NEQ6 Pro, Polarscope - Where are the stars?

[Alveprinsen]

Carrying my NEQ6 Pro outside, setting it as accurately pointing towards north as I possibly can, I flip the switch and look through the polar scope.

(Yes, weight-bar is out. Yes... Top cap is off... Yes... bigass bottom cap is off.)

So, I am staring through the scope, filled with somewhat childish enthusiasm and anticipation... To find .......... Nothing.... Absolutely nothing.

And I mean nothing, as in a quantum vacuum. Not a single star. Not a hint of anything shining up there.

And the red backlight inside the scope? Does it interfer with seeing any stars?

Just how black a sky does one need in order to get polaris, or any star at ALL into the view of the polar scope?

My spot here is fairly dark, although there is some light polution from the street. I can see polaris just fine wit the naked eye though.

Alveprinsen.

[Black Knight]

You may have done this already, but have you rotated the Dec shaft by 90 degrees? There is a cutaway in the shaft that will allow you to see the sky, but you need to rotate it first.

Sent from my mobile using Tapatalk, so please excuse the speeling and granma!

[earth titan]

You may have done this already, but have you rotated the Dec shaft by 90 degrees? There is a cutaway in the shaft that will allow you to see the sky, but you need to rotate it first.

Sent from my mobile using Tapatalk, so please excuse the speeling and granma!

Indeed. Classic error that I've NEVER made... Heeee heeee.

Also, is the shaft fully extended as this can block the hole.

Typed by me on my fone, using fumms... Excuse eny speling errurs.

[Steve 1962]

...and try turning the red LED off (or down if you can on the handset) - mine's far too bright and prevents me from seeing the stars through it.

Steve

[Alveprinsen]

You may have done this already, but have you rotated the Dec shaft by 90 degrees? There is a cutaway in the shaft that will allow you to see the sky, but you need to rotate it first.

Dec shaft? Are you refering to the shaft which the counterweights go onto? I did not know I had to rotate it in any way after fully extending it if it is...

If not, then what exactly is the Dec shaft?

Alveprinsen.

[Alveprinsen]

...and try turning the red LED off (or down if you can on the handset) - mine's far too bright and prevents me from seeing the stars through it.

Thanks man.

Gonna look into the handcontroller when I get back home from work and check it out.

I guess I'll find it under "setup" somewhere.

[Mr Spock]

Dec shaft? Are you refering to the shaft which the counterweights go onto? I did not know I had to rotate it in any way after fully extending it if it is...

Yes, it has a hole through it which ned to be aligned with the polar scope

As for the red LED, my EQ-6 Pro doesn't have any way of turning it down... I usually do the polar alignment with the power turned off.

[madatter]

Yep, ill own up, i did it with my new eq5, but i did a couple of setups in the livingroom and couldnt see through the polarscope, then i noticed it was blocked inside the north facing hole, didnt take me long to work it out after that.

[chrisshillito]

It is worth mentioning that the "blocked" polar scope view is an easy one to remedy. First rotate the dec axis until the hole is aligned with the polar scope. Then slacken off the saddle retaining bolts, rotate the saddle so its pointing in the usual home position and then tighten it all up gain. So long as you always set up at "home" position you'll never get fooled again

Chris.

[r3i]

It is worth mentioning that the "blocked" polar scope view is an easy one to remedy. First rotate the dec axis until the hole is aligned with the polar scope. Then slacken off the saddle retaining bolts, rotate the saddle so its pointing in the usual home position and then tighten it all up gain. So long as you always set up at "home" position you'll never get fooled again

Chris.

That's what I did - dead easy fix. Not sure why the default position of the polar scope is set to 90 degrees?

[Sarah]

...and try turning the red LED off (or down if you can on the handset) - mine's far too bright and prevents me from seeing the stars through it.

Steve

Yes make sure it's dimmed down. I had the same problem when I got my HEQ5 just over a year ago. The polar scope was too bright to see any stars. I did initially roughly polar align with power off and then found how to dim it later. Think mine was on 100% and I dimmed it down to something like 2%. It was somewhere under the Utility menu on the Synscan handset.

[chrisshillito]

Not sure why the default position of the polar scope is set to 90 degrees?

I think mine was more like 30 degrees. Guess its just down to the person fitting the saddles rather than a deliberatly set angle.

Chris.

[Alveprinsen]

I just checked my mount before leaving for work and discovered that indeed the hole through the axis is blocked when the mount is in home position.

I felt like a total retard....

Anyhow, I'm gonna go with Chris's tip and rotate the saddle so that the polar-scope will allways be unblocked when in home position.

I'll set back lighting inside scope to 2% as well, just to be sure.

As long as I can see the symbols in there, its all good.

With some luck, I might have a semi-clear sky when I get back home from work at 00:30 tonight.

[VigdisVZ]

I've done the same mistakes as you with the rotation and the counter weight rod and the LED light. Glad to hear you're on track!

[Black Knight]

I felt like a total retard....

I wouldn't worry about it. We've all done daft things in the past. I still do!

Sent from my mobile using Tapatalk, so please excuse the speeling and granma!

[Zakalwe]

That's what I did - dead easy fix. Not sure why the default position of the polar scope is set to 90 degrees?

I think its because there's less chance of the scope hitting the tripod legs if you PA with the OTA mounted. If you turn the saddle, then the OTA is far more likely to collide.

[Alveprinsen]

Ok, so I was just outside, fiddling with the polar scope.

Seems I had to turn down the polarscope led light to 2%, like another gentleman in this thread recommended.

At that point, I could see... veeeeery faint stars. Like the tips of needles. So small, that if I looked directly at one of them, they disapeared out of sight.

Now, my problem is as following:

How on earth do I know which one of those almost invisible little points is Polaris? I can see like .... 14 stars? Perhaps even more. They are all equally faint, and disapear from my sight as soon as I look directly at them.

[Black Knight]

Polaris should appear brighter than the other stars, so perhaps either altitude or azimuth is slightly off.

For me, the trick is to get your altitude on the altitude scale as close as you can before starting your PA. Then go left and right using the azimuth knobs. As long as your latitude is close, Polaris should appear somewhere in the polar scope. Then when you have Polaris in the polar scope, you can do your PA. I find it easier to do it this way because it's easier to make sweeping left and right movements using the azimuth knobs to locate Polaris, than trying to go up and and using the altitude screws.

Sent from my mobile using Tapatalk, so please excuse the speeling and granma!

[SteveA]

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Polaris should appear brighter than the other stars, so perhaps either altitude or azimuth is slightly off.

Like most things there is a definite neck to polar alignment. Once you've done it successfully a couple of times you'll wonder what all the fuss was about.

Finding Polaris through the polar scope can be a bit challenging at first, though as Andy says it is definitely the brightest star in the region, so when you do eventually pick it up in the polar scope it is very obvious.

Take it easy with the altitude adjustment bolts, plenty of people end up forcing the adjustment of these against each other and bending the bolts.Quite a lot of us replace these bolts with better quality ones...

Steve

[Zakalwe]

How on earth do I know which one of those almost invisible little points is Polaris? I can see like .... 14 stars? Perhaps even more. They are all equally faint, and disapear from my sight as soon as I look directly at them.

I use a laser pen. Just a cheap one off eBay. Hold the pen against the body of the mount and roughly point it at Polaris. Squint through the polarscope and you will see the beam. There's a knack to it, but it does work.

[chrisshillito]

Now, my problem is as following:

How on earth do I know which one of those almost invisible little points is Polaris? I can see like .... 14 stars? Perhaps even more. They are all equally faint, and disapear from my sight as soon as I look directly at them.

None of those stars is polaris, afer all you can see polaris directly with yor naked eye so it's not going to disappear on direct viewing through a polar scope. The reason the polar scope led is by default bright is that this masks off all the stars except polaris, suposedly making it easier to find.

what I used to do was clamp a bit of plastic pipe in the saddle which was positioned parallel to the polar scope. I would then just look through the pipe and adjust the Alt/Az knobs until polaris was centered at which point it would usually be in the field of view of the polar scope. After a while you just get a feel for finding polaris and this isn't necessary anymore.

Chris

[Alveprinsen]

Take it easy with the altitude adjustment bolts, plenty of people end up forcing the adjustment of these against each other and bending the bolts.Quite a lot of us replace these bolts with better quality ones...

The bolt that decreases altitude turns without any force, but the one on the polarscope-side of the mount - which turns the altitude up; is so hard that I can barely turn it at all.

It is currently set to 59.6 degrees, which is correct for where I live.

Question though: I can twist the decreasing bolt, even though the increasing bolt is almost all the way in there and tight as the pope's *ss.

Is it still safe to turn the decreasing bolt, or will it break the other one?

They dont seem to work like the AZ bolts, were you have to loosen one up before you can move the other one...

[Alveprinsen]

Oh, also - concerning increasing altitude using those bolts: I cannot increase beond 59,6 degrees, because the bolt is now so hard to turn I'd need a wrench to do it. For some reason the decreasing bolt turns just fine though, and can even appear a bit too slack....

[Alveprinsen]

None of those stars is polaris, afer all you can see polaris directly with yor naked eye so it's not going to disappear on direct viewing through a polar scope. The reason the polar scope led is by default bright is that this masks off all the stars except polaris, suposedly making it easier to find.

Ahh, makes sense...

I should probably turn it slightly up again then, I guess.

The mount appears to be directed as directly towards Polaris as possible though. Is the FOV through the polarscope somewhat narrow then?

[peroni]

The bolt that decreases altitude turns without any force, but the one on the polarscope-side of the mount - which turns the altitude up; is so hard that I can barely turn it at all.

It is currently set to 59.6 degrees, which is correct for where I live.

Question though: I can twist the decreasing bolt, even though the increasing bolt is almost all the way in there and tight as the pope's *ss.

Is it still safe to turn the decreasing bolt, or will it break the other one?

They dont seem to work like the AZ bolts, were you have to loosen one up before you can move the other one...

If the bolts are the same as my mount (HEQ5), they work in opposition. To increase altitude you slacken one bolt before tightening the other. To decrease altitude, the same. You must remember to undo one bolt before tightening the other or (as others have said) you risk bending the bolts.

Another thing to bear in mind is the levelling of the mount. If you don't have the mount near to level in the first place, then your altitude settings will need adjusting and the setting will be different to what you'd expect at your latitude (59.6). I had a similar issue the other night when I hadn't bothered to level the tripod closely.

Before I polar align, I have a quick look through the small hole on the top to ensure the polar scope can be seen through the shaft. One more check to make sure you'll be able to see stars through the scope.