OK, any astroshooters in SoCal?

[Nikolai]

I got my EQ1 mount and clock drive, but all those axis and knobs make me dizzy... :dunno :scratch
Anybody with some experience of setting those things up wanna team up for a couple of hours and give me a kick start in that? Beer (or whatever your poison is) is on me! :deal

[pathfinder]

I feel the same way about it, Nik. I have a 90mm Meade scope that I rarely use, because all the gizmo's seem to intimidate me. Yet I have watched my brother in law set up his 11 inch Meade, and he does it in less than 5 minutes. He uses a bubble level to level the tripod, points the telescope at the North Star, and he's off and running.

I want to see a simple tutorial for this as well!

I need an adapter to let me mount my DSLR also, but even a G9 would make very nice captures through one of these scopes.

[ziggy53]

I should be getting a used Meade ETX-70AT with the goto mount and tripod, plus 2 new Plossl eye pieces, a quick finder (Rigel) and a 25% lunar filter. It's scheduled to get here tomorrow. :clap

I wanted one of these for a very long time and it's supposed to make a nice terrestrial as well as astronomical scope. Used with a camera it's a 350mm, f5.

I have dabbled with telescopes for a number of years and it really makes sense to go to a local astronomy club to get started.

It appears you have an "Equatorial Mount", so do some Googling on alignment with that mount.

Practice setting up the tripod and mount during the daylight to get a feel for how everything works together. An accurate level is vital for the mount.

Use a handheld GPS to determine true North and carefully set your latitude as well.

If you practice the alignment during the day, you should be able to quickly set up the mount at night when it counts.

[Nikolai]

I should be getting a used Meade ETX-70AT with the goto mount and tripod, plus 2 new Plossl eye pieces, a quick finder (Rigel) and a 25% lunar filter. It's scheduled to get here tomorrow. :clap

I wanted one of these for a very long time and it's supposed to make a nice terrestrial as well as astronomical scope. Used with a camera it's a 350mm, f5.

I have dabbled with telescopes for a number of years and it really makes sense to go to a local astronomy club to get started.

It appears you have an "Equatorial Mount", so do some Googling on alignment with that mount.

Practice setting up the tripod and mount during the daylight to get a feel for how everything works together. An accurate level is vital for the mount.

Use a handheld GPS to determine true North and carefully set your latitude as well.

If you practice the alignment during the day, you should be able to quickly set up the mount at night when it counts.
I kinda did. North is not a problem (as in most of US cities), and the latitude defined by Google maps is far more precise that I can possible set it with that crude latitude scale.
I actually gave it a dry run this Sunday, with motor and such. Kinda got the feeling. It's been a bit cloudy lately, even with some rain, and I definitely not gonna risk it having camera outdoors for 2-3 hours. But it should clear up back soon, sunset it at 6, so I can definitely give it a good run right from my back yard...:wink