How to Balance an Equatorial Mount - Hacks for Best Performance
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- Опубліковано 17 бер 2022
- In this video I share how to balance and use an equatorial mount, as well as some important hacks to get the most out your mount.
I'm using a Skywatcher Evostar 120 refractor on an EQ5 mount to demonstrate.
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Superb video Chris!! absolutely fantastic how you've taken us through balancing in such a thorough and concise way - nothing is left to the imagination, it's all demonstrated and explained clearly! 😀
A goldmine of information for people looking to learn how to balance mate, top job - this is gonna help a lot of people over the years.
Clear skies to you!
How can I not pin such a flattering comment :D Cheers Luke, you're very kind mate :)
@@AstroLaVista Haha thanks mate! I just says it as I sees it! Your hard work shows, keep up the fantastic content bud 🙏
I believe "East heavy" only equals "counterweight heavy" some of the time depending on the position of the object you are observing/imaging. Sometimes your scope will be east of your mount (if you are imaging to the west) and the balance should therefore be "scope heavy".
I agree :)
Very clearly explained. Also, thanks for explaining why people make their mounts 'east heavy' for AP - that was very illuminating!
I'm glad you liked it, cheers :)
Just found your channel, great video in lay mans terms for the beginner, just taken delivery of an EQ5 Pro and getting to grips with it. Takes us oldies a little longer but I'll get there. Your right about the clouds plus the sea mist in Kent. Keep up the good work.
Will do IceRabbit, glad you found the video useful :)
I love balancing EQ mounts 👌 nicely explained 🔭
Thanks!
Clever.
Tank you for instructions , solved my issue
You're welcome.
East heavy depends on pear side of the telescope, after a meridian flip the other side needs to be heavier.
Great video!!! Thank you :)
You're welcome :)
Great advice with counterweight heavy
Really well explained and demonstrated video Chris, will be very useful for people coming into the hobby.
Hey Ollie! Cheers mate, that's exactly what I'd hoped to achieve with this one so thanks! I hope you've had the chance to use that lovely new scope of yours! ? :)
@@AstroLaVista Only had a very quick test but I'm trying to finish another image on my 80mm but all clouds. Too many toys!
@@AstroSoundscape Haha too many toys is a nice complaint to have hey, although It sounds like you could do with the new Zarkov cloud gun Ollie :D : www.firstlightoptics.com/misc/zarkov-cloud-gun.html
Can't stress counterweight first enough lol.. also if you have a large scope like an RC.. I have pulled off my camera to put laser collimator into the imaging train and that DEC balance goes way off lol. I am glad you covered this. As trivial as this process seems, I have seen people who think that their rig is balanced if it just settles in a horizontal position which is not the case. East heavy was a good addition, great video!
Many thanks James!
If you enjoyed this video please consider watching these as well: How to Choose Your First Telescope ua-cam.com/video/uGP2kjzUdLw/v-deo.html
Nebulae of the Summer Triangle ua-cam.com/video/fCFtFpT1xyI/v-deo.html
DeepSkyStacker Tutorial - How to Stack Astrophotography Images ua-cam.com/video/c3W8MZZbznw/v-deo.html
Offers page for First Light Optics (look out for those deals!) www.firstlightoptics.com/offers/ref/astrolavista/
Great Video Chris, Im looking To buy an Eq Mount with Goto This Year, so This Is Gonna Be Useful!!
Hey mate, cheers glad to hear it, any ideas on which mount you're going to get?
@@AstroLaVista Well, Celestron AVX was on my wish List, But unfortunately its Not Available in my Country. So I decided to Look For An Ioptron, Luckily Its In stock. But the Prices Are Pretty High, LOL. Not sure, I will Spend on it or Look for Another One!😅
Very well explained. Will go balance my telescope now! Thanks Chris 💪
Question: even though I’ll have my telescope balanced, how will I know it’s facing Polaris?
Hello! before balancing you will need to point the mount itself North so the axis of the mount is pointing towards the star Polaris (if you live in the north hemisphere) The last two stars that make up the big dipper /Ursa Major point towards Polaris so it's easy enough to find in the North sky. Once you have done this your equatorial mount will track and counteract the Earth's rotation either with the right ascension slow motion control or an optional motor drive.
@@AstroLaVista thank you so much!
I bought a second hand 130 astromaster with no weights. Bought some 3 inch thick 4 inch solid bar off ebay and made some weights. Got it cut in half at work and drilled the center hole on the lathe at home and drilled and cut a thread for locking. Was lucky it was about the right weight. :)
Good stuff Damian! and I'm impressed you have lathe at home! What lathe to you have? ex CNC turner here : )
@@AstroLaVista Here is a video of my lathe. :)
ua-cam.com/video/jFsatbDF1d4/v-deo.html
@@AstroLaVista At work I run 2 HASS VF5 CNC millers. Just put the bits in a press the button most of the time until something goes wrong. lol
@@damianbutterworth2434 It's a proper built to last lathe! I bet that was pumping out parts for the WW2 effort at one point in time and it's still going! Nice
Hi Chris I am thinking of buying a Skywatcher Evostar 120 EQ3-2 Telescope as my first telescope. Any advice would be help full
Just to point out that yes EQ mounts are the to have in order for longer exposure for Astrophotography but remember Alt/Az mounts are versatile as they can be mounted on a Wedge to track sidereal for longer exposure just like the EQ mounts. The downside with the EQ mounts is it does a Meridian Flip as it can not track below that line.....Alt/Az on a Wedge or not just keeps tracking below the Meridian Line capturing precious Data a EQ mount can't do 🔭
True about the meridian flip. I think imagers live with that because the alternative is an AZ on a wedge which doesn't have a polarscope to accurately polar align. You can drift align but it's time consuming :( AZ for the win when it comes to observing and planetary/lunar imaging though :) I'm not sure I agree with your last sentence? My meridian flip is automatic and takes 20 seconds, it doesn't feel like a big deal other than it is annoying if it does it mid exposure! That has happened a couple of times recently :D
@@AstroLaVista it's nice to talk about different telescopes on how they work! ah yes the Meridian Flip, my friend has a 14" and that takes just over a minute so i'm guessing it's the weight of the telescope. As i work in sciences 20 seconds is precious time. Regarding drift yes i know about that with Alt/Az mounts but the telescope i have the Celestron Nexstar Evolution 9.25" works with the Celestron SkyPortal App which is a new type of innovation which EQ mount users no little about. What the new software does, it allows you to polar align to any star or planet because the north star calculations is already installed in the GOTO mount....this makes Stargazing more interesting and saves a lot of time trying to polar align to the north star. Also the SkyPortal has a fantastic tool installed, once aligned to 3 bright objects you then have the option to align to 10 more additional stars. The more stars you align to the more accurate tracking eliminating the need for a Auto Guider. No drifting no differing. This telescope was designed this way. It even has a 10 hr lithium ion battery built in so no need for a power tank. Did you go to the Astronomy show in Kettering! they did a demo on how it works....anyways clear skies and keep looking up :)
Just as a note to my younger self, with a Newtonian used for imaging we also need to balance on a 3rd axis. Because the imaging train on a Newtonian sticks out at an angle to the telescope OTA not sticking out the back as in a refractor. I always balance this axis by setting the scope in an upright position (OTA pointed to the zenith) and balance the imaging train against the guide scope (or finder scope if not guiding)
Which I hope is the correct way :-) please correct me if I'm wrong
Well pointed out, I know you can get around the 3rd axis with a Newtonian by having the focuser pointing down inline with the counterweight bar, only you need a good focuser so it doesn't slip in that position!
@@AstroLaVista I had a similar issue with the Sesto Senso 2 focuser on my refractor! In the conventional orientation (focus knobs at 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock) there was off-balance in 3rd axis even though Dec was balanced. I rotated the entire focus tube so the focus knobs are at the 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock position and problem solved!
Otherwise for the beginner this is a nice, well explained video, well done!
@@AstroLaVista I have a GSO/TPO Newtonian, it's not the best in the world but the focuser is pretty good. Thanks and taking the time to reply! And thanks for all the great videos you make I never miss an upload from you
@@ziggyfrnds That's the linear rail 2" Crayford focuser right? I've just opened up a FLO parcel for a 6" f/4 StellaLyra (GSO) Newtonian which I'll be putting that through it's paces in the coming months. Honestly it still blows my mind that people regularly watch my videos so thank you sincerely! :)
I have two iOptron mounts. I can balance them both perfectly. No matter what position I put them in, with the clutches loose they want to go to whatever their neutral position is like a scale. They NEVER stay where I put them. The mounts and bearings have almost zero stiction/friction in them, which is what causes a mount to stay in position as you demonstrated. I don't think that stiction/friction in a mount is necessarily a good thing, but as minimal as it is in a case like this, it probably has a negligible effect on the motors and guiding performance.
Hi Brandon, those iOptron's are a different beast to the Synta Sky-watcher/Celestron/Orion mounts aren't they. Like you say they are very free when you release the clutches, partly the great bearings I feel plus when you undo the clutch you completely disengage the spur gear from the worm gear! Also the spur gear is spring loaded on iOptron mounts so you don't need to do the east heavy trick, there is always some tension on the gears when engaged due to the spring.
I have the GEM45 and love that thing! It's not the EC version but I still get 5-6"/pixel resolution on up to 8 minute unguided exposures with a small apo. A really good middle ground between a cast metal Synta mount and a 10micron :D Which two iOptron mounts do you have ?
@@AstroLaVista I have the CEM40EC that I run a WO Redcat 51 and an ASI183 on and then I also have a CEM70 that I just got with a AstroTech AT8RC and a QHY247C that I'm trying to get sorted out. Having issues with collimation. No surprise for an RC telescope!
@@brandonporter4227 Hey very nice, no guiding for you at the RedCat focal length I'm guessing. You're not kidding about RC collimation, I had the StellaLyra RC8 and my Cheshire wasn't up to it so I ended up making small iterative adjustments on a defocused star to get collimation as close as possible. I sort of got lucky but it's a compromise with the focuser sag plus juggling the primary and secondary mirrors.
You can get a tilt plate for the back which might help www.firstlightoptics.com/adapters/ts-m90x1-tilting-adapter-flange-for-6-and-8-stella-lyra-rccc-telescopes/ref/astrolavista/
@@AstroLaVista I have a Moonlight focuser that has a tilt adjuster built into it. I used a Howie Glatter and the concentric ring attachment to align everything. I thought I had it fairly well collimated and had a good star test where I was able to fine tune it. I use a flattener and the star shapes in the imaging camera are good, but the ones in the OAG camera were not. Rotating the OAG 180 degrees improved them, so that suggests to me that something is still misaligned and that it's not a flattener backfocus issue. I'm just not sure where to go from here and haven't had a decent night the last few weeks to put it back out and play with it.
@@brandonporter4227 If you can guide with the non round stars and the star test is good with the main scope, isn't that good enough? Maybe the weird guide stars are down to the OAG prism angle?
What if I just use the scope just for visual? Every time I use the focuser it will be unbalanced from the declination . I use my eq just for visual and have not graduated yet to astrophotography.
Declination only needs to be roughly balanced for observing. As long as it's not so unbalanced that the telescope rapidly drops every time you undo the clutches you will be fine.
Hi can you recommend a good camera that is cheap for taking photos. Around the £100 to £150 mark or less if pos. thanks
Maybe grab an old DLSR from MPB.com. For example a Canon 600D. They have a flip out screen and live view; both useful for astro imaging www.mpb.com/en-uk/product/canon-eos-600d
You've got the weight in the same place I do, with my SW Evostar 120. When are you going to motorise the mount and start showing us those heavenly images? LOL
Hehe hopefully not long now :D I'm hoping to get the motors fitted this weekend. Slight delay as I was considering filming an installation video, but I'm 50/50 on that one, depends on time. It would be fun to see what can be squeezed out of this setup in terms of imaging. The very first mount I tried DSO imaging with was an EQ5 coincidentally.
@@AstroLaVista a setup video would be good. The problem I'm having is getting used to KStars and Ekos on the Raspberry Pi. I've posted some images on the SGL forum, but I'm not too good with stacking software or GIMP, etc.
@@MM0IMC I have no clue about Rasberry Pi's to my shame considering it's 2022! But I'm a big fan of GIMP: ua-cam.com/video/Tl4Ie92MuTs/v-deo.html