How to polar align my HEQ5 pro mount.

[Astronut1982]

Hey all, hope you're all well.

I'm hoping someone can help me because I'm tearing my hair out!!

I recently bought a HEQ5 pro mount & seem to be unable to polar align correctly. I tried reading the instructions but they were no help whatsoever. I then went on to youtube and found a video tutorial which I thought had helped.

Here is what I did to align it :-

1 - Set the scope to the start position. [upright with scope bracket at 90 degrees]

2 – Adjusted the altitude to my current latitude.

3 – Unlocked the RA lock, then rotated the RA axis until Polaris was facing directly down in the polar scope & locked again. Once this was done, rotated & locked the time circle to zero.

4 – Used the Polarfinder program to confirm the time of Polaris’ transit [The point when Polaris was facing directly down, exactly like when I adjusted the RA axis in the polar scope] for my location. Once known, I aligned the date & time circles using this data. [On the time circle, used the numbers on the top ascending to the left for the northern hemisphere & the numbers on the bottom ascending to the right for the southern hemisphere.]

5 – Unscrewed the thread on the inside black circle of the polar scope to adjust it so that the white line aligns with zero on the date circle.

6 – Now rotated the Ra axis until the current date & time matched up. To check the position of Polaris is correct, used Polarfinder for the current position.

7 – Used the altitude & azimuth adjusters to fine tune the alignment so that Polaris is off centre of the NCP in its marker on the polar scope.

I understood this & followed the instructions but when I rotated my right ascension so Polaris was at the bottom of my polar scope, it was about 180 degrees the wrong way round from the one in the tutuorial. This meant that once I had adjusted it to the current date & time my scope bracket was at about the 6 o'clock position & so I couldn't fit my scope on or else the legs would have been in the way.

I've been tearing my hair trying to work out what went wrong & i'm at a loss. So I'm desperately hoping someone can tell me :-

If this means the polar scope itself is incorrect & if so, can I fix it or does it have to be returned?

Or, is there something I've overlooked/done wrong &/or is the tutorial wrong?

I hope someone can help as I'm really hoping to get the scope set up a.s.a.p. so I can get some photos of the M101 supernova!

Cheers,

Jeff

[bcfcciderhead]

I'm not the best at this myself but will give you my thoughts.

What you have done seems about right, but what might need doing is a calibration of the polarscope, this is done using those little grub screws on the end of the scope, don't know how but i'm sure someone will put you right.

Also did this stop you using your scope tonight?, it should'nt have,

All i do is get Polaris in the centre of the polarscope and make do with that, GOTO is still very good and tracking works ok to.

But as your looking to do some photo's of M101 then i guess you will need to get this correct.

Try looking at the Astronomy Shed site, some good videos on there about this.

[JamesM]

Moving the RA axis will orientate the polar scope within the mount. Polar finder provides a pictorial representation that you attempt to duplicate by making adjustments to the RA axis. Alternatively, you can obtain this same position by 'dialing' in the correct date and time - this is exactly what I do as being a Mac user I don't have a PC to run the polar finder software. From your description, you appear to be doing both, namely using a short cut to allow quick RA adjustment AND manually dialing it in to set the RA position.

To be honest I wish I had the time to visit people to do this for them because some of the videos out there unwittingly show you what to do but make assumptions about the viewers knowledge and lose them very quickly - I know I've seen them! Can I recommend this resource to you here as I think it is the most helpful. If need be, use some tape to label the components on you mount, so that you don't have to keep going backwards to remind yourself which bit is what. Dave above is correct in that the first thing is to callibrate the polar scope to the mount. There is also a slim chance that the polar scope itself might need aligning to the mount and that is also included in the highlighted instructions.

Your mount is effectively a slide rule that 'calculates' the approximate offset position of polaris BUT it is only a very good approximation. If you look at the dials, months are assumed to have only 30 days not 31 and what about Feb? Dave is also correct in that rough aligning polaris is good enough for most GOTO observing but your imaging will require better alignment in order to secure longer accuracy for tracking.

Please work through the instructions above and they will get you there!

James

[g0ibi]

Download a program called Polar Finder, it's helped me and my Goto is spot on!

[SplintUK]

You might want to look here http://www.astro-baby.com/HEQ5/HEQ5-1.htm where astro baby has written a full guide from aligning the polarscope, setting up the date circles, and basically the full monty on getting to grips with aligning a heq5.

Props to astro_baby...

[Astronut1982]

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the advice.

Unfortunately it did stop me using the scope that night as I only had a couple a hours of clear skies so I just got my 12" GOTO dob out & did some viewing instead.

The problem is, everywhere I've looked, they rotate the RA axis so that polaris is directly down & the mounting plate is upside down but mine is at the 2 o'clock position. This means that when I set the current time, my mounting plate is upside down. I was under the impression that my mounting plate should be up top so that I can track along the equatorial axis. This is what has made me suspect that my scope scope is wrong somehow. It might just as easily be me that is wrong but I'm positive I followed the instructions correctly.

Anyways, I'll have a look on the Astro baby site & hopefully that will point me in the right direction. If not, I'll be back to pick your brains again!

Cheers,

Jeff

[steppenwolf]

Remember that once you have completed the polar alignment, you are aligning the MOUNT, not the telescope so once the mount is aligned, you can unlock the RA and DEC clutches and move the mount around these two axes (but don't disturb anything else!) to place it in a position suitable for mounting the telescope. The mount will remain polar aligned no matter where you point the 'scope.

It is important to calibrate the reticule in the polarscope for the process to work properly. You may find my full instructions here of some help.

I too wish I could just 'pop over' and show you how to do it - it is simple to do but not always easy to describe although I know my instructions have helped many people to understand what to do!

[Astronut1982]

Hey all,

Thanks for the advice, it definitely helped & I got it aligned. It turns out that I had aligned correctly but as some of you had said, I was only aligning the mount. Once I aligned, I just returned to my start position & I was ready to go. D'oh!

Now I've sussed it, I realise how easy it actually is. I got a little bit of drift but I imagine thats to be expected for my 1st time. With practice, I'll get better accuracy.

Thanks once again, I appreciate the advice you've all given me.

Jeff