Celestron 127 MAK for solar - question

[tekkydave]

Hi, a question for anyone using a Celestron 127 for solar imaging. How do you align it in the daytime? I had a go at some solar imaging yesterday but had to track the sun manually. The solar tracking mode wasn't keeping the sun centred as the scope wasn't correctly aligned on 3 stars.

Thanks.

[JamesF]

I believe Steve Ward does a bit of a drift alignment on a sunspot when not using his fixed mount. If you're imaging from a fixed location it's probably easiest to leave the mount outside overnight with a waterproof cover on it having aligned to Polaris in the dark.

James

[tekkydave]

James,

It's not really practical to leave the scope out overnight. It would probably disappear where I live .

The scope has an ALT/AZ goto mount. I was wondering if the Single-star alignment would work using the sun as the star.

I don't suppose there are many people with this type of scope doing solar imaging.

[JamesF]

Perhaps not that type of mount, but I use my 127 Mak for solar imaging and it works very well.

I think you'll probably find that the GOTO system won't actually allow you to align on the Sun. Manual tracking may be the best you can do for the time being.

James

[Montana]

Have a try at this method, I get near perfect tracking even at 5x mag.

Alexandra

[DrRobin]

Hi,

I am assuming that you have an Alt/AZ mount rather than an EQ mount? Regardless, the method I use is the same, just align the scope facing north (level for an AZ, and pointing at Polaris for an EQ), enter the date and time and when it asks you to align hit cancel.

Next the sun doesn't appear in the database, so I find a galaxy, star or Mercury that is very close (use a star atlas to find one), then use this as the tracked object. Once the mount has slewed to the chosen object, just manually slew to the sun and if it isn't far away my Merlin mount tracks fine. There can be some slight drift some days, but I put this down to the poor north alignment rather than the sun moving at a different rate to the stars, which of course it does slightly.

I have also used my EQ6 this way as well. In fact for the sun and the planets, I don't bother doing an alignment, just set the scope up in the same place and select the object, then make manual adjustments.

I hope this helps.

Robin

[tekkydave]

Thanks Robin, I'll try that next time.

[markt]

i just turn on the mount, click ok to whatever date and time etc comes up, when it comes to the align part just click cancel. I just point the scope at the sun and let the mount run. There is absolutely no need to do an alignment when solar observing. Just make sure your mount is pointing north and that it is level, that is all that is needed.

[smerral]

Yes I've used a Skywatcher Mak on a GOTO mount. Same as above, no need to align - just set autotrack and slew to the sun. A solar finder will come in handy.