TheSkySearchers

I have a new IEQ 30 Mount. Last night I used it at a star party for the first time and failed miserably with the first attempt at alignment The second time was better and eastern sky targets were right on. I have always had Celestron mounts and no polar scope. The manual looks like it has the axis turned 90 degrees like the celestron mounts to open the polar scope view. I think this will be easy but some input from very experienced Ioptron mount users would be nice, I have not found a polar alignment video as of yet online but will keep trying, Thanks for help in advance.

Good luck, I have not used an iOptron mount before so cannot offer much help.
Did you not try setting it up at home during the day first?

Lady Fraktor wrote: ↑Mon Jan 27, 2020 4:32 am Good luck, I have not used an iOptron mount before so cannot offer much help.
Did you not try setting it up at home during the day first?

Yes I did. My biggest problem was when I went 40 miles away and set up I was not nearly as accurate as I am at home with Polaris. Still I have been reading and playing with the mounts and I think I am a lot closer to getting it down. Much different as compared to Celestron stuff.

I now have two Ioptron Mounts and been practicing a lot. The IEQ 30 is actually easy now that I know what I had done wrong and the New GEM 45 has Ipolar and that has been very interesting, Just dial in the az and the dec around line up the cross with the red meatball and you have a good polar alignment. After that it is a snap. This is just an update to let everyone know that once learned, the mounts are very nice indeed.

The toughest thing I found with the Ioptron (or really any equatorial mount with a polar scope) is getting down on the ground in a very uncomfortable position to sight the polar scope and align with the NCP. I finally broke down and got the Polemaster which has taken my 20-30 minute polar alignment down to about 2-5 minutes. In the cold of winter it is a blessing to cut those minutes out of the setup time.

My CEM60 polar scope as an advanced reticle on it. The hand controller knows when and where you are and shows you (on the HC screen) a depiction of that reticle and where Polaris should be on it. This makes it easy to move the adjustments until what you see in the polar scope mimics what you see on the hand controller.

Easy peasy,
JT

JayTee wrote: ↑Tue Nov 24, 2020 11:02 pm My CEM60 polar scope as an advanced reticle on it. The hand controller knows when and where you are and shows you (on the HC screen) a depiction of that reticle and where Polaris should be on it. This makes it easy to move the adjustments until what you see in the polar scope mimics what you see on the hand controller.

Easy peasy,
JT

Sounds exactly like the one on my IEQ 30. The GEM 45 however requires the use of a laptop with software for the IPolar. Will be interesting to see if anyone has skipped the Ipolar and just did a rough guess and had successful tracking after doing the alignments.

Had the IEQ 30 out last night. I should have balanced the level for that Polar scope but did not. I was off about a degree or two but I could still find what I was searching for. The Manuel is a little vague on that but shows leveling the Bubble level then using the knobs to move the mount till you see Polaris in the correct position on the finder scope. Once you do that do you immediately do a star alignment or do you send it back to zero position? The Manuel in step 11 has you balance the scope and then go back to zero position and that step is after the Polar alignment. Someone might want to tell me how they do this as I do not need off 001 50 degrees and the other off 007 25 degrees and so on. Does anyone have a guide for this. I first set up and balance the scope then try to do the alignment. I love the mount but the learning curve is steep indeed.

If you have physically moved the mount head (used the adjustment screws/knobs) then you need to do a new goto alignment from scratch. Simply going back to the "zero" position will not give you precise gotos.

Cheers,
JT

JayTee wrote: ↑Sun Apr 11, 2021 3:10 am If you have physically moved the mount head (used the adjustment screws/knobs) then you need to do a new goto alignment from scratch. Simply going back to the "zero" position will not give you precise gotos.

Cheers,
JT

Very interesting what I ended up doing. I did the Polar alignment by looking on the Controller for Polaris and then I moved the scope to that exact spot set the zero position did a three star alignment and then I was good to go. GOTO's in my Skywatcher Mak Cas 180 were in the FOV on an eyepiece less than 1 degree. All in all that worked very well