Tuesday, December 31, 2013

How I made fine adjustments to the vertical polar alignment on my C8

It can be really difficult to make fine adjustments to the polar angle due to the weight of a telescope on the wedge. I have an old Celestron 8 on an old Celestron wedge. It does not have the ability to make fine adjustments on the polar axis.
Then I realized that I could just loosen the three bolts that hold the scope base to the wedge and slip in a metal washer between the scope base and the wedge (but not through the wedge bolt). I could then re-tighten the bolts, thus making just a fraction of a degree adjustment!



It turned out that it was all I needed to get sufficiently polar aligned to use the prime focus and even a Barlow for photography purposes up to 2 minutes of exposure.

Also note that I removed the big Allen screw bolt with an equally sized standard bolt with a big knob that makes quickly adjustments like this possible.

Where did I find the proper sized bolt and knob? At your friendly ACE hardware store, of course!

1 comment:

  1. great site...I have classic c8 black
    dave
    VANCOUVER ISLAD

    ReplyDelete