When adjusting Az, Alt also moves

[JDG_]

Hi folks,

Have been using Sharpcap's polar alignment for some years without any issues on my Sky Watcher EQ-5. However, lately the following happens at the adjustment step: when I adjust the Az knobs, the Alt indicator in Sharpcap also changes. And vice versa. So for instance I turnthe Az knob to adjust a few arc minutes to approach zero, at the same time the Alt indicator will move from UP 3'20" to DOWN 1'20" or someting.

I know this probably is mount-related but haven't been able to pinpoint the culprit. The mount itself seems fine - nothing seems bended.

Anyone has experienced this and found a solution? Many thanks!

[admin]

Hi,

sadly this is fairly typical for adjusting some Skywatcher mounts, as the mechanism for the alt and az adjustments are fairly crude, and it's quite common for the adjustment of one to affect the other. It's also possible for this sort of thing to happen as a mount gets older, as the metal parts that the screw adjusters push on are fairly soft (relatively speaking) and can get dents/grooves/bumps pushed into them by tightening the adjustment screws.

My approach is to make the final small adjustments by tightening or loosening one bolt only, rather than tighten one/loosen the opposite - this seems to help avoid some of the bigger jumps in movement from the adjustment mechanism.

cheers,

Robin

[kaymann]

And correct me if I am wrong, but if the mount is slightly off level an adjustment in the one will push adjustment in the other...

[admin]

Hi,

the non-level effect exists, but should be really small... For instance if you are 5 degrees off level then the effect on the 'wrong' axis should be below 10% of the movement on the desired axis (and 5 degrees is noticeably off level).

cheers,

Robin

[Altocumulus]

It's a real bugbear with the Skywatcher mounts, I have an older NEQ6-R Pro and a new model. Adjusting the bolts is, as Robin describes, crude and unreliable.....