Balancing an Equatorial Mount - 'My Telescope Series'

http://bit.ly/2J4GdhW My Telescope Series: Balancing an EQ Mount Directed and Produced by Tommy DeJosia If your telescope has an equatorial mount, you want to make sure that it's properly balanced. The telescope must be balanced properly in order to avoid it tipping over and also to make it easy to track stars. Before you get started, you have to know where the Right Ascension and Declination Knobs are. To balance your mount, start off with your telescope in the home position. Make sure your declination knob is tight and loosen your right ascension knob. Rotate the telescope along the right ascension axes until the counterweight bar is parallel to the floor. Carefully let go of the telescope and see which way the mount rotates. Loosen the counterweight knob, and slide the weight until the telescope and weight are properly balanced. Tighten up the weight. Next, tighten up the right ascension knob and loosen the declination knob. Carefully let go of the telescope tube and see which way it rotates. Go over to your cradle rings and loosen the screws that are securing the telescope. Slide the tube until it's balanced. Tighten up the cradle rings and bring your telescope back to home position. Your equatorial mount is now completely balanced and ready to use. You may need to check and rebalance your mount while using your telescope to view objects at different positions in the sky or after each set up in a new location. http://bit.ly/2I91YLK CarsonOptical June 11, 2019 at 07:35PM