Finder scope alignment

[lhuchison]

Last night was great for stargazing here in sussex so i set up as normal and while looking through my Right angled, corrected image finder scope i turned the body till the cross hairs aligned with the RA and DEC movement. Should this be the way i should have it set up? I,ve never done it before but now its much easier to hop about. i can judge the RA movement now and the objects move along the cross hairs perfectly. Bit of a revelation to me, I aligned to polaris first as i,m using an equatorial mount.

[Ragnar]

I usually align mine in the day, using distant land marks. I can see the Malvern hills from my house, so I usually start on them, and then for finer adjustments, I focus on a distant tree

[jason.p]

I do my alignment during the day using a mobile phone mast a mile or so away using a reticle with cross hairs in the 25mm eyepiece. When I start a session I use Jupiter (at the moment) to check and set the Telrad. It always seems to have moved a bit from the daylight setting.

[Pig]

If you set it up during the day always make sure the tripod / mount is level (or at least the same as when you set the finder)

I alaways wondered why mine used to be out a little.

Now I have a round spirit level that sticks to the mount. The finder scope is always aligned with my main scope now.

[lhuchison]

Does everyone else align the cross hairs in the finder scope to align with the ra and dec movement?

[Richie092]

I don't but now you've said it I think it's a good idea.

[lhuchison]

Thanks Richie092 .i,m quite excited by this.( need to get out more !) I was moving the body of the finder scope to find a comfortable position when I noticed that I had aligned the cross hairs with the RA and DEC movement. I don't remember reading anywhere about doing this, but I find it much better for star hopping etc .

When I move the RA knob for tracking I can see the star move exactly along the cross hair.

[lhuchison]

Whether its an advantage might be arguable . But I,m finding it more precise. I'll try it again when weather allows!

[glowjet]

I have just invested in an Antares raci illuminated finder, for almost the same reason as I do not have GOTO, I can now set the cross hairs in any position through 360° without upsetting anything, but I am also working on an interesting method of Polar aligning the mount without using a Polar scope or the dreaded setting circles

John.

[lhuchison]

any details of your interesting polar aligning method?

[glowjet]

Its based on Dr Clay Sherrods "Kochabs Clock Polar alignment method" this was used with an ETX 125 on a wedge, After a good look at this and despite what Dr Clay says in his article, Kochab, Beta Ursa Min is not in a direct line with Polaris to pass through the centre of the NCP but, as it happens, 5 Ursa Min ( Flamsteed No ) is, which will give a constant angle in relation to polaris along which to offset for the NCP which is 43`arc or 3/4 of a degree in round terms, no matter what time of the night It is. How to achieve this in the simplest way, so it is easy to follow, is another matter though

John.