Flamsteed Astronomy Society

Coronado Procedure

page 6 of 10

11.   Adjust the tripod so that the Right Ascension axis is pointing towards the North Celestial Pole. There is s letter ‘N’ at the top of the tripod, which should be oriented towards the North. The Declination axis will already be set correctly for the latitude of Greenwich, 51°28’.

12.   Adjust the position of the counterweight on the long projecting arm to balance the telescope so that it has no tendency to rotate about the Right Ascension axis.

13.   Point the telescope towards the Sun. The finder tube mounted on top of the telescope will show a small spot of light in the centre of the screen when it is correctly pointed. The pointing of the telescope can also be checked by removing the eyepiece and viewing the prime focus image which should be centred in the tube. As a last resort, if you cannot find the Sun image, temporarily replace the eyepiece with a 25 mm eyepiece which will give a wider field of view. Replace the 18 mm eyepiece for viewing, to give a larger image of the Sun.