Hi Marc,

Congratulations on your new mount. I had a 400 QMD for several years and they
are very easy and quick to set up. There are several ways to achieve alignment
good enough for observation. The goto feature will make it a snap and the
manual comes with fairly good instructions on how to do a two star alignment
without using Polaris.

You can use a compass, during the day light hours, to get your mount oriented
close enough to Polaris for the two star alignment to work quickly. Then
pre-adjust the altitude setting on the mount to your latitude using a simple
protractor. Then follow the instructions in the manual. With practice, you can
be up and running in under ten minutes. ( To get your latitude, see:
http://www.geocode.com/eagle.html-ssi )

Larry Denmark
----
E-mail ..... kldenmark@...
Web site .. http://home.att.net/~kldenmark/

Hi,

Just a simple question from a novice. I placed my name on the list
for a 400 mount thinking it would be way in the future. Well the future
came quickly, and the mount is due in the next few months. My question
concerns the setup time for the mount including polar alignment. I was
looking for a mount for a 4 inch refractor and considered the GP with
the skysensor, which does not require polar alignment, but I read of
too many mechanical problems with the skysensor. My ideal viewing spot
does not have a good view of polaris. I know there are other ways of
polar aligning, but they sound very time consuming.Anyone with an
estimate of setup times, and how careful alignment is needed for casual
observation, no astro-photograghy.