The crazy world of polar alignment?

[JamesF]

I was still out stargazing, and can't believe I missed this programme, I am a Prog obsessive!

This is the fourth time it's been shown to my knowledge. Give it another few months and I'm sure it'll be around again. I've stopped recording it now, though I'm a sucker for a bit of Jethro Tull...

James

[Catweazel]

As described in post #3

Paul

Oh yeah! Wish I'd tried that before the more complicated stuff now; that will teach me to read all the posts thoroughly in future

@JamesF, tell me about it, 'Thick As A Brick' must be one of my top 5 most played albums I reckon. Hasn't helped me much with polar alignment though

[sanmatt]

I say that all the time to the mrs, "it's all going on eBay on Monday", haven't done it yet though.

I was still out stargazing, and can't believe I missed this programme, I am a Prog obsessive! Wonder if it's available on iPlayer

Ok, back to polar alignment. After reading some very complex methods for doing this, I had a brainwave. I went out at twilight, whilst sky was still dark blue, and noticed that polaris appears before any of the stars around it. So, I looked through the polar scope, no problem seeing the reticule, and there was Polaris nice and clear! I used the Polar Finderscope program and matched with Polaris in the reticule; Bingo! subsequent AP was much better, with no star trails.

I realise that this is only really useful for back garden astronomy, if you arrive at a dark sky site after dark it won't be much use.

I must have sold mine twenty times over, this is one of the hardest hobbies I have ever gotten into - cross stitch used to wind me up too!

Yes its on iPlayer, as well as being repeated on Monday ar 2am.

It was the making of So? Along with some stuff on the animation of Sledgehammer, and another one. A bit about Don't Give up, and some live footage of I know What I like in your Wardrobe. (love that track).

This was a new programme aswell, hadnt been on before.

BBC Two - Classic Albums, Peter Gabriel's 'So'

Then watched the other prog show - can't stand 'Family' though, when he comes on Planet Rock I turn it right down, he's a warbling idiot, sounds like he's under water. Just horrible.

[UnderTheRain]

a 32mm (think - double check) drain plug (99p B&Q).

It's exactly the right size to push over the polar scope

Been looking for these for months I don't think B&Q sell them anymore. If anyone does find them please let me know I want some for exactly this purpose.

And on the eq5 a few people have said that the illumination for the polarscope can be dim depending upon your version. Astrobaby did a guide to modding it somewhere (check astrobabys site sorry I dont have a link).

UTR

[eddy]

I got mine from B&Q it cost £1.02 for a black plug 32mm and works perfectly!

I also got an argos cheapo £6.99 webcam and it works PRETTY well, its by no means perfect, and had to crank the brightness right up, which washes the polar scope reticule out a bit, but ive just used it, and i have to say my neck is still in perfect shape!

So for a grand total of £7.50 ish, you have a polar scope webcam

[idbvideo]

Look for a 32mm plastic stop end. Screwfix direct and Wicks also do em I believe

[marshy123]

Sorry but you're all way off on this one. Prog at the BBC? Where was the king crimson?

[sanmatt]

Sorry but you're all way off on this one. Prog at the BBC? Where was the king crimson?

I'm fairly sure King Crimson were on there too

[Catweazel]

Hi marshy and sanmatt, I know that we are getting way off topic here, but have either of you had a look on here Progressive Rock Music Forum - Powered by Web Wiz Forums™

[Starlight 1]

I done a update today on the SynScan and if it work that make life easy .

This is the way to set it up from the instructions on the download.

SynScan® EQ GOTO Polar Re-alignment Instruction

No polar scope polar alignment

Rev. 1.0

INSTRUCTIONS:

Level the tripod of the EQ GOTO mount and point to the north.

Rough align the RA axis of the mount to the celestial polar axis by pointing to the north and setting the latitude on the EQ mount.

Do a 2-Star alignment or 3-Star alignment with the SynScan hand control. 3-Star alignment is recommended for better accuracy and error compensation. If use 2-Star alignment to align the GOTO mount, please make sure that the ¡§cone error¡¨ is eliminated.

After completing the Star alignment, browse to ¡§Polar Re-align.>¡¨ submenu under Setup\Alignment menu of the hand control and then press ENTER.

The hand control will prompt, ¡§Select any star:¡¨ and provide a list of stars, which can be used as the reference star for the Polar Re-alignment. Select a star from the list and press ENTER. The EQ Telescope GOTO mount will slew and point to the selected object.

When the hand control prompt, ¡§ALIGN OBJECT ¡¨, use the directional keys to center the selected reference star to the center of the finder scope and then to the center of the eyepiece. When done, press ENTER to confirm. The hand control will prompt the displacements of polar misalignment of the EQ mount, Mel and Maz, in both elevation and azimuth directions respectively.

Press ENTER and then the mount will slew to the same reference star again, but the reference star will not locate at the center of the eyepiece at this moment. Try to use the Altitude Adjustment T-bolts and the Azimuth Adjustment Knobs to adjust the mount as doing the adjustment for polar alignment, but just draw back and center the reference star to the center of the eyepiece. In this procedure, you cannot use the directional keys to center the object and the directional keys are disabled to driving the motors.

When finish the adjustment of the mount for the Polar Re-alignment. Press ENTER to confirm and check the new calculated polar misalignment, Mel and Maz. Press ENTER to exit Polar Re-alignment function. During these Polar Re-alignment procedures, you may press ESC to go back to previous step, if necessary.

Check the polar re-alignment result. You may repeat the Polar Re-alignment procedures from step 3 to step 8 to get better polar alignment, if it is necessary.

[sanmatt]

Hi marshy and sanmatt, I know that we are getting way off topic here, but have either of you had a look on here Progressive Rock Music Forum - Powered by Web Wiz Forums™

It did start off related!

I shall check that place out thanks

edit - yep I know that one