It has now been almost three months since I bought my motorized equatorial mount, so I guess it is about time I get to know it and its many controls a little better. My previous plan to just take it outside and figure out how to align it on the go turned out to be quite disastrous. I have since then been reading various tutorials online and studied it closely, testing all the controls, and I now feel much more comfortable around it. So it was with a renewed hope I carried it out in my parents’ backyard tonight.
The initial rough aligning went fine, but I had problems finding Polaris in the finderscope. Just when I was about to give up, an airplane crossed the sky right under the star allowing for an easy identification. I couldn’t see the scope’s internal reticle very clearly, so I just centered Polaris in the field of view. I then mounted my camera and pointed it at Cassiopeia. Finally, I turned on the motor and the small gears began to hum quietly.
I must have done something right, for my 3 minute long exposure of the sky showed no sign of the Earth’s rotation. :)
