Anyone had this problem??

I have a Celestar C8. tripod/wedge... was out this evening and around 2300 hrs. (11:00pm. PST) OR. I was attempting to view M81/82. they were directly above Polaris.. My tripod was aligned as usual, with the wedge pointed in the correct direction ( The tube Parallel to the forks pointing to Polais) I guess this is where a green laser pointer would have helped, for I could not use my starbeam or straight through finder to aim in the direction of M81&82.. as it was my diagonal was underneath the tube. Everything was upside down & backwards! never had this trouble with my CG-5! any suggestions? thanks John M Astoria, OR

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Unfortunately this is one of the downsides to fork mounts. Very hard to view near the pole.

With a fork, I have found it best to view M81 and M82 (or any objects fairly close to the pole) at a differnt time. That way rather than being directly above or below Polaris they are to the side which makes it (somewhat) easier to aquire them.

Not much help, but thats just the way it is with EQ mounted forks. I had an LX0 a couple of years back, had a similar problem viewing objects near the Zenith. Had trouble getting my head between the forks. lol

Swing the scope around and just use the hand paddle to track.Objects near the pole move slow so it's OK for visual.