Equatorial mounts: an astronomer's guide

Putting your telescope on an equatorial mount allows you to follow stars as they
(appear to) move across the night sky.
For newcomers to astronomy, setting up an EQ mount may seem a daunting
task. BBC Sky at Night Magazine shows you how.
By Anton Vamplew.
Subscribe to BBC Sky at Night Magazine in print or digital for up to date advice
and guides to practical astronomy, and reviews of the latest kit.
Wed Jun 7, 2017
Submitted by Iain Todd
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A telescope on an equatorial mount, showing: 1. Tube rings these hold the

scope on the mounting plate. 2. Tube ring locks to keep the scope in place. 3.
Dovetail mounting plate. 4. Dec. setting circle. 5. RA slow motion control fine-
tunes where the scope is pointing. 6. Counterweights. 7. Altitude setting only
adjusted once.

An equatorial mount is made up of a tripod and a mount head, which holds the
telescope and moves it about on two axes, one called right ascension (RA; east-west)
and the other called declination (Dec.; north-south).
Putting your telescope on an equatorial mount allows you to follow stars as they
continue their steady progress across the night sky. The mount may look complex, but it
really doesnt take long to master.
Were going to to break down everything you need to know about these mounts into
easy-to-follow steps, starting with putting them together. Were using an EQ3 mount, but
the techniques will work for other types, too.
1. The scope and mount head sit on a TRIPOD. Set this up in daylight if its your
first time. Adjust the height of the tripods legs so the top is level with your hips
and, if there is one, fit the central accessory tray. Make sure that the top is level
and that the leg labelled N is pointing north.

2. Place the MOUNT HEAD onto the top of the tripod. Line up the metal peg on the
top of the tripod with the gap underneath the mount, between the azimuth locks
two bolts. Secure the mount head onto the tripod by tightening the big bolt
hanging from the underside of the tripod top.
3. Screw the COUNTERWEIGHT bar into the mount head. With the rods locknut
tightened against the mount, take the safety screw off the end of the bar and slide
the counterweights halfway up the bar, tightening the screws on the weights to
secure them. Then replace the safety screw on the end.
4. The RA axis needs to point up to the north celestial pole. To do this, the
mounts ALTITUDE SETTING needs to be the same as your local latitude. Release
the front and back bolts and tilt the mount head so that the pointer lines up with
the right number on the altitude scale, then do the bolts up again.
5. Fit a SLOW MOTION CABLE onto the small D-shaped shafts on the RA and the
Dec. axes, tightening the screw at the end of each cable to hold it in place. If
using a refractor, rotate the Dec. axis so that the cable extends to the bottom. For
a reflector, fix the cable on at the top, closest to the eyepiece.
6. The telescope is held in the mount head by two TUBE RINGS, which are
attached to a mounting plate clamped tightly into the mount head. Our example
has a short DOVETAIL MOUNTING PLATE with two tube rings already attached,
but yours may not be fixed to the mount head. In which case, attach the rings.
 7. With the tube rings open, PLACE THE TUBE IN THE RINGS, then flip the top
half of the rings over the tube and screw down the locking bolts tightly so the
tube doesnt slide out. You might need an extra pair of hands to help you at this
point. Remember, if youve got a reflector the eyepiece goes at the top!
8. Slip the FINDERSCOPE into its bracket and screw this into the clamp on the
telescope tube. To align it, put a low-mag eyepiece in the main scopes focuser
and find something like a pylon on the horizon. Then look through the
finderscope and adjust the screws on its bracket until the pylon is in its
crosshairs.
9. BALANCE YOUR SCOPE. With the tube horizontal and the Dec. axis lock loose,
slide the tube back and forth in the rings until the scope rests flat. Then do the
RA axis: with the counterweight shaft horizontal, loosen the lock and adjust the
counterweights until the scope stays put when you let go.

Now were going to explain how to make the mount follow, or track, stars and other
objects as they move with the night sky.
To do this properly, the equatorial mount has to be polar aligned; its right ascension
(RA) or polar axis needs to be lined up so that it points at the north celestial pole.
The north celestial pole is the point that the sky rotates around. Its a notional spot
where our planets axis of rotation meets the celestial sphere an imaginary ball with
the Earth at its centre, onto whose inner surface all the stars are projected.
The sky, in fact, only appears to rotate; its actually the Earth thats rotating, once every
24 hours. But since were observing from the surface of the spinning Earth, it looks like
the night sky is rotating around us.
Since the sky rotates (or appears to) around the north celestial pole, the mount also has
to be aligned to this axis of rotation to track the stars movement. Equatorial mounts are
designed to be polar aligned if you dont bother, you might as well have saved your
money and bought a cheaper altazimuth mount.

Pole position

When it comes to getting your mounts polar axis pointing in the right direction, we have
a helping hand here in the northern hemisphere: the bright star Polaris sits very close to
the celestial pole.
For visual observations, you dont need to be overly accurate in your polar alignment.
Its just a case of adjusting the altitude setting so its the same as your local latitude (find
this here) and pointing the polar axis north so its lined up on Polaris.
Youll need to be more accurate if you take astrophotos you should polar align while
looking through the mounts polarscope.
Once the mount has been lined up on the celestial pole, your scope will track the stars
with ease and youll find it simple to keep objects in your eyepiece for longer. You only
need to adjust the RA or polar axis with its slow-motion control to do this.
Its unlike a camera-type altazimuth mount, which needs its two axes to be adjusted to
track objects. But even an equatorial mount needs both its axes adjusted to move the
scope so that it points at another star.
1. Adjust the mounts altitude setting so that its the same as your local latitude.
In the UK, this will be between 58 and 50. Release the bolts and tilt the mount
head so the pointer lines up with the right number on thescale, then do the bolts
up again. This aligns the mounts RA or polar axis with the Earths axis of
rotation.
2. The polar axis needs to be aimed so its highest end points due north. Some
mounts have a big N at the top of the tripod to show which side should face
north. You can use a compass to find out which direction north is, but remember
that this will show magnetic north and we want true north, which is a few degrees
east. At night, find the star Polaris and line up the polar axis with it.
3. The mount should now be polar aligned. To check, when the stars are out look
along the polar axis up at the sky and make sure it's pointing at the star Polaris.
This kind of visual alignment is fine for making observations. But for more
accuracy or for astrophotography youll need to polar align looking up
through a polarscope fitted in the RA axis.
4. If you need to make any fine adjustments, use the altitude and azimuth
settings. Make altitude adjustments like those covered in step 1. To make azimuth
adjustments, unscrew the two azimuth bolts to move the mount head and scope
left or right slightly, parallel to the horizon. This is easier than lifting the tripod
and the whole setup to aim the scope due north.
Dec. is equivalent to north-south; RA is equivalent to east-west. Learning which
direction is which helps you understand how your mount's axes move

A star, planet or nebula can be found by using its co-ordinates on a great imaginary
sphere projected onto the night sky, with the Earth at its centre. This is called the
celestial sphere.
Finding a galaxy this way is almost identical to the way you locate places on Earth using
the latitude and longitude system; you just imagine the grid projected onto the starry
realm. The only difference is that on the celestial sphere, latitude is known as
declination (or Dec. for short) and longitude is known as right ascension (or simply, RA).
Both of these systems work in exactly the same way as they do for locations on Earth.
Declination (latitude) lines run parallel to the equator from east to west, while right
ascension (longitude) lines run up and down, from north to south.
Every object in the sky has Dec. and RA co-ordinates, and by using the Dec. and RA
setting circles on your equatorial mount, you can point your scope to find anything in the
sky with just these two figures.
Finding a bright star like Vega in Lyra will help you correctly set your right
ascension setting circle.

Find a bright star

Assuming youve already polar aligned your scope as detailed above, the first step to
finding that galaxy is to make sure your right ascension setting circle is set correctly.
For this youll need the RA co-ordinates of an easily found bright star, like Vega in the
constellation of Lyra. Vegas co-ordinates can be found from a planetarium program
like Stellarium or a star atlas.
Loosen the locks on both the RA and Dec. axes and move the scope until it is more or
less visually aligned with the star, then use the slow-motion controls and your
finderscope to zero in on the target.
Now take a look at the RA setting circle dial. If this is your first setup, it might not be
reading the exact RA position you found from an atlas or software. If this is the case,
fear not: simply rotate the RA setting circles dial until the pointer reads the correct co-
ordinate.
The Dec. setting circles dial is fixed in the correct position, so you never need worry
about this going out of alignment.
Now you can use the setting circles to find that galaxy, simply by moving the axes so
that the setting circles match the galaxys Dec. and RA co-ordinates. You can find
objects below naked eye visibility this way too.
The beauty of the equatorial mount now comes into play: as you gaze in wonderment at
your galaxy, you only need to adjust the RA axis with its slow-motion control to keep it in
your eyepiece as it moves from east to west across the sky.
And if you find the occasional twiddling of the RA slow-motion control a little tedious,
you can get a motor to attach to this axis, which will do the tracking for you
automatically.
As for the declination axis, you dont have to touch that or its slow-motion control until
you want to look at a different object. Then you just look up the co-ordinates of your
next quarry, and move the Dec. axis and the RA axis until the setting circle dials give
the right readings.
A well-handled equatorial mount is the perfect solution to hassle-free stargazing. There
is one thing it cant do, and thats to track an object all the way across the sky.
There will come a point when the bottom of the telescopes tube will bump into the
tripod leg, especially if its a long tube. Luckily, theres an easy way around this called a
meridian flip, which is described below.

When the tube bumps the tripod...

1. If your telescopes tube bumps into the tripod as youre tracking an object
moving with the night sky, rotate the telescope tube by 180 in right ascension.
2. Next, rotate the declination axis so that the telescope tube is pointing at the
object again. You can use the declination axis setting circle to get back to the
original spot.
3. Youre ready to begin observing again. The meridian flip, as its known, is often
needed on objects that are at their highest in the sky, so the tube is pointing
straight up.
Once you get set up, keep us up to date with your observing and astrophotography via
our Facebook and Twitter accounts.
Submit your best images to our Hotshots online gallery for the chance to appear in the
mag!
mounting teleskop
Mounting merupakan penyangga yang berguna subagai pengatur gerak teleskop agar dapat bergerak sesuai dengan
pergerakan benda langit. Biasanya, mounting terdiri atas platform yang memiliki 2 sumbu perputaran.[1]
Secara garis besar, mounting dibedakan menjadi 2, yaitu: alt-azimuth mounting dan equtorial mounting.
1. Alt-Azimuth Mounting
Merupakan bentuk monting yang sederhana yang bergerak secara vertikal dan horizontal. Perputaran pada sumbu
vertikal untuk mengatur azimut sedangkan yang horizontal untuk mengatur ketinggian.[2]

Model alt-azimuth ini kurang cocok

untuk observasi astronomi dalam jangka waktu yang panjang karena pergerakan rotasi bumi mempengaruhi posisi
benda langit sehingga bisa jadi objek yang ditunjuk oleh teleskop tidak lagi sesuai.[3]
1. Equatorial Mounting
Merupakan bentuk mounting pergerakannya sesuai dengan arah pergerakan rotasi bumi. Mounting ini juga terdiri
dari dua sumbu, yaitu sumbu polar yang sejajar dengan sumbu bumi dan sumbu deklinasi yang menunjukan nilai
asensio rekta. Dalam pengamatan benda langit bentuk mounting ini yang paling cocok, titik suatu benda langit akan
bisa diikuti dalam jangka waktu yang lama dan tidak terpengaruh oleh rotasi bumi.[4]

Equatorial mounting memilki beberapa bentuk, diantaranya:[5]

German mounting

Bentuk mounting ini menyerupai huruf T dengan sumbu deklinasi berada diatas sumbu polar. Bentuk mounting ini,
menimbulkan tekanan yang lebih besar pada poros dan bantalan dibandingkan dengan bentuk-bentuk yang lain.
meskipun demikian bentuk jerman mounting memiliki keunggulan dalam kemudahan operasi dan observasi langit

secara keseluruhan.
Fork Mountingni memberikan pengurangan tekanan pada bantalan dan poros seperti pada German Mounting,
namun model ini tidak cocok digunakan untuk mengamati bintang yang berada ddekat kutub.Bentuk mounting ini
memiliki sumbu polar yang hampir serupa dengan german mounting, tetapi pada ujungnya menyerupai garpu
dimana teleskop dapat bergerak pada sumbu deklinasi. model mounting i

English Mounting

Pada bentuk ini, teleskop berada diantara bingkai yang menunjukkan bantalan sumbu polar, sehingga teleskop bisa
berayun pada sumbu deklinasi. Pada model ini, beban ditangguhkan pada dasar minimun dari teleskop sehingga
model ini dapat digunakan untuk teleskop yangbesar.

refferences :
A.E Roy And D. Clarke, Astronomy; Principles And Practice 3rd Ed, Adam Hilger:Bristol, 1988, Hal. 252

Charles Frank, Franks Book Of The Telescopes, Glasglow:Britain, 1959, Hal 117