks to Celestron you have a feature all polar alighment in the hand controller so helps you with polar alighment.
What a fantastic straightforward explanation of how to achieve basic polar alignment. I have been trying to get my head around how the concept actually works in practice, you have succeeded explaining it where many before you have failed. However I must confess I'm still confused as to how it works when you're looking South from the Northern hemisphere. I live in Northern England in a house that faces South, so much of my viewing is in that direction. You appear to have only shown your telescope viewing to the Northern half of the sky, how does it work facing the other way? My little brain is still confused 🤣
Great Explanation Jenham! Can you still help me with one question?... When the GEM is pointing North and the Polaris has been aligned will the telescope on the mount also point to stars/objects in the South direction? Will the mount move the telescope all the way opposite to look at a object?
Hello, it will move around until it is pointing very close to south but then it can’t keep going as the counterweight will hit the tripod. The scope is now looking towards the meridian. The scope & mount will need to be “flipped” to keep following an object that has crossed the meridian. GoTo Tracking mounts know where they are pointing and can be set up to automatically flip, otherwise for manual mounts you spin them around by hand.
I would like to see you actually go through the process of setting up to north, finding an object and then making the adjustments to follow it through its arc. Thanks!
Matan Rosenfeld Thanks! It’s one of the topics that is not intuitive, to me at least, so I made a video in case someone else thought the same! Clear skies, Graham
Once you’ve got the mount set up to your latitude each time you use it you can just carry it outside and then point it to North using a naked eye alignment or I also use the compass app on my phone. That gets you close enough for most visual work.
A compass gives you a decent rough alignment that can be sufficient for visual observing. A polar alignment scope fitted into the polar axis of a mount allows a more accurate alignment. The Earth’s rotation is around a N/S celestial pole (true north), a point that is about 1 degree from Polaris in the northern hemisphere. Rotation is not around a line through the magnetic poles, which are offset from true north.
In that case this particular mount will not accommodate the movement needed to point the polar axis effectively at the horizon. I'd be interested to hear about mounts which can work at these latitudes.
Good review. and thank you. Have a question - The sky watcher mount with both AZ & EQ mount you showed , is it MOTORIZABLE .what is the name of that mount and what will be its capacity. Thank you
Good videos. Just curious. Can you buy a similar manual eq mount without the other stuff for a skywatcher 102? All I've seen you have to also buy the tripod or telescope.
Thanks. I don't think you can buy the same mount on its own. Skywatcher used to sell it as the AZ-EQ Avant but only with an optical tube i think. I've looked at their mount range and it includes Star Adventurer Pro and AZ-GTI but these aren't really the same.
AntPDC It is a bit of a lump! Fortunately your can separate the counterweight and then carry the mount, weight and scope outside in three trips. Abs must be engaged for the mount, plus I often extract some paintwork as I navigate through doors. Not grab and go but solid when setup.
Great ! Job making a complex method.... EASY... Someone gave me an older 8 inch (203mm) Newtonian Reflector with and Equatorial mount ! by LinOptics.. So I just rebuilt the entire thing spotted the mirror, aligned it and tonight hoping there are no clouds...
Thank you, for explaining what an EQ mount is, I am sure it will help newbies Didn't quite do what I thought it would tho, please show following star or planet in southern sky (you align on Polaris then view say Jupiter of Saturn), I want people to see how the RDF or viewfinder (on a newtonian) gets to a silly position where you need to be an acrobat, especially if you are looking at an object near the zenith
I want to buy an eq8 or comparable in weight capacity mount, but I only have a small mirrorless camera and small lenses, I won’t be buying the telescope that is meant for that mount for some time (the celestron edge hd14). will the heavy duty mount cause problems because it is so heavy compared to its payload?
I don’t know whether the EQ8 has a minimum payload as such, certainly you’d be running with no counterweight if you’ve only got a camera and lens on the other side. you might even have to add weight I suppose on the camera side in order to make the balance correctly but honestly I don’t have experience with that size of mount. it’s quite a nice problem to have though! it might be more effective to buy a simple camera tracking mount like sky watcher offer in the star adventurer range, then the set up is more portable?
I generally don't, but one option is to centralise on a known, bright star, zero the scales and then use an app to calculate the difference in RA and Dec between the star and the object. Turn the mount until the circles display the offset.
I never recommend EQ mounts for beginners, because they rarely understand how the sky moves, and it becomes a frustration. AZ mounts (including dobsonians) are more intuitive to newcomers to astronomy. Good explanation, though!
I might be asking a silly question. But why can’t you look through the telescope to get Polaris in the centre. Wouldn’t that make it more accurate? If you don’t have a built in polar scope you have a huge telescope to use?
It’s a good question. If you set the scope axis to be “parallel” with the polar axis then using the scope to sight Polaris can get you close. But for more precision a polar scope (assuming it is itself lined up with the mount’s mechanical axis) can take account of the fact that the Polaris is offset from the North Celestial Pole. The reticle and an app helps you get the angle correct. The other variable introduced by using the scope can be if the tube ring mounting adds another offset of scope vs mount polar axis. In summary your way is ok as a rough method for visual but not for anything needing precise tracking like astrophotography.
Yes. If you look at many Schmidt Cassegrain scopes for example (Celestron/Meade) then you see they have alt-az mounts but you can add an optional wedge to make them into equatorials. The only issue with adding a wedge to an alt-az scope is that balance can become an issue and you need a sufficiently heavy tripod.
@@JenhamsAstro I just discovered this myself and have been using my Alt-az mount on a tripod in EQ mode and just love having to only use a singe axis to keep the object in view. Who knew? Excellent video by the way.
@@JenhamsAstro Sorry, 2nd reply. I see the balance problem and that would put a lot of strain on the axis gears I get around that by polar aligning the scope, then turning the tripod around 180 degrees. The scope is now centered on the top of the mount. It is a little clunky at zenith but using the altitude axis you can track the planets at least looking east and west. It makes astrophotography easier anyway.
Hi, there is short-ish answer: After it has been polar aligned, an eq mount only needs to be moved in ONE axis to track an object. On simple mounts like the one in the video this can be achieved by manually turning a knob (usually these look like long flexible rods and are called "slow motions") OR by attaching a "Right Ascension motor", aka a motor drive, to turn the mount. Computerised mounts can be both eq or alt-azimuth types, but they normally contain TWO motors to allow move the mount to any location. Longer answer: Most of these computerised mounts aren't very smart in that they are not "seeing" an object and then moving their motors to follow it as such. Instead they rely on an initial alignment where the mount is pointed to 3 stars. The software then works out which way the scope must be pointing and drives the motors from there. If the alignment was accurate the object stays centred for hours and selecting a new object and slewing to it ("goto") will also work well. But if the alignment was a bit off the object can drift slowly from the field of view even with a computerised scope. If you ever get into astrophotography then you can solve this issue by using a dedicated camera attached to a small guiding telescope which does sense a star and move the motors to keep it centred in a smarter (closed loop) way. This is called guiding, and is only really needed for precise photography. For visual observing, tracking (an open loop process) is good enough if you make a decent initial alignment.
The basic mount in the video has no tracking so you have to manually turn the Right Ascension slow motion control to keep the object centred. In practise this is quite easy. Skywatcher do offer an optional battery powered RA drive unit which can drive the mount at the sidereal rate. www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-starquest/sky-watcher-ra-motor-drive-for-starquest-and-az-eq-avant-mounts.html
I thought the whole point of buying an equatorial was to not constantly change the angle and position of the tripod, but as it turns out we only move one axis and not two.
My only experience so far is with an old orange (70’s) C8 on a wedge and fork. I set the scales to zero/90 and point to Polaris then get twiddling to where I want to go. My clock motors work great. All is well. I wanted a C9.25 on an Evo mount I’d seen on Fb. Bought it and found out that the Evo had prolly been overloaded with astrophotography stuff as it was slipping in Alt. I deduced this as the lady (not the original owner) was including other stuff I didn’t understand- an EQ6-R, Hyperstar, guide cam etc.. I sent the Evo back to Celestron for servicing and turn my attention to the EQ six. Of course it’s an equatorial, and I’m struggling to understand concepts here. I see from your excellent video how I need to align it, but I am now puzzling about the RA and Dec setting circles. I thought I should set them both to zero when it was sitting in the home position but then I can’t understand why Polaris isn’t at 0/90. Looking at my Atlas I see that the Dec is about 90 but RA isn’t zero like the C8. It is something odd. Can you explain? As you can see I’m a newb!
yip... An Equatorial mount is just a Tilted Alt-AS for handling the "globy-ness" of this rock... What gives me great please is posting pictures of my equipment, on these flatard groups, and seeing how long it takes them to realize I'm trolling...
Finally....a clear, concise and easy to understand video on this subject !! I've watched many "how to use an EQ mount" videos from various presenters but this is by far the best I've seen. Also, many thanks for NOT drowning-out the commentary with some trashy 1980s music which many other presenters insist on doing.
Thankfully, I did not fall in a hole walking virtually backwards but instead, the mystery of the equatorial mount was revealed in less than 6 minutes. Brilliant, simple, visual explainer. So much so that I was able to explain it to my son who just said "I get it". Thank you for making this video.
Glad it was helpful without incurring injury! Clear skies.
Thank you for the explanation. It brought simplicity in where I was panicking. Helped me tons.
Very well explained sir. I have been doing astronomy and astrophotography now for 11 years, but although I have learned a lot of stuff in that time, I never quite got my head around an EQ mount and how they work compared with an alt-az. In fact, it took almost two years before someone told me the differences between the two types, and that was a chap doing a presentation at Flagstaff Observatory in Arizona who was showing us the telescope used to find Pluto. Now I've managed to loan an NEQ6 from my astro society I really want to learn how it works, and how to use it. I will even do my own little video on it once I am a bit more familiar with it.
Thank You! Finally! Someone explains it and it makes sense!
Absolutely brilliant explanation. Wish this had been available about 10 years ago when I got my first telescope with a basic EQ3.
Thanks Alan. EQs do mess with my head sometimes!
Terrific communicator. Well done
Great video. Now I understand how it is possible to use an eq wedge on an alt-az go-to mount.
Thanks for the explanation! It makes a complicated subject much easier to understand!
Great video! Simple and clear.
Glad it was helpful!
Interesting and well put, thank you !
Thank you! This was so helpful. I spent 2 hours last night with my first scope trying to follow the moon and it was a total nightmare, but now I see these simple things I need to do first to have a better second go. I’m so glad I found your videos :)
That’s great I’m glad it helped. Equatorials are not at all obvious at first use so it’s sort of ironic that many scopes aimed at new astronomers are supplied with them. Clear skies!
I already knew this info but you explained it better than any other video. Well done.
A perfect explanation thank you. I couldn't get my head around the instructions that came with the mount, now it is clear what I need to do.
This is the best description yet that I've seen and I've seen a lot
Thanks for simplifying the concept. Great explanation 👍
Absolutely Brilliant! Great, simple explanation I can understand. You've answered so many questions and put my mind at ease ( My first EQ mount is arriving soon) Thanks so much! Happy New Year!😀👍RI USA
Most excellent! Best I've seen on the subject and well appreciated. Thank you!
I really enjoy watching your channel!!! Because of you I bought Sky-Watcher Mak 127. Greetings from Poland!!
I hope you like the 127 Marcin. I think it's a solid scope.
nice explanation, of coarse like most things you start out basic and if you like it then you want more, more, more gadgets. ☺ thanks.
i really like how you explain this :-) i also think the manual eq-mount is what beginners need to understand to enjoy night sky watching easily following the movement of stars. the SW starquest or AZ-EQ avant just fits for that purpose. too many people explain eq-mount only with emphasis that it is a tool to track stars for photos and gives a version of explanation needed for such an accurate polar alignment, and that scares beginners about eq-mounts. thanks!
Thank you.
Thanks for the great yet simple explanation. I have searched everywhere for StarQuest EQ mount, as I feel it is simpler and easier to use than a German EQ mount, but cannot locate any at all. I have a Celestron C6 SCT scope that I would use with that mount. My understanding is the Sky-watcher StarQuest mount is only available in the UK and Europe in a beginners telescope kit and not available in any way in the US. In fact, I cannot even find parts or a parts diagram for that mount anywhere. I spoke with a Sky-Watcher rep here in the US and he told me that Sky-Watcher has no intention to sell that mount in the US.
Thanks again for the video.
It is a shame that Skywatcher don't offer the mount on its own. It's not perfect but as long as it's used for visual observing with an appropriate payload of scope then I really like it.
Awesome video. Thanks for helping me with the tripod!
Finally this made sense to me. Thx man.
Thank you for your content. I enjoy watching your videos and you seem very genuine and nice person. I seriously considered getting that StarQuest Mak of yours after watching your video but now I'm more towards Explorer 150pds with eq5 mount. I think it's worth 200€ more from Explorer 130pds with eq3 mount (which I also considered). I think I could manage with 150pds for years and could event expand to astrophotography later on. I love planets but I prefer Explorer for being more "all-around" scope compared to narrow field of a Maksutov. Once more, thank you for these videos!
Midnightlazycat Thank you for the positive feedback, it is much appreciated. The 150pds is a good choice. I love Maks but unless you are interested in planets then a Newtonian is a more versatile choice to begin with. Astro is more relaxing with low powers and bright, wide fields of view and a Newt of 130 or 150 offers these. The StarQuest 130 Newt is a strong package but a good 150 (or even 200!!) will last you longer. Clear skies, Graham
It was so clear. Thanks 🙏🏻
Superb explanation - thank you
Thanks for the great explanation and wee prop. The North Pole example is perfect.
Thank you, I finally understand.
Excellent, easy to understand explanation of how an equatorial mount works. I use the level on my iPhone to level the tripod and the compass app you mention to align the mount (you can use settings on iPhone to set compass to True North instead of magnetic north). Even though I already knew how to set up the mount, your video makes the process of tracking the stars using RA much more understandable. Thanks!
Thanks Jean, top tip on the compass setting! Clear skies to you.
excelent! One question please: I just bought a new skywatcher120/1000 rig with equatorial neq5 and I'm still learning the equatorial (before it had a 70mm with altaz mount. Once I managed to put it in parking position (orient the tripod to the north with a quality compass, level the tripod , level right ascension and level declination and adjust latitude of Madrid), can I consider that I am aligned with the polar? even if it is fake alignment? because sometimes you want to see the moon during the day or because there is something that does not allow you to see the polar. And Would you know how many degrees you have to deviate to true north in the location of Madrid, since the compass will indicate magnetic north?
2:38 love the snowman. Brilliant explanation!
Art was never my strong point!
Excellent! You might consider pinning this video on your page as a great beginning tutorial. Cheers!
You guys are lucky, down here its not so stright forward. Thanks to Celestron you have a feature all polar alighment in the hand controller so helps you with polar alighment.
The sky appears to rotate, because it does.
You really have a talent. Loved your vid. It's great!
Thank you that’s very kind. Clear skies to you.
Great clear explanation. Thank you.
What a fantastic straightforward explanation of how to achieve basic polar alignment. I have been trying to get my head around how the concept actually works in practice, you have succeeded explaining it where many before you have failed.
However I must confess I'm still confused as to how it works when you're looking South from the Northern hemisphere.
I live in Northern England in a house that faces South, so much of my viewing is in that direction.
You appear to have only shown your telescope viewing to the Northern half of the sky, how does it work facing the other way? My little brain is still confused 🤣
This video wrinkled my brain
Nicely explained
great work, thanks
Great Explanation Jenham! Can you still help me with one question?... When the GEM is pointing North and the Polaris has been aligned will the telescope on the mount also point to stars/objects in the South direction? Will the mount move the telescope all the way opposite to look at a object?
Hello, it will move around until it is pointing very close to south but then it can’t keep going as the counterweight will hit the tripod. The scope is now looking towards the meridian. The scope & mount will need to be “flipped” to keep following an object that has crossed the meridian. GoTo Tracking mounts know where they are pointing and can be set up to automatically flip, otherwise for manual mounts you spin them around by hand.
Very well explained indeed. !
Great explanation!
I would like to see you actually go through the process of setting up to north, finding an object and then making the adjustments to follow it through its arc. Thanks!
I'll put it on my "to do" list of videos.
Finally a good explanation
Matan Rosenfeld Thanks! It’s one of the topics that is not intuitive, to me at least, so I made a video in case someone else thought the same! Clear skies, Graham
Very clear explanation, Sir. Thanks in advanced
How to target the celestial pole (northern star)? With the naked eye or something that would surely be accurate?
Once you’ve got the mount set up to your latitude each time you use it you can just carry it outside and then point it to North using a naked eye alignment or I also use the compass app on my phone. That gets you close enough for most visual work.
Great vid. Does the earth rotate around the magnetic north south for polar alignment with a good common compass?
A compass gives you a decent rough alignment that can be sufficient for visual observing. A polar alignment scope fitted into the polar axis of a mount allows a more accurate alignment. The Earth’s rotation is around a N/S celestial pole (true north), a point that is about 1 degree from Polaris in the northern hemisphere. Rotation is not around a line through the magnetic poles, which are offset from true north.
Thanks for the clear explanation and demonstration. How about if you live near the equator at 4 degrees latitude?
In that case this particular mount will not accommodate the movement needed to point the polar axis effectively at the horizon. I'd be interested to hear about mounts which can work at these latitudes.
@@JenhamsAstro pls share if you come across a mount that will work here.
Good review. and thank you.
Have a question - The sky watcher mount with both AZ & EQ mount you showed , is it MOTORIZABLE .what is the name of that mount and what will be its capacity. Thank you
Thanks. Yes, Skywatcher offer a battery powered RA drive which can be attached to the mount.
Clear ! This is what I needed ! tnx
Good videos. Just curious. Can you buy a similar manual eq mount without the other stuff for a skywatcher 102? All I've seen you have to also buy the tripod or telescope.
Thanks. I don't think you can buy the same mount on its own. Skywatcher used to sell it as the AZ-EQ Avant but only with an optical tube i think. I've looked at their mount range and it includes Star Adventurer Pro and AZ-GTI but these aren't really the same.
Thank you. That HEQ5 Pro must be a bugger to haul around!
AntPDC It is a bit of a lump! Fortunately your can separate the counterweight and then carry the mount, weight and scope outside in three trips. Abs must be engaged for the mount, plus I often extract some paintwork as I navigate through doors. Not grab and go but solid when setup.
Hi. How to use setting circles in ÉQ mont with different coordinates? Thanks
Brilliant explanation. Very easy to visualize. Check out the creative way I described drift alignment with paper cutouts lol. Great work man.
Thanks Garnett, I'll have a look!
Great ! Job making a complex method.... EASY... Someone gave me an older 8 inch (203mm) Newtonian Reflector with and Equatorial mount ! by LinOptics.. So I just rebuilt the entire thing spotted the mirror, aligned it and tonight hoping there are no clouds...
Thank you, for explaining what an EQ mount is, I am sure it will help newbies
Didn't quite do what I thought it would tho, please show following star or planet in southern sky (you align on Polaris then view say Jupiter of Saturn), I want people to see how the RDF or viewfinder (on a newtonian) gets to a silly position where you need to be an acrobat, especially if you are looking at an object near the zenith
Hi Ronald, I'll try to cover the issue in another video.
@@JenhamsAstro Thank you, dont forget a tube with a dovetail, no rings and both please MAK and Newtonian
I want to buy an eq8 or comparable in weight capacity mount, but I only have a small mirrorless camera and small lenses, I won’t be buying the telescope that is meant for that mount for some time (the celestron edge hd14). will the heavy duty mount cause problems because it is so heavy compared to its payload?
I don’t know whether the EQ8 has a minimum payload as such, certainly you’d be running with no counterweight if you’ve only got a camera and lens on the other side. you might even have to add weight I suppose on the camera side in order to make the balance correctly but honestly I don’t have experience with that size of mount. it’s quite a nice problem to have though! it might be more effective to buy a simple camera tracking mount like sky watcher offer in the star adventurer range, then the set up is more portable?
How to use setting circles on an equatorial telescope? DEC and RA circles. Thanks.
I generally don't, but one option is to centralise on a known, bright star, zero the scales and then use an app to calculate the difference in RA and Dec between the star and the object. Turn the mount until the circles display the offset.
I never recommend EQ mounts for beginners, because they rarely understand how the sky moves, and it becomes a frustration. AZ mounts (including dobsonians) are more intuitive to newcomers to astronomy. Good explanation, though!
Thanks, I agree they aren't the easiest things to get your head around.
Subbed !
Thanks mate
I might be asking a silly question. But why can’t you look through the telescope to get Polaris in the centre. Wouldn’t that make it more accurate? If you don’t have a built in polar scope you have a huge telescope to use?
It’s a good question. If you set the scope axis to be “parallel” with the polar axis then using the scope to sight Polaris can get you close. But for more precision a polar scope (assuming it is itself lined up with the mount’s mechanical axis) can take account of the fact that the Polaris is offset from the North Celestial Pole. The reticle and an app helps you get the angle correct. The other variable introduced by using the scope can be if the tube ring mounting adds another offset of scope vs mount polar axis. In summary your way is ok as a rough method for visual but not for anything needing precise tracking like astrophotography.
So an Alt-Az mount with a wedge, or on top of a video camera tripod is equivalent to an EQ mount?
Yes. If you look at many Schmidt Cassegrain scopes for example (Celestron/Meade) then you see they have alt-az mounts but you can add an optional wedge to make them into equatorials. The only issue with adding a wedge to an alt-az scope is that balance can become an issue and you need a sufficiently heavy tripod.
@@JenhamsAstro I just discovered this myself and have been using my Alt-az mount on a tripod in EQ mode and just love having to only use a singe axis to keep the object in view. Who knew? Excellent video by the way.
@@JenhamsAstro Sorry, 2nd reply. I see the balance problem and that would put a lot of strain on the axis gears I get around that by polar aligning the scope, then turning the tripod around 180 degrees. The scope is now centered on the top of the mount. It is a little clunky at zenith but using the altitude axis you can track the planets at least looking east and west. It makes astrophotography easier anyway.
So an eq mount still relies on manual turning of a wheel to track a galaxy say. Only computerised mounts can autotrack? Would that be correct
Hi, there is short-ish answer:
After it has been polar aligned, an eq mount only needs to be moved in ONE axis to track an object. On simple mounts like the one in the video this can be achieved by manually turning a knob (usually these look like long flexible rods and are called "slow motions") OR by attaching a "Right Ascension motor", aka a motor drive, to turn the mount. Computerised mounts can be both eq or alt-azimuth types, but they normally contain TWO motors to allow move the mount to any location.
Longer answer:
Most of these computerised mounts aren't very smart in that they are not "seeing" an object and then moving their motors to follow it as such. Instead they rely on an initial alignment where the mount is pointed to 3 stars. The software then works out which way the scope must be pointing and drives the motors from there. If the alignment was accurate the object stays centred for hours and selecting a new object and slewing to it ("goto") will also work well. But if the alignment was a bit off the object can drift slowly from the field of view even with a computerised scope. If you ever get into astrophotography then you can solve this issue by using a dedicated camera attached to a small guiding telescope which does sense a star and move the motors to keep it centred in a smarter (closed loop) way. This is called guiding, and is only really needed for precise photography. For visual observing, tracking (an open loop process) is good enough if you make a decent initial alignment.
How come your the only person I understand
I like your style. :) please explain it to me as if I am in kindergarten. haha. I love trips and finishing sandwiches.
So, align to North of a compass or cell phone app? And then latitude
Yes, that’s it.
Do you have to manipulate the tracking rate?
The basic mount in the video has no tracking so you have to manually turn the Right Ascension slow motion control to keep the object centred. In practise this is quite easy. Skywatcher do offer an optional battery powered RA drive unit which can drive the mount at the sidereal rate. www.firstlightoptics.com/sky-watcher-starquest/sky-watcher-ra-motor-drive-for-starquest-and-az-eq-avant-mounts.html
What about the circles
Brilliant
I thought the whole point of buying an equatorial was to not constantly change the angle and position of the tripod, but as it turns out we only move one axis and not two.
Thanxy
i am very confused. as i looked up my codinatesit said 60N and 25 E. so does that mean my latidute is 60?
Yes
@@JenhamsAstro Oh Ok thanks for clearing it up!👍
My only experience so far is with an old orange (70’s) C8 on a wedge and fork. I set the scales to zero/90 and point to Polaris then get twiddling to where I want to go. My clock motors work great. All is well.
I wanted a C9.25 on an Evo mount I’d seen on Fb. Bought it and found out that the Evo had prolly been overloaded with astrophotography stuff as it was slipping in Alt. I deduced this as the lady (not the original owner) was including other stuff I didn’t understand- an EQ6-R, Hyperstar, guide cam etc.. I sent the Evo back to Celestron for servicing and turn my attention to the EQ six. Of course it’s an equatorial, and I’m struggling to understand concepts here. I see from your excellent video how I need to align it, but I am now puzzling about the RA and Dec setting circles. I thought I should set them both to zero when it was sitting in the home position but then I can’t understand why Polaris isn’t at 0/90. Looking at my Atlas I see that the Dec is about 90 but RA isn’t zero like the C8. It is something odd. Can you explain? As you can see I’m a newb!
yip... An Equatorial mount is just a Tilted Alt-AS for handling the "globy-ness" of this rock... What gives me great please is posting pictures of my equipment, on these flatard groups, and seeing how long it takes them to realize I'm trolling...
👍👍
👍🏻😉🌓