Tripod Leveling for Polar Alignment

[NightDreamer]

Hi all,

This has probably been covered elsewhere, but with so much info I couldn't find it.

How do people normally go about leveling their mounts before polar aligning? My NEQ6 has a little bubble level on the top of one of the legs, but this doesn't "feel" like it would be accurate enough? Or am I being overly concerned?

I'm trying to get a good alignment for taking 3+ min unguided exposures. My best so far has been somewhat short of the mark

There don't seem to be any flat surfaces to put a spirit level on without taking the head off the mount, which I haven't done since it arrived in the post - should this become part of my setup routine?

Thanks,

Nick

[Stu]

Hi Nick

Best way is to take the head off and use the flat top of the tripod. I have a small spirit level which has two elements perpendicular to each other which makes it very easy to correct front to back and left to right.

However, there is a thread elsewhere with much talk about the fact that levelling is not really that necessary because you actually do the polar alignment with the adjustments on the head. The actual level doesn't affect the end result ie you can still perfectly polar align without levelling perfectly.

My view is somewhere in between, get the tripod level enough so finding polaris is easy and then do your polar alignment

Stu

[steppenwolf]

Getting the mount approximately level is fine so don't worry about absolute accuracy as it is not required - in fact polar alignment and future tracking would work just fine with the mount bolted to a vertical wall so that it was at 90 degrees from level!!!

However, there is an advantage to be in the right ballpark and that is that adjustment of the altitude and azimuth bolts will not react with one another.

The NEQ6 bubble will be more than good enough.

[scoobymike]

I always try and get mine pretty accurate, as it makes the 'home' or 'park' position of the scope easier to achieve, and seems to make the alignment procedure easier. But as the others have said, as long as you polar align accurately, it won't affect your ability to track.