![]() ![]() Learning which direction is which helps you understand how your mount's axes move.Ī star, planet or nebula can be found by using its co-ordinates on a great imaginary sphere projected onto the night sky, with the Earth at its centre.įinding a galaxy this way is almost identical to the way you locate places on Earth using the latitude and longitude system you just imagine the grid projected onto the starry realm. is equivalent to north-south RA is equivalent to east-west. Learning which direction is which helps you understand how your mount's axes moveĭec. Adjust the mount’s altitude setting so that it’s the same as your local latitude.ĭec. It’s unlike a camera-type altazimuth mount, which needs its two axes to be adjusted to track objects.īut even an equatorial mount needs both its axes adjusted to move the scope so that it points at another star. You only need to adjust the RA or polar axis with its slow-motion control to do this. Once the mount has been lined up on the celestial pole, your scope will track the stars with ease and you’ll find it simple to keep objects in your eyepiece for longer. You’ll need to be more accurate if you take astrophotos – you should polar align while looking through the mount’s polarscope. ![]() It’s just a case of adjusting the altitude setting so it’s the same as your local latitude and pointing the polar axis north so it’s lined up on Polaris. When it comes to getting your mount’s polar axis pointing in the right direction, we have a helping hand here in the northern hemisphere: the bright star Polaris sits very close to the celestial pole.įor visual observations, you don’t need to be overly accurate in your polar alignment. Since the sky rotates (or appears to) around the north celestial pole, the mount also has to be aligned to this axis of rotation to track the stars’ movement.Įquatorial mounts are designed to be polar aligned – if you don’t bother, you might as well have saved your money and bought a cheaper altazimuth mount. The sky, in fact, only appears to rotate it’s actually the Earth that’s rotating, once every 24 hours.īut since we’re observing from the surface of the spinning Earth, it looks like the night sky is rotating around us. It’s a notional spot where our planet’s axis of rotation meets the celestial sphere – an imaginary ball with the Earth at its centre, onto whose inner surface all the stars are projected. The north celestial pole is the point that the sky rotates around. To do this properly, the equatorial mount has to be ‘polar aligned’ its right ascension (RA) or polar axis needs to be lined up so that it points at the north celestial pole. Starry night pro enter coordinates how to#Now we’re going to explain how to make the mount follow, or track, stars and other objects as they move with the night sky. ![]() Then do the RA axis: with the counterweight shaft horizontal, loosen the lock and adjust the counterweights until the scope stays put when you let go. axis lock loose, slide the tube back and forth in the rings until the scope rests flat. ![]()
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