Polar Alignment question

[davedownsouth]

Just a quick, and probably very obvious question regarding polar alignment. When doing this with my mount, I have the mount in the home position, I.e, the scope is pointing roughly North at Polaris. After completing the polar alignment, should Polaris be in the field of view of the scope (I know Polaris should be in the correct position of the polar scope), or does this not matter?

Cheers,

Dave

[Earl]

it depends on how large your fov is.

on my scope if the tree was not in the way it would be.

[Thalestris24]

Hi

Not necessarily - it will depend on the fov of your scope. That's because Polaris is actually some distance from the celestial pole. If you have Stellarium, you can check the relative positions of pole/Polaris. I quick try with Stellarium and putting in your Altair/Atik data suggests that Polaris should indeed be within your FOV - if you're pointing close to the pole...

Hope that helps.

Louise

[Owmuchonomy]

Just a quick, and probably very obvious question regarding polar alignment. When doing this with my mount, I have the mount in the home position, I.e, the scope is pointing roughly North at Polaris. After completing the polar alignment, should Polaris be in the field of view of the scope (I know Polaris should be in the correct position of the polar scope), or does this not matter?

Cheers,

Dave

Remember, it's your mount you are aligning with the Earth's axis not your scope. Once your mount is aligned correctly with the celestial pole, putting your scope in the home position will (should) then align your scope with the mount. Then as Louise says Polaris is 41 arc minutes away from the celestial pole so depending upon the FOV of your scope it may or may not appear in the Field.

[jambouk]

Nott necessarily; depends on the field of view of the scope-eyepiece combo, and on how much cone error there is.

James

[theghettostylus]

Probably a stupid question, but once I have the tripod/mount and telescope all polar aligned do I leave the mount pointing to polaris? And just move the telescope to a new target using RA and Dec? That's the way I've Ben doing it.

[PeterCPC]

Once your mount is correctly aligned DO NOT move it at all. Move the scope if you want to look at another target.

Peter

[jambouk]

Yes, once polar aligned, don't move the tripod or mount; just use the RA and Dec and the scope with rotate but the mount remains polar aligned.

James

[theghettostylus]

Thanks for the replies, I've been doing it the right way then aha just wanted to double check as no one ever mentions that part!

Thanks!

[Idefixer]

A question about aligment. Will a three star alignment after a polaraligmnet, ajust a not so correct polar alignment. Let us say that I just sweep the mount in so that I have Polaris in the polarfinder, but instead of puttin it the ring, I put it in the center. Then I do a three star aligment. Will this adjust the error I did at the begining?

Or is it deadly important to align polaris in the ring, wich must be adjusted corrsponding to the hours after passing zenit?

Brg

Claus

[Browny]

I am an absolute beginner and this article has answered lots of questions on polar alignment. Thanks everyone

[jambouk]

Claus,

A three star alignment will do nothing to correct your poor polar alignment. To correct poor polar alignment you need to adjust the altitude and/or azimuth knobs on the mount; to perform a three star alignment you only use the handset to alter where the telescope is pointing, not altering where the RA axis of the mount is pointing

[michael8554]

Dave, it depends whether you're doing visual or imaging.

If you're imaging, poor polar alignment = poor tracking = elongated stars.

If you're visual, the 3 star will compensate for your polar alignment and get you close on goto's, but as above may not keep the object in the FOV for long.

Michael