Leveling scope

I have Covington's book "How to use a Computerized Telescope. In it, he
refers to leveling the tripod. Celestron says level the tube. Are the two
synonomous or is there some point on the tripod that needs to be leveled as
well as the tube? Conceivably, the tripod mount could be way off level,
while the tube could be level. I'm a beginner, so be kind.

Which type of scope do you have? I would always level the tripod (don't
get fanatical, two minutes or less should do the job). If you have a
NexStar 8GPS, 9.25GPS or 11GPS, you don't need to level the tube, GPS does
the work for you. If you have a NexStar 80GT or 114GT you need to level the
tube and point north as well. I would just center on Polaris, then use the
handcontroller alt adjustment to move it until I got it level. It worked
fine on my 80GT ...

"MrB" wrote in message
et...
I have Covington's book "How to use a Computerized Telescope. In it, he
refers to leveling the tripod. Celestron says level the tube. Are the two
synonomous or is there some point on the tripod that needs to be leveled
as
well as the tube? Conceivably, the tripod mount could be way off level,
while the tube could be level. I'm a beginner, so be kind.

I have the 114GT.

"Chuck" wrote in message
t...
Which type of scope do you have? I would always level the tripod (don't
get fanatical, two minutes or less should do the job). If you have a
NexStar 8GPS, 9.25GPS or 11GPS, you don't need to level the tube, GPS does
the work for you. If you have a NexStar 80GT or 114GT you need to level
the
tube and point north as well. I would just center on Polaris, then use
the
handcontroller alt adjustment to move it until I got it level. It worked
fine on my 80GT ...

"MrB" wrote in message
et...
I have Covington's book "How to use a Computerized Telescope. In it, he
refers to leveling the tripod. Celestron says level the tube. Are the
two
synonomous or is there some point on the tripod that needs to be leveled
as
well as the tube? Conceivably, the tripod mount could be way off level,
while the tube could be level. I'm a beginner, so be kind.

"Les Blalock" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 19 Oct 2003 20:16:49 GMT, "MrB"
wrote:

I have Covington's book "How to use a Computerized Telescope. In it, he
refers to leveling the tripod. Celestron says level the tube. Are the two
synonomous or is there some point on the tripod that needs to be leveled
as
well as the tube? Conceivably, the tripod mount could be way off level,
while the tube could be level. I'm a beginner, so be kind.

They are 2 different things.

Getting the tripod level is not very critical -- an accuracy of about 5
degrees is good enough.

(More critical if you expect the telescope to find stars before you have
shown it where any of them are.)

Getting the tube level -- i.e., parallel to the base -- for the starting
position is more critical. I made some marks on my NexStar (with the aid of
tape, to be non-destructive) so I could do this more easily.


--
Clear skies,

Michael Covington -- www.covingtoninnovations.com
Author, Astrophotography for the Amateur
and (new) How to Use a Computerized Telescope

On Sun, 19 Oct 2003 20:16:49 GMT, "MrB"
wrote:

I have Covington's book "How to use a Computerized Telescope. In it, he
refers to leveling the tripod. Celestron says level the tube. Are the two
synonomous or is there some point on the tripod that needs to be leveled as
well as the tube? Conceivably, the tripod mount could be way off level,
while the tube could be level. I'm a beginner, so be kind.



The two are not the same... Please see the tips on Michael Swansen's
Nexstar Resource Site at http://www.nexstarsite.com/. Especially note
the Alignment Guides there.


Les Blalock
http://www.txastro.com

Thanks to all who replied.


"MrB" wrote in message
et...
I have Covington's book "How to use a Computerized Telescope. In it, he
refers to leveling the tripod. Celestron says level the tube. Are the two
synonomous or is there some point on the tripod that needs to be leveled
as
well as the tube? Conceivably, the tripod mount could be way off level,
while the tube could be level. I'm a beginner, so be kind.