This is what the internet needs more of. Relatable, clear directions that have been explained and demonstrated on equipment that people probably have at home. Very well done. 10 years old and still blowing people's minds on how easy it really is to use an EQ. Thank you sir.

I just got my daughter a Newtonian with an equatorial mount for Christmas. Needless to say, neither of us knew much about telescopes. There is a ton of information to process but I see that it can be done especially with the help of simple videos such as this one. Thanks for this! It was soooooo helpful.

10 years later and this video is still helpful, thanks again!!

I've been stargazing for 3 years now and I always just pointed my scope at the star/planet I was looking at and then found it difficult to track it. This video has been a massive help to me and now I always align. Thanks a lot and keep up the good work.

This was an excellent video tutorial for a complete newcomer such as myself. This not only helped me to understand how to setup and adjust my EQ mounted reflector telescope but why we do the things we do in order to achieve that.

Almost 10 year old video and here I am about to get a telescope and watching how these work. Thanks!

You're cheesy as heck. But you're awesome and got a great sense of humor - and you execute it magnificently!

I am glad I found this video Sir. When I began watching I felt as if I was in a 5th grade classroom BUT that said I am a 58 year old man that really needed a starter class on alignment. I am buying a Celestron Advanced VX Series 8" Schmidt-Cassegrain Go To Telescope and will need to polar align it. I have watched a few other videos and got lost in the "talk" very fast. Your teaching style would have been AWESOME for me when I took algebra many years ago as it would have saved me a summer school class one year. LOVED the video Sir and will visit your web site today. No need to update the video as I am fairly certain the mounts and stars have not really changed. Thank you.

I've previously used a GO-TO scope so now that I'm trying out an equatorial mount this guide is exactly what I am in need of! Most helpful! :-)

I just got an F/5, 133mm (5 1/4"), Celestron Astromaster 130 EQ Newtowian telescope w/EQ mount, for Christmas (2019). I've been a casual observer for 45 years, but now that I'm retired, I have the time to pursue my passion for astronomy. EDIT : I just added an Orion EQ-2M right ascension motor to the RA adjustment shaft, with remarkable results. In all those years, I've never properly set up a telescope. We didn't have the resources "back in the day", like we do now, for such easy to understand instructions, like your videos. I'm now, for the first time, properly set up, balanced and aligned. What an amazing difference this is going to make. Thank you, I've subscribed, and will keep on watching you, and the night sky!

As a photographer, never having used a telescope, I will be watching your videos ALOT. This one, is the first and so far the best. Thanks for giving me/us some confidence.

Spectacular, I’m just returning to the hobby after 15 years. I’ve never used an equatorial mount but that’s going to change real soon. Many thanks, from Merry England.

I am an old Dobsonian but bought my first EQ-Mount yesterday. Your video is funny but also very helpful. Thank you for this. It will help me very much using the EQ-Mount for the first time.

You're welcome, and thanks for the nice compliment! That was the idea: To answer the questions about eq mounts in one video. Glad I accomplished that for you!

Great video! My wife has had one of these mounts for nearly two years and we have yet set it. I feel confident I can do it now and will try it some time soon to surpise her. Thank you so much!

Old video...ancient BUT, after lots of searching youtube, still the best basic instructions around. Too many astronomy /telescope videos are either done by bumbling newbies or techies that love to hear themselves use 10 cent words the rest of us dont understand yet. Simple, easy to understand!!! THANK YOU!!!!! My only problem is now that Ive sucessfully done the alignment and all.... no matter what I do with the slow motion knobs, it doesnt track right. I still have to make sort of "zig zag" or step like turns to keep a planet aligned. Not sure what Im doing wrong. After messing with it more, now one of the slow mo knobs turns the scope and it moves but what I see in the scope stays stationary! ERF! Must keep playing lol!

This was perfect! Detailed enough to make it understandable, but brief enough to keep my eyes from glazing over. Well done.

Thanks to your video, I just aligned my telescope for the first time ever. It was freaking awesome!

Thank you. This is much easier and more thorough than the written instructions included with my scope.

I watched this video a couple of times when I had bought a telescope on an equatorial mount and didn't understand much. Now that I had some practice with it this video totally makes sense and I'm ready to do proper polar alignments. Thanks, David!

Your video tutorial was sweetly done! I've polar aligned my equatorially-mounted reflector on several occasions in the past but that was many years ago. You did a good job in breaking the process down into easily understandable steps (with humor :)) and that brought me back up to speed. Thanks for that!

Dude I love you. The passion is visible in your eyes. And that livelyness is just as much as how clear your explanation is.

I agree fully! It actually saved me on my 2nd night of setting up my new scope and getting a lot of things wrong. In the end my frustration was too high and I went back inside, grab a beer and restarted this video. Then, it all made sense again. Lovely.

Thank you so much for this. After three years finally someone who has the pedagogical skills to explain how to use the equatorial mount without confusing more than helping. Much, much appreciated. You made me actually use my telescope. Cudos!! Fahwad.

Thanks a ton. My daughter and I are new to this stargazing and this was a wonderful intoduction. Your description was clear and thoroughly enjoyable. Thank you.

Thank you for making these videos. I do enjoy watching and learning. I feel more comfortable now aligning my scopes, then I was before.

An EQ mount makes it far easier to find objects using setting circles, and track objects in the sky at higher magnification compared to other mount types. However, some people do find them cumbersome and prefer alt-az. I am glad this video helped you arrive at a good decision for your own needs.

I’ve had one of these mounts for years, had no idea what I was doing, thanks for this.

the best video to this topic by far on youtube! many thanks for this brilliant explanation!

Hello and Thank you for the three videos. Finally someone who made me actually use my telescopes equatorial mount - Wonderful. Besides that - All possible success for your anti-light pollution campaign. Best regards. Christof

Thanks for taking the time to put this all together, really helpful!

You're welcome - that's exactly why I made this video! Glad it helped.

Thank you so much! I last had a telescope almost 20 years ago and it didn't have an equatorial mount. The new scope does and I was befuddled by it, to my embarrassment. The manual and DVD the scope came with was marginally helpful at best. Thank you for making sense of this! I was using my latitude adjustment to raise and lower the the scope for viewing. I knew something had to be wrong and it was! Gotta love the Polaris in this video too. Assistants are great! Thanks for making this video informative, but also light and funny. Just keep it away from the sun when testing during the day.

You sir have gotten yourself a new subscriber. You have gotten me started on telescopes and showed me what a bloody fun hobby anstronomy can be. Thank you

Thank you!! I just bought my first Newtonian telescope with an equatorial mount and I was frustrated because I dind't know how to use it. Seeing your videos makes it easier!

Really informative, nicely done. Thanks .

Very helpful as I am a total novice. Thanks very much! Best video I've found.

Wonderful video. Just getting started with my first telescope and your videos have been the best guides I have found. Thank you! 4:41 Celestial Pole Alignment

A good tutorial comes in handy even after 11 years(or 100 years) 😂 Thanks for this mate 👍

As a total newbie I thank you so much. Brilliantly simple.

I will likely have to do it a few times... Clear instructions are great. SUBSCRIBED!

Very useful information with clear instructions for polar alignment. I am fortunate in that I have a dedicated shed for my telescope so I can leave it all set up so all I have to do is lift it out and I’m ready to go. To speed things up I built a concrete base that I stand my telescope on and after making sure I had accurate PA I drilled three small holes so that I can stand the tripod legs in their correct holes and I am well enough aligned for accurate GOTO and visual observing. For astrophotography greater accuracy is required which means doing the PA every time, even then that does not guarantee precise alignment, that depends on how well the mount’s inbuilt PA observing kit is mounted. For precise, fast (2 to 3 minutes) very accurate PA, I invested £300 in a PoleMaster and have found it worth every single penny. It is especially useful for me because at my old age I am no longer able to kneel down and crane my neck back enough to be able to view Polaris through the mount, so sitting at my desk in the shed and watching it all take place on my laptop is priceless, without it I would have had to retire from astrophotography, which I dearly love doing as much as just observing. Just something to think about if you intend going into astrophotography.

that was very instructive!!! This is the first video i watch on youtube where is thought decently how to align an equatorial mount. Thank you so much!

This is great, I think I actually understand how to use my mount properly for the first time. Glad I found your channel!

Hi David. This video is an excellent, clear demonstration on how to use an eq mount......... the best I've seen online. Well done! Keep looking up. Regards. Mark, Southampton, England

Excellent! Glad to help - wishing you clear and dark skies.

Thank you so much!!! It is so easy for me to see objects in the sky! God bless you 🙏

Thanks, my friend. I was setting up my first equatorial and was on the verge of breaking something until your video made the correct neurons click in my brain. Now it seems easy!

Thank you so much. This was best tutorial I found on KZfaq understand and align Eq mount!!!!!! :))))

I have been trying to get this right for a while. Very informative and easy to follow. I wish the instructions were this clear on what to do in the manuals.

Videos like this are just awesome. From a point and shoot start to my astronomy hobby, this video makes me appreciate the functions of my telescope. It makes the hobby so much more fun, when you know you are doing it right. Thank you for the video. I can't look for Polaris though, I've had to rely on southern hemisphere videos as well! Thank you again

9 years onwards, still found this amazingly useful. Well done!

@tich179 - thanks for the compliment, and I am glad you are managing to get things working for you. I never found that my goto scopes were terribly accurate, though achieving good level, pointing at true celestial north and making 2 or 3 star alignments helped. Goto is usually best for getting you "very close" - try using a long focal length eyepiece when searching, then if the target is smaller, bump up the magnification after the object has been found.

This was a really helpful video. I just got my first proper telescope and this video helped make getting started a lot easier.

Thank you so much for this & all your other videos. Picked up a Towa 339 today and the equitorial mount alignment was suspect. Now I just have to wait for clear skies & Polaris. Love your videos & the way you present them.

Great video, very informative. Also, this guys antics are great!

Great set of videos. Thanks for the effort and the clarity in presentation. Your trick of using the red and blue masks to highlight the 2ndary mirror for alignment is absolutely brilliant.

Straight forward and to the point. Thanks!

That was brilliantly informative, absorbing and entertaining as well. Thank You

After spending 3 hours trying to figure it my self, I finally found your guide! Thanks man! Now thanks to you I can practicaly do something with it my telescope! Your guide is amazing and super easy.

Thanks, David. I'll do so. I like your video series on YT as well as on your website by the way. Quite to the point and humorous at the time. Thanks for sharing. Just ordered an Orion 10" reflector. Can't wait to exchange it for my old Bynostar 4592 ;-)

Thank you for the tutorial, David. You were more helpful than the manufacturer :)

Just wanted to comment, I started astrophotography a few years ago and your setup videos with the eq mount was among the very first to actually help me on my way. I can polar align so fast now. I know its a little late but thanks again for the vids!

You're welcome; thanks for the nice feedback.

@metalskateboarder965 - thanks. Yes, use the R.A. and declination clutches to move the telescope to the desired object, and then relock them once you have it centered (or close). Use the slow-motion controls to recenter if needed, and use the R.A. slow-mo control to keep the object centered over time, to account for the Earth's rotation. Hope that helps!

@Pyper70 - you're welcome for the video, glad it helped. After polar alignment, you can unlock the Right Ascension and Declination axes to point the telescope anywhere you want in the sky (so, two axes, not one). Since it will be well-balanced (if you follow this video), you can leave them unlocked to find a target, then lock them when you have sometime in your eyepiece to view. Use a low power eyepiece to start, and make sure your finderscope is aligned with the main scope, too.

Painfully cheesy, but very informative. Well done!

no seriously dude...very well done. thanks man...i hated my eq the first night i got it...this video really helped me understand it all. GRACIAS

Good tutorial broken down nicely into digestible segments. Your video has helped me a lot. Cheers David.

Loved the video just the right blend of humour and tuition many thanks

I just found an old telescope with this kind of mount. Thank you very much for helping me understand how to use it.

Good video, well done. Just got a meade 4500 (Old I know mirrors are shot lmao) but I can now use the mount the way it was intended. 10/10 keep it up

So glad to hear my video helped you, and thank you for subscribing!

You're welcome - my pleasure to help. I think the reason the latitude only goes to a certain angle is so that the counterweight will not interfere with the legs; you'll be fine with just adjusting the tripod leg though. Be sure to check out my weekly videos for some objects you can find and see when you get your scope. Clear and dark skies!

Thanks, you made this all so simple, and it now makes sense.

Wow! Thank you so much! I just got a telescope and the equatorial mount was baffliing. The instructions for setting it up were pathetic. Now I'm off to a great start. Thank you again!

This video has taught me how to set-up an eq mount with ease, i've watched other similar videos but they seem to over complicate things & have put me off from buying 1. I was going to buy a telescope with an alt-azimuth mount, but after watching this tutorial im definitely going to buy 1 with a eq mount..

Awesome video. You told me everything I needed to know without any extra information. The video with the nights sky made it so clear. This is the way kids should be educated in school.

Great video.. about to upgrade my Nexstar 8SE to an AVX mount and wanted to have an idea of what to do beforehand. Thank you!

Thank you for the nice words - I much prefer an equatorial mount to the alt-az ones myself. One handed slow-motion control to follow objects at the eyepiece is so much simpler! I can concentrate more on observing, rather than tracking.

9 years later, this is still the best video on this subject.

Thank you very much for this. I'm working on an armature radio telescope and just starting observation with a Newtonian. This is perfect.

By far this is the best tutorial for aligning...

I learned some of this the hard way. Now with help from this video I will know how to do it right. Thanks for this well made video.

Thanks much bro... I got a Celestron Power Seeker 70EQ for my bday.. This vid helped alot

Thanks! It's an Ibanez acoustic/electric. I actually played almost every single guitar in a Sam Ash store one day to find the one with the best tone, and that was it. I thought it was better than even the Martins and Taylors, but I should also note it was that specific guitar - other Ibanez's of the same model didn't sound as good. I got lucky with it. :-)

@astronomyshed - thanks for the question. This tutorial is aimed at the person who has no idea how to use/align one of these mounts. Because perfect polar alignment isn't required for most visual observing, it's a means to demonstrate that there are several ways to get a telescope "close enough" to use it successfully. If a user doesn't have someone to help with the latitude adjustment, using the "leg only" method is perfectly acceptable to avoid potentially dropping/damaging their scope.

Great video - thanks for posting!

I highly dislike the dullness of this video, but it is so helpful, thanks.

This helped me a lot. I just got my first eq-goto mount and could not figure out why my tracking was not working properly after using star calibrations. I never understood the whole point of a polar alignment till now. Very helpful video, very informative. Good stuff and thank you!

You're welcome; thank you for the nice compliment.

Thanks for uploading this helpful video! You're awesome.

Your so helpful.. Thank you si much for this video. Love it

Brilliant video, thanks very much for uploading. I've just bought a Celestron Astromaster 130eq and this video was invaluable in explaining how to set it up correctly. All I need now is some good weather!

Very helpful! Thank you!! The instructions the scope came with are worth the paper it's printing on. 7 pages of nothing useful! Thank you so much!

Really helpful in a friend and engaging style-thanks

Great how-to vid, thanks!

Thanks for this video David. I'm new to star gazing, I just put together my first telescope. I have a Meade Polaris 114EQ-SD 4.5" Equatorial Reflecting Telescope. I'm looking forward to watching more of your excellent videos.

this video was posted 10 years ago but i just bought myself a telescope with an eq mount, so thank you for doing this!

Thank you very much, I think I'm ready for my purchase now :) I meant if it would affect in any way the movement of the scope on the mount, for instance if there's any chance of the counterweight being obstructed by the tripod legs or anything similar. But anyway knowing now that the latitude problem can be solved feels good. Once again thank you very much, you were very helpful! Great video by the way, easy to follow and very clear!