Setting up an EQ mount, rookie question

Hi all,
I have just got my very first telescope (an for the moment waiting for the
cold, dark winter nights ;-).
The manual concerning the setup of the EQ mount is not the very best.
Probably a poor translation from something into English.
As EQ mounts are very similar, maybe one of you out there have a good manual
(in PDF format or another electronic format) that you could share. Or a link
to a web site where it's explained in understandable English for a astronomy
rookie.
What I'm looking for is primarily the basic setup of the EQ mount so it's
ready for using star data to aim the telescope in the correct direction.

Sorry for nagging you all with my rookie questions, but we have all been
there, or? ;-)

//Hans

PS. Maybe I should collect all my "rookie" Q's and A's on my homepage, could
be useful for other "rookies".

Hans Johansson (SM0IMJ) wrote:
Hi all,
I have just got my very first telescope (an for the moment waiting
for the cold, dark winter nights ;-).
The manual concerning the setup of the EQ mount is not the very best.
Probably a poor translation from something into English.
As EQ mounts are very similar, maybe one of you out there have a good
manual (in PDF format or another electronic format) that you could
share. Or a link to a web site where it's explained in understandable
English for a astronomy rookie.
What I'm looking for is primarily the basic setup of the EQ mount so
it's ready for using star data to aim the telescope in the correct
direction.

Sorry for nagging you all with my rookie questions, but we have all
been there, or? ;-)

//Hans

PS. Maybe I should collect all my "rookie" Q's and A's on my
homepage, could be useful for other "rookies".

Hi Hans,

There's not too much to learn really, it is quite simple. The *only*
important issue is to try to get the mount's rotation axis (RA axis) as
close to parallel with the earth's rotation axis as possible. There are many
ways to achieve this, and for visual use there is no need for very high
accuracy. Most complicated methods describe ways of achieving high accuracy
required only for astrophotography.

You probably have a tripod. The mount must be oriented towards the north,
that means usually that one of the tripod legs should point towards the
north. Use e.g. a compass to figure out approximate local north direction.
Look for the tripod leg marked with 'N' and let it point north. See e.g. the
'N' mark on the leftmost leg in
http://home.online.no/~arnholm/astro...th_east_sp.jpg

Set up the tripod such that the top is fairly level (extend/shorten legs).
Many mounts have a bubble level for this purpose, e.g. see under the
altitude scale in
http://home.online.no/~arnholm/astro...ltitude_sp.jpg. The bubble
should be in the center.

Then figure out where you are in the world (Sweden?), including your
latitude. Stockholm is at approx. 60 degrees north, like Oslo. If you are at
60 degrees north, your mount's altitude setting should look something like
http://home.online.no/~arnholm/astro...ltitude_sp.jpg , i.e.use your
local latitude value.

Essentially, you are done. Attach the telescope and observe. Mars is visible
early in the morning now!
More mount images at http://home.online.no/~arnholm/astro/gpdx_sp/

There are several refinements to the above of course, depending on your
requirements. See for example
http://home.online.no/~arnholm/astro/polar_alignment/ or
http://members.aol.com/ccdastro/drift-align.htm

Hope this helps.

Clear skies
Carsten A. Arnholm
http://home.online.no/~arnholm/astro/astro.htm
N59.776 E10.457