Is it possible to polar align in the day ?

[spaceboy]

I think I know the answer to my own question but is it possible to some how polar or drift align in daylight ??? I only need rough polar alignment to allow for simple webcam imaging of the sun. Any ideas anyone ??

[Steve Ward]

I drift aligned my HEQ5Pro in daylight for my Solar imaging using a sunspot as a reference instead of a star , worked a treat ... 

[Psychobilly]

You can get pretty close...

I will try and find an explanation online to saev a lot of typing...

Peter...

[oldpink]

short answer is no (but I may be wrong) you need to be able to see polaris to polar align
for solar alignment isn't critical, I often just plonk the mount down pointing north and go from there and adjust the frame & focus manually

and use Solar rate on the guiding, its not like you are doing long exposures esp for video most runs are only a couple of minutes max

and the software will correct the movement for you

[Psychobilly]

Photosbykev's your man...  he taught me a method which I know I will get wrong if I try and explain it...

Peter...

[Stu]

Could you not align at night and then mark positions of the feet and length of legs etc? Should be close enough for what you need. I only ever do a rough alignment on my EQ and it always seems pretty good for visual

Stu

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Psychobilly]

I may be completely wrong here... but her goes...

Do a rough polar alignment - the closer the better  - I used mark the position of the tip of a shadow for an hour either side of local noon method to get true north...

Next do  a fictitious alignment - just assume the mounts got pretty close to the "daytime" alignment stars..

Then Goto the Sun...

You then use only the Alt and Az adjustment bolts to Centre the sun don't make any tweaks using the handset...

Peter...

[oldpink]

Could you not align at night and then mark positions of the feet and length of legs etc? Should be close enough for what you need. I only ever do a rough alignment on my EQ and it always seems pretty good for visual

Stu

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

this is what I do

I have 3 tent pegs to mark my mount leg positions makes setting up for solar pretty quick and easy

[spaceboy]

Thanks guys.

Peter I kind of remember some thing on youtube now you mention it. If I remember correctly the guy was unable to see the north star due to trees so did polar alignment during the day. I dismissed it though as there was no correction for altitude. I know my altitude but the scale on the mount is hardly a micrometer.

[nightfisher]

For me i have a rough idea where polaris should be that gets me good enough for what i need

[spaceboy]

Just lately all I have is a rough idea where polaris is. I mean I seen it some weeks ago but now it appears to have vanished behind an everlasting blanket cloud and an orange glow  

[nightfisher]

Just lately all I have is a rough idea where polaris is. I mean I seen it some weeks ago but now it appears to have vanished behind an everlasting blanket cloud and an orange glow  

Mate, try living in this god forsaken cloud bank, if its not cloudy its foggy lol

[SteveInNZ]

You don't say what mount you have. Celestron mounts have a "Quick Align" where you set the OTA pointing towards the pole with the counterweight shaft pointing down and press the go button. The mount uses that as the reference point. Then (in your case) tell it to slew to the Sun. Move the Alt and Az adjustments to get the Sun in the field and you are now polar aligned to within the accuracy of the initial setup. You can eyeball that to a couple of degrees.

I use this to get a pretty good alignment prior to starting ASPA or drift alignment and it's enough to get the target in the finder. It's a heap easier than finding Sigma Octans in most cases.

I'm sure other mounts must have a similar setup option.

Steve.

[ollypenrice]

You certainly don't need to see Polaris to polar align. Drift alignment uses stars in the east or west and the south. For the kind of rough alignment needed for fast frame solar imaging the sun is a star and Peter's method sounds OK to me. After all, once you've stopped the sun from drifting too fast visually you've done all you need for this kind of imaging. In fact many solar imagers use alt az mounts quite happily.

Olly

[anthony]

It has been mentioned already above but just to emphasise - setting the mount to solar rate has a big impact on how quick it drifts off when you set up in the daytime.

[RichM63]

I think I know the answer to my own question but is it possible to some how polar or drift align in daylight ??? I only need rough polar alignment to allow for simple webcam imaging of the sun. Any ideas anyone ??

More or less.

I have one spot in the courtyard that I can use as a quick dump and go.

I have the tripod feet marked on the ground and the mount levelled and polar aligned.

Now I chose this spot because as long as I don't change anything on the mount, then the tip of a tall electricity pole aligns through the mount to polaris. So even if polaris is not visible I know that by checking with the EDF pole that I'm pretty good to go.

Although it was a bit of a pain to set up, move tripod, check, move, check.......

Certainly good enough for visual and keeps Jupiter honest with a motorized webcam.

[bobmoss]

More or less.

I have one spot in the courtyard that I can use as a quick dump and go.

I have the tripod feet marked on the ground and the mount levelled and polar aligned.

Now I chose this spot because as long as I don't change anything on the mount, then the tip of a tall electricity pole aligns through the mount to polaris. So even if polaris is not visible I know that by checking with the EDF pole that I'm pretty good to go.

Although it was a bit of a pain to set up, move tripod, check, move, check.......

Certainly good enough for visual and keeps Jupiter honest with a motorized webcam.

That's a genius idea!

[Redscouse]

My apologies for resurrecting an old thread. 

I have just found this video on Youtube where the use of a mobile phone to align with the south celestial pole really sounded promising. Then reality set in. The mount interferes with the magnetic forces within my phone. Don't know how it didn't affect his in the video but it looked simple when he did it. Any thoughts how to get around this or alternate ways to polar align in the daytime?  

 

[Merlin66]

Hmmm,

I use SUNCALC to determine my meridian. Just set up the scope as close as you can then align the RA axis at the time of culmination - or use a shadow stick....

https://www.suncalc.org/