Skywatcher HEQ5 - Having a hard time.

[Savino]

First of all, sorry if I post in the wrong section.

Hi folks,

I bought this mount for me last week, but only yesterday the clouds give a break and I make my first test.

What I found is that the mount isnt so easy to align as they say in the site (or I am kind noob)!

Here´s the deal: I live in Brazil, latitude 19º and I use an 8" newtonian. The problem start with my latitude, is to low for the counterweight so I have to make some kind of extention to lift up the telescope and the counterweight. After this issue solved I start to try to align the mount.
I put the north leg pointed to the south, make the hour, daylight and date ajustments and start the 3 stars alignment.

Well, the mount do not came even closer of the stars it should be pointing, lets say, Sirius. I had to use a rate 8 to move the mount to the star. With this done, I went to the second one, Canopus, and had the same problem, the mount pointed about 15º degrees below the star. I made the same thing as I did with sirius and went to the third one, Fomalhaut with the same problem. With this done the handpad said that the alignment was successfull and I tried to point to M42. The mount went to the right constalation (orion) but too far away from M42, and again, I had to use a high rate to move the mount to its target.

My point is, what I am doing wrong? What did I miss? The problem is with the mount, or with me?
Please, help this newbie astronomer to take some nice photos! It was always my dream and only now (I am 31 years) I could afford this kind of equipament.

And sorry, very sorry for my poor english, I had to learn by myself!

Cheers, and thanks in advance.

 

[MeteorWayne]

I think this would be better off in Ask the Astronomer, so I will move it there. It's not really a photgraphy question, but rather is related to your mount. The folks there should be better able to help.

Is you latitude 19 North or South?

I'm not a scope expert myself (Meteor Wayne, after all ), but there are folks there who can probably help. Give them a day or so to see your post, and good luck

Welcome to Space.com...

 

[Savino]

I think this would be better off in Ask the Astronomer, so I will move it there. It's not really a photgraphy question, but rather is related to your mount. The folks there should be better able to help.

Is you latitude 19 North or South?

I'm not a scope expert myself (Meteor Wayne, after all ), but there are folks there who can probably help. Give them a day or so to see your post, and good luck

Welcome to Space.com...

Hi MeteorWayne.
Sorry for post in the wrong place.

I am at Brazil, so, it´s south.


Now something weird. It´s not my first post here on the forum, but as I can see it´s counting as if it was the first.
Anyway, thanks for the welcome!!!

 

[MeteorWayne]

No worries, it wasn't really the wrong place, I just think you'll get more helpful responses here. I'll leave it in visible in both places for a while.

Sorry I can't help, but I am completely clueless as to how to align an equatorial mount in the southern hemipshere, hopefully others can assist.

Wayne

 

[Fallingstar1971]

Well, you will need to locate crux, it will at least point you to the pole.

You could try a compass, but you will have to compensate due to the fact that magnetic and geographic north are different. Sailors knew this and were able to compensate. You may need to do something similar.

Unfortunately, there is no "polar" star for the south pole.

Bingo, go here

http://www.assa.org.au/articles/polaralignment/

If anyone will know how to allign with the south pole, it will be Australian astronomers

Enjoy

Star

 

[El_Magnifico]

But really, the mount software should take care of everything ... if you point at the three objects, it should figure everything out. If you are sure you are putting in the proper coordinates and time in, it should pick three objects that are widely separated and visible. If you aren't level or aligned, I wouldn't expect it to slew you to them, but by the time you get the third one, it should know everything and just work. Perhaps you could give a few more details about what you are entering into the controller and what you see happening step by step?