Finally had a clear night here in the Florida panhandle so I took the scope out and set it up here in the apartment perimeter on an asphalt road...Think I made a boo-boo during my setup...
First thing I did was point the scope due north towards Polaris. Then I leveled the scope both directions perfectly. Then after leveling I noticed Polaris was too low while looking thru the RA hole. So I tried to realign Polaris by adjusting the mount height again. (1st Mistake) I realized this after I got back home and thought about it. I should have adjusted the altitude knob on the mount. This knocked out my accuracy. (Book also says, never use the Dec and RA knobs to do Polar alignment)
When I went to an object it was about 1 degree off, or just out of the field of view depending on which Eye piece I was using. At this point I should have started over and releveled the mount. Now I know. I put in a 34 degree eyepiece, then went to M31. I was surprised to find it in there.! I was pretty tired last night from a very busy mental day I had. So I probably wasn't thinking too good. I will do this again, and this time once I level the mount, I will not touch it again...
Now, after all this explaining, my question, does it sound reasonable that what I did is what messed up the accuracy of my scope wjhile going to different objects? I think so...This BTW is my first EQ mount. I used Dobs before only...
I also just printed out about 15 pages of instructions off the Losmandy web site on the set-up of this mount.
Thanks,
Rodney
