Astronomical telescope plus equatorial mount configuration is recommended

The north side is blocking the south side, is it not blocked? You need to know the latitude of your location, the geographical latitude is equal to the height of the North Celestial Pole. Some equatorial mounts may have inaccurate dials and are corrected by stars at the equator.

The declination dial is adjusted to 90 degrees to lock (the polar axis height should not be locked at this time), find a star on the equator, lock the polar axis height, and release the declination lock. Then find a compass, with the polar axis roughly in the same direction as the pointer. Of course, this accuracy is not comparable with the polar axis mirror aiming at the North Celestial Pole, and can only roughly meet the visual requirements.

High precision requires fine tuning. A guide eyepiece is needed (the light source may be the word "Tian", the word "ten" or the word "well", if you don't have it, you can remove the eyepiece on the finderscope and make do with it). At this time, the mirror body is basically placed on the meridian plane, locks the polar axis, finds a star near the celestial equator, turns the lens barrel to aim at the star, and makes it sit on the transverse filament of the eyepiece.

Lock the declination. Wait for the stars to move in the field of view, as shown in the following diagram: [forgot to write north down south, meaning when installing a 45° orthographic prism].

1, accurately, situation 2 belongs to the polar axis east; 3 is the polar axis to the west, which needs to be adjusted repeatedly, which is troublesome. If the equatorial mount is small, it will run away as soon as the wind blows, and if you don't shoot, you don't need to fine-tune it.

This is how a telescope without a polar axis mirror is adjusted, but be careful to fix the tripod throughout the process.

In the case of visual or guide mirrors, you can use the electric heel and manually fine-tune it. Equatorial mounts below EQ3 cannot be distributed, while EQ3 and EQ4 can be equipped with a single axis.

The equatorial instrument was created to improve on the shortcomings of the horizon device. Its main purpose is to overcome the effect of the Earth's rotation on stargazing. A set of astronomical telescopes with a standard configuration is often composed of a telescope, an equatorial mount, a tripod, and other components.

Here's what I've brought to you, and I hope it can help you.

Teach you how to use the astronomical telescope equatorial mount

1. Determine the direction of the North Star where you are standing, which can be determined using a compass. It should be noted that the compass has a partial magnetic phenomenon, and the position of the North Star is a little off, so in the actual process, the position is a little more staggered.

Align the right ascension axis of the equatorial mount in the direction of the North Star, or the opposite if it is the Southern Hemisphere. Direction. This is parallel to the axis of rotation of the Earth, so that we overcome the rotation of the Earth. We only need to turn one axis (right ascension) to easily track the stars.

2. Star searching, we move the longitude axis and latitude axis to find the star you want to observe into our field of view. At this time, it is faster to use a low-power eyepiece to look for it.

3. Track the stars and start the motor on the right ascension axis, at which time the work of the motor makes the equatorial mount rotate along the right ascension axis according to the speed of the earth's rotation - 24 hours per week). In this way, we can keep track of the celestial objects we want. At this time, you can change to a higher magnification eyepiece for a more detailed **sensitivity**, and you can also use the telescope to easily photograph the beautiful starry sky**.

4. Check and adjust, if you find that the star has a tail shadow phenomenon when observing the star, it means that the equatorial mount has not adjusted the eggplant cover and needs to be checked again!

The principle of the equatorial mount

If you want to know how to use the equatorial mount, then you must know how it works. When we are trembling and stargazing, people with a little common sense know that we are standing on the earth, and the earth is moving according to the stars you observe. The Earth is rotating, and the observed stars are orbiting around a center.

It's hard to track down both objects when they're moving. So what do we do?

Clause. First, we need to overcome the rotation of the earth itself and cancel out the rotation, which means that the earth is relatively stationary.

Clause. 2. Tracking according to the trajectory of the observed stars.

The equatorial mount is engraved with the first equatorial coordinate system, the hour angle and declination. The declination is fixed, and the angle of time changes with time, which can also be encountered through astronomical software such as Stellarium.

The premise of using the time angle and declination is to calibrate the polar axis, which is difficult for novices. Moreover, the general 80EQ does not have equipment for the fine calibration of the polar axis.

The accuracy of 80EQ is not large, and if you follow the scale on it, it can be accurate to the range of 5°, which is obviously unacceptable.

Of course, it's not that it's not without use. For example, if I want to find a certain star, and then it is the same ascension as a certain bright star, I can find the bright star, and then adjust the declination, which is a way to find a certain star.

The bench of the equatorial mount is divided into two types: the one with right ascension and declination micro-motion rod, and the one with a polar axis motor tracking type. The star tracking with a micro-lever is more convenient than the graticule, but it must be done manually continuously to continue tracking, and if the budget allows, it is better to use the motor tracking type, which is much more convenient. The balance of the declination axis and the polar axis of the equatorial mount must be adjusted.

If the balance is well adjusted, the lens barrel will be stationary when the fixing screw is relaxed, and the equatorial mount will run smoothly and smoothly to use.

The equatorial mount has three axes:

1 Horizon axis. Perpendicular to the ground level, the lower end is connected to the tripod stage, the upper end is connected to the polar axis, and there is a horizon height dial. Rotation around the horizon adjusts the azimuth of the telescope.

2 polar shafts. One end is connected to the horizon axis, and the polar axis can be adjusted by pulling the polar axis up and down. The other end is connected with the declination axis at 90 angles, and is equipped with an angle disc for adjusting the angle (right ascension) pointed by the telescope.

3 Declination axis. It is connected to the polar axis at 90, and the upper end is connected to the main lens tube at 90 to ensure that the lens barrel is parallel to the polar axis. The lower end is connected to a counterweight and is equipped with an declination dial for the declination adjustment where the telescope is pointing.

Polar axis adjustment. Make the telescope's polar axis parallel to the Earth's axis of rotation, pointing to the North Celestial Pole.

1 The primary mirror is connected to the equatorial mount and tripod, and one leg with the "N" sign is placed due north. Adjust the tripod height so that the tripod table is horizontal.

2 Loosen the polar axis (right ascension) tightening screw and rotate the primary mirror to the left or right. Loosen the counterweight tightening screws and move the counterweight to balance the telescope with the hammer. Turn the telescope back upwards and tighten the screws.

3 Loosen the horizon tightening screws, turn the equatorial mount so that the polar axis (telescope) points north (compass orientation), and tighten the screws.

4. Loosen the clamping screws connecting the polar axis and the horizon axis, pull the polar axis up and down, and make the pointing point aim at the geographical latitude of the observation site (for example: the geographical latitude of Jinan is +, that is, the north latitude +, tighten the screws.

5 Loosen the declination axis tightening screws, turn the telescope so that it is parallel to the polar axis (i.e. parallel to the local meridian coil), and tighten the screws.

6 From the telescope (or a finderscope with the optical axis adjusted), whether the North Star is in the field of view**, if there is any deviation, the square azimuth angle of the polar axis and the horizon height angle need to be finely adjusted until the North Star no longer moves in the field of view**.

At this point, your telescope is perfectly parallel to the Earth's axis of rotation and the meridian of the observation point. As the Earth turns, the polar axis is always facing the North Star.

How to use:

That's 360 degrees a day (because the Earth rotates once a day). This is known as auto-tracking. Of course, if you're using a manual equatorial mount, you'll have to adjust the right ascension (or hour angle) knob at regular intervals, and you don't need to adjust the declination (ideally, if the polar axis isn't aligned enough, you need to fine-tune the declination properly).

There is no need to adjust both axes at the same time, which is the fundamental reason for using an equatorial mount.

Many popular astronomy books will teach you to find stars by calculating the angle of time, but in my experience, it is not convenient to use the angle of time when really doing amateur observations, because you have to calculate the time of the star first, and you also need to know the right ascension and declination of the object you want to observe. Coupled with the accuracy of the time angle disk, it is far less convenient to find stars directly than to use the star map.

Therefore, it has an advantage only for the kind of fixed telescopes that have a fixed base and the polar axis has been aligned, and for people who are very unfamiliar with the constellationsIn addition, it is indeed a bit difficult to find stars directly with astronomical telescopes, because the field of view of the primary mirror is often very small. Therefore, astronomical telescopes usually have a finderscope, which has a relatively large field of view and is used to assist in finding stars.

Of course, it would be much easier if there was a pair of binoculars to help. That's why many experienced enthusiasts advise beginners to buy binoculars first.

Using the most basic EQ1 equatorial mount as an example, there are three dials, which are extremely high, declination and hour angle.

The extreme height is used to align the polar axis, and after aligning the polar axis, it is only necessary to adjust the time angle to track the Sunday movement of any celestial body. However, for manual telescopes, it does not need to be too high, and it is accurate to within the range of 5°.

Then, after finding the celestial body, you can follow the celestial body's Sunday motion by turning the lever that connects the time dial. Declination is used to adjust the orientation of another axis.

For novices, please use the starbridge method honestly, expecting to use astronomical software to find out the time angle and declination of celestial objects and adjust them directly on the telescope is unreliable.

This is really difficult to do, because the North Star is difficult to find, and the Big Dipper is not available at any time, and the method of adjusting it with reference to the North Star is very funny.

This, are you professional or non-professional?? If you are professional, you will have to buy a gap guess the reversal, more than 300 times magnification plus EQ equatorial mount, a total of 7,800 pieces of electronic star hunting, EOS, you have to ask the merchant, let him give you a model. If you have a little spare money, buy a reflective telescope imported from the United States, more than 10,000.

For non-professionals, 80F900 plus electronic Seeker is also 7,800 for EQ