Unable to starhop, setting circle help - newbie

I am so frustrated that I am unable to starhop with my c5 on a cg4 mount. The mount is a Chinese generic. I used my telrad to point OTA to the north star. Here in Phoenix, AZ the latitude read between 31 and 32 N. I turned the Alt and Dec ring to read ‘zero’. I wonder whether my Dec should have read ‘90’ instead.
Then I moved the OTA to point at Dubhe. I moved the Alt ring to read 11h 03m and the Dec to read 61deg 45 sec. Each division in my Alt equals 10 mins and each division in my Dec equals 3.3 degrees. I used the lower scale to calibrate my Alt. I didn’t know how to turn the scope around Dec. I tried to move it ‘anticlockwise’ looking at the OTA from the ground, OTA was above Alt axis. When I set the Alt to read 11h 01 and the Dec to read 56 deg 22 sec, my OTA was not pointing at Merak. It was close to 10 deg off
Assuming that setting Dec may have been erroneous, I pointed the OTA at Dubhe again; the Alt and Dec read as it is supposed to read. This time I turned the Dec circle clockwise as one could make Dec read 61 deg 45 sec by turning the axis either clockwise or anticlockwise.
I dialed in 11h 01min and +56 deg 22 min, I was not pointing anywhere close to Merak. I tried to dial Pollux 7 hr 45 min and 28 deg 01 sec. My OTA was pointing towards Bootes constellation. I have a nice sky atlas 2000, and a good planisphere. I know that the stars I picked is correct.
I had read from several sites before I tried this, particularly www.astro-tom.com and couple more. I don’t know what I am missing and why I am. Please help me out. Thanks.
Jay

Jay,

Analog setting circles do work--but not nearly as well as one would hope.

First off, be sure you are polar aligned. Doesn't have to be absolutely dead on as if you were taking astrophotos, but it should be as accurate as you can get.

Then set your circles to a known star. To start, point your tube directly at Polaris, and center it in the eyepiece. By the way, Polaris is not at O, O. It is at something else--89:15 d declination and 2 hours 31:50.

On most mounts, you will set your dec circle with a setscrew. Once you set your dec circle, you really should never need to change it again (assuming it is set with a screw or something). Most right ascension circles need to be reset on every observation.

Once you have Polaris set, go off to some other star you know for sure, and see how the circles change.

Try it for a while, you will work it out.

Alex

I think that if I started out trying to use setting circles I would have gotten frustrated also. Forget about them for the time being. It sounds like you have a pretty decent knowledge of the sky. Try dead reckoning with your Telrad instead. Break out that Sky Atlas 2000 and use the supplied piece of clear plastic (the one with the Telrad circles on it), placing it on the chart over the object you want to view. Then match that view of the telrad circles on the chart with your telrad in the sky. After a little practice you will be able to nail any object in a wide field EP.

Jay, I don't use setting circles, but I do use a goto scope. I would think that the setting circles would work the same way. The coordinates that we use in the sky are RA measured in HRS/MTS/SEC and declination measured in degrees,etc. Zero hours is at a location in Pisces. Zero degrees DEC will point you to a projection of the Earth's equator and 90 degrees DEC points you at the pole. Perhaps you should set the pole at 90 degrees rather than 0.
Ted

Well, first off, the DEC was wrong. With the polar axis of your mount pointed toward the north celestial pole (i.e. near Polaris), the DEC should read 90 degrees.

Also, a division of every 3.3 degrees in DEC means your accuracy will really be limited. And as someone else said, once your DEC is set, it's pretty much locked down and never moved again.

I use the manual setting circles on my fork-mounted Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope and can pretty much nail everything I go after. I'm not familiar with your mount, but it does sound like it has much smaller setting circles.

Take a look at this article I wrote and see if it helps at all:
http://www.mindspring.com/~jeffpo/settingc.htm

Good luck,

Jeff

Jay,

I may have missed an earlier post but why are you unable to star hop? Is it due to light pollution or is it hard to move your mount?

I do 100% star hopping and while it may take me awhile to find DSO the first time or in those events where a DSO is all alone in large expanse with no guide stars, once I learn where an object is at I can get on it very quickly, and those with good guide stars are quick the first time.

I have an equatorial mount with fine adjust control knobs and a CORRECT IMAGE FINDER, which is a big help for star hopping.

I've rattled on here but I was confused as to why you say you can't star hop.

Daryl

Jay, perhaps you haven't been shown the "right" star hopping technique ;-). Try this HOP-TO tip. You must have a good detail chart available.
http://members.cox.net/ronby/hop-to.htm

Ron B[ee]