21
Starscope on equatorial mount
Instruction manual
Set up the tripod with the mount so that the
right ascension axis points as exactly as
possible to the north. A compass facilitates
the alignment.
Look for the constellation „Big Dipper“ in the
night sky. The imaginary connecting line of
the two rear stars points to the North Star
(„Polaris“).
The northern celestial pole is in the immediate
proximity of this star.
Be careful when setting the latitude as well
as the alignment to north, because the more
precise the alignment is, the longer you can
track the telescope to an object only by mo-
ving the RA axis.
It is best to look over the upper axis (Dec
axis) like through a scope. If this axis points
to Polaris, you have aligned your mount
accurately enough for visual observing. You
can now loosen the axis clamps and slew the
telescope to the desired object. Then lock
the axes. Now you can fine tune with the two
flexible shafts and then use only the RA shaft
to track the telescope.
On Earth, we have a coordinate system that
can be used to accurately describe any loca-
tion on Earth using two coordinates. These
are latitude (north or south angular distance
from the equator) and longitude (east or west
angular distance from the prime meridian).
In the sky, north/south latitude is called decli-
nation, and east/west longitude is called right
ascension. Right ascension is given in hours
and minutes (0-24 hours).
In the past, only the pitch circles on the
mount axes were used to locate celestial ob-
jects. With the help of star charts and books
(available in our store) and the viewfinders
used nowadays, it is usually possible to find
celestial objects very quickly, even without a
time-consuming search using coordinates.
A parallactic mount is set up so that the
RA axis is parallel to the Earth‘s axis. With
correct alignment, the apparent motion of the
celestial bodies caused by the Earth‘s rotati-
on can be compensated by moving only the
RA axis.
When doing this, the tripod should be as level
as possible (tripod head level). If the ground
is uneven, you can extend the tripod legs
to different lengths to compensate for the
unevenness.
Polar Alignment
