IanK_

i've read that guide before, but what the guide on the polar alignment doesn't mention the step i'm talking about. When following the steps in the guide on how to polar align, my error is always 00 when thats not true because star trails show up in less than 2 minutes, which is about half of expected. On the guide it goes from selecting the star to moving and centering with the mount. But for me it goes to the star, asks me to point towards the celestial pole, then asks me to center with the mount.

Ok i'm confused as to how to polar align my celestron 6E telescope with a wedge. I do the EQ north stuff, get that aligned, then move onto the polar alignment. I figured syncing it to Polaris would be the best option, but you can do it with any star. And then it mentions pointing it towards the celestial pole, which no online guide mentions. How can i center it to a star like Arcturus, but then point it to the celestial poles? Does that mean I move from Arcturus to Polaris, then it goes back to Arcturus and then I move the mount to where it actually is? If it wants me to only use Polaris why would it give me the option to use any star like Vega? After I choose my star in the first step (which is the last star selected) and then I get to the celestial pole step, what am I supposed to do, and then which star do I use to center, Polaris or the one I chose? What does point it towards the celestial pole actually mean, because to my knowledge thats just point towards Polaris.

So I tried using the celestron wedge with my 6E to try and increase exposure times without star trails. The mount is level with the base pointing north, I use the EQ north alignment, get my 2 stars, the alignment goes through, and then I try the polar align from there. I polar aligned it to one of the stars I used to EQ align. Im not sure if you are supposed to choose a different star or if you can use one of the same stars. However, star trails will show up literally with in 10 seconds, worse than just using the normal alt az. I'm pretty sure I have the lat right, there really isn't an indicator to know what lat you are at, but is there any reason why the alignment would be successful yet the tracking would be utterly terrible and unable to track for literally 10 seconds without very noticeable and long startrails, while the alt az version is at least able to do it for 40 seconds. Is there something I am doing wrong for the tracking to be that bad? Anyone have experience with this mount?

I'm new to astrophotography and recently purchased an Orion G3 monochrome camera. When I point the camera at a far away tree in the day, I see, well the leaves. But the problems start when its dark. When putting the camera into the telescope by itself, and take a photo i get the image attached. The camera was pointed at a few stars that were bright hoping they'd show up on the camera but they don't, only the white washed out image. The gain and offset settings were default, the image taken was with .001 seconds of exposure, and it was a dark frame. Why is it I am able to see the leaves just fine in the day, but when its dark and I point it at stars all I get is the washed out imagine. Do I need longer exposure, a filter, or change the gain/offset? How do I not see white grains? The light frames don't show anything either.