9
shows 12 o’clock. The counter weight shaft should be
now facing down. Take a black permanent marker and
transfer a mark onto the mount as shown in the
picture on the left. This has now marked the home
position in the RA. When your black mark is in line
with the arrow your mount is vertical. We need to do
this because in further step we will be moving the RA
clock.
Step 5: With the RA still at 12 o’clock we will now set the
declination clock. Loosen the Dec clutch and rotate until
you can place the level as shown. Get this perfectly level
and lock the Clutch. Now adjust the Declination clock as
we did above setting it to 90 degrees. There is no need to
mark anything as this clock has no need to be moved
again. Now if you rotate the declination so that the clock
reads 0 you mount will be exactly in its home position.
Step 6: Now have a look into the polar scope.
You will see something very similar to the image
on the right. You can see Polaris is clearly
marked as a small circle located on a large circle. Polaris isn’t actually stationary in the sky. It
follows the path of the circle in the image. Loosen the RA clutch and rotate the mount in RA until Polaris is at the 6 o’clock position as shown in the image. Lock the clutch and now
go back to the RA clock and set it to 0. This clock is now set and should be tightened
as we won’t be moving it again.
Step 7: Move the mount back to its Home position and put on your counter weights
and scope and make sure everything is nicely balanced. Do this by firstly loosening
the RA clutch and rotating the mount in RA. It
should stay in any position you put it in. If it isn’t
balanced it will swing so that either the weights go
down or the scope does. Adjust the weights to
obtain perfect balance. Next lock the RA in the
position in the picture and then loosen the
declination clutch. Now balance the scope by
moving the dovetail within the mount or by sliding
the telescope within the tube rings.
Step 8: Ok now we are ready to turn on the mount and align with Polaris.
If you haven’t got the Synscan handset then skip this step and obtain Polaris’s
OAS EZINE