HEQ5 Pro polar scope troubles!

[Kal]

Hey guys, I'm not having a good time trying to align my polar scope.

Like, am I supposed to be able to see stars through it? I look through it when it's powered on and all I see is red.

I use a HEQ5 Pro, I level the telescope before use and set the mount in the correct position so that the polar scope is not obstructed.

[Cornelius Varley]

The only star that should be visible if the mount is correctly aligned is Polaris. You need to adjust the latitude and azimuth bolts until Polaris is in the small circle.

[Stargazer33]

Sounds like your polarscope is illuminated to enable you to better see the alignment etchings. As you say you can only see red, I would assume that the red led is either too bright or is positioned wrong and is 'redding' out your view (same as white out, but in red light!  ).

[microbe]

I have the HEQ5 and find the illumination too bright. I switch the power off and align when it's dark enough to see Polaris but still light enough to see the circle markings.

Other members have found that using a dim torch to illuminate the polar scope at an angle can be successful

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[Kal]

Thanks guys! I'll try again (of course)

[Robny]

I have the HEQ5 pro and had a similar problem, but in the hand control settings you can reduce the brightness of he illumination. If I remembr correctly I had to setmine to about 8% to see Polaris. The guidelines were also defined at that setting as well.

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[LouisJB]

yeah I've got mine set down to something like 2%, it's way too bright and you only need a tiny bit of illumination.

It's in the handset settings on my heq5 pro but you need a certain software/firmware version to have that feature available, so if you can't find it check your mount software versions might need updating

[CodnorPaul]

I use an NEQ6 and have turned the illumination down to the lowest point - but I can clearly see Polaris when looking through the polar scope?  I often forget to turn my mount head so it doesn't block out the scope, but once remembered don't have that problem.  It is important to get it as close to Polaris as you can before trying to look through the scope otherwise you could completely miss it

[Kal]

I use an NEQ6 and have turned the illumination down to the lowest point - but I can clearly see Polaris when looking through the polar scope?  I often forget to turn my mount head so it doesn't block out the scope, but once remembered don't have that problem.  It is important to get it as close to Polaris as you can before trying to look through the scope otherwise you could completely miss it

Thanks dude, as the guys mentioned I can turn down the brightness - I didn't even know I could hahahaha! I'm such a dunce.

[jambouk]

You won't see the other stars in the polar scope; drawing ursa major in the polar scope is to trick you lol. The other thing is turn the eye piece on the polar scope so you get the polaris to appear as a bright sharp point; on my polar scope that means the eye piece feels like it has been unscrewed a long way.

James

[earth titan]

Just check, and this sounds like a dumb mistake to make - but we've all done it ), do you have the mount and counterbalance bar clear of the hole?

This has happened to me more than once and I could't work out what was wrong.... 

[jambouk]

Oh yes, i've done that lots of times and get really confused why i can't see anything!

[CodnorPaul]

I still do that - virtually every time I set up

[Kal]

Just check, and this sounds like a dumb mistake to make - but we've all done it ), do you have the mount and counterbalance bar clear of the hole?

This has happened to me more than once and I could't work out what was wrong.... 

I'm sure it was but who knows, it was so cold I probably forgot to check. Although I did manage to get a decent image of Andromeda regardless...complete with aircraft strobe lights!

[tich]

On my NEQ6 I've turned the LED down to its lowest setting although when I did a polar alignment on Wednesday I forget to extend the counterweight bar & was wondering why I weren't seeing many stars lol.