开云体育

Actually, the normal procedure is to set the scope up as close to how you
plan to use it (dew shield, finder, diagonal, eyepiece, etc.), then best
guess where tube balance will be. Move the dec shaft horizontal, careful
that the tube doesn't swing out of control. With the dec shaft horizontal,
loosen the dec clutch and check for tube balance. Return to an upright
polar position and slide the tube forward or back (carefully losening and
retightening the dovetail lock knobs) and repeat until balanced. Then
rotate on polar axis until dec shaft is horizontal again (tube locked in
place) and check polar balance, adjusting counterweights until balanced is
achieved and it feels like equal pressure is needed to move counterweights
up or down. A very slight bias toward the east is usually the best way to
go so that the RA gear always has a very slight load on it.

Install your dovetail safety clamp (if using the CI700) and lock it against
the saddle plate. You may also mark your mount in some way so that you can
find this position again. This way, you can eliminate most of the
repetitiveness and get close or spot on the next time you set up.

A better way would be to add a small counterweight to the tube or dovetail,
that you can slide lengthwise on the tube, etc., in order to make fine
adjustments without having to actually loosen the dovetail and reposition
the entire tube when dec balance requirements change, as when adding a
binoviewer, or when going from an 1.25" plossl to a 31mm Nagler, etc.

WayneG