Polar aligning with pier mount

[Gaztronomer]

Hi all

im very close to getting off the tripod and onto the pier in the new roll on roll off obsy.

My equipment is as follows

celestron cpc9.25

celestron HD wedge

celestron 80mm guide scope

altair astro pier

i have been reading about polar alignment when using a pier, what is the setup/alignment procedure. I have read that once its been done once you don't have to align again - I this correct.

i have also read about drift alignment but to be honest I have never done a drift alignment.

Any help or info would be great as I'm starting to get a little confused.

thanks in advance

gaz

[Davey-T]

Hi Gaz, don't know why nobodys answered your question, plenty of "experts" on here usually only to willing to put in their two penneth especially considering the weather lately, they've

nothing else to do.

Get the mount on the pier so that you can point it north (fork arms) and have a bit of adjustment .

Do alignment on Polaris , if you have the fork and scope pointing at Polaris you can keep rotating in RA and adjust wedge so that Polaris stays more or less in the centre of view using

something like a 30mm eyepiece.

You can use an illuminated reticule eyepiece for drift aligning but its easier if you have a guide camera fitted to the main scope.Turn of guiding.

To adjust Dec centre a star the South at about 90 deg and see which way it drifts up or down (ignore Left Right) turn horizontal adjuster to bring star back to centre horizontally, repeat a few times. Then centre a star low in the East (best 20-30 deg above horizon and +/- 5 deg of the equator ) find stars with Stellarium and goto. Use altitude adjuster to bring it back to

centre horizontally (Ignore L R) repeat both procedures a few times.

Hope this helps.

Dave

[Davey-T]

Oops sorry typo should be 0 deg on dec circle.

Basically you need stars around the celestial equator 0 degrees look on Stellarium.

Good luck

Dave

[Gaztronomer]

Many thanks for the reply

i think that I didn't explain my problems correctly.

i know how to get it polar aligned and I can get the goto to work very accurate.

my issue is when I shut the scope down after a night of observing and turn it all off do I need to do all of the alignment again once I return to the obsy say a week later, or do I just do summin like a 3 star align as the i mount on the pier should still be locked into a north facing direction.

i hope that might explain it a little better

thanks

gaz

[Gonzo]

Gaz,

according to the following link "http://www.mda-teles...id=51&Itemid=81"

Almost every pier (even standing in concrete) can have small movements in long scale of time. So, it can be useful to check and realign it, if necessary, month by month.

based on this, I would assume that you do once and check it from time to time only.

[laser_jock99]

Hi Gaz, don't know why nobodys answered your question, plenty of "experts" on here usually only to willing to put in their two penneth especially considering the weather lately, they've

nothing else to do.

Dave

I can think of one reason why nobody replied- it's unsual to have a wedge on a pier I guess? Most people will have probably fitted equatorial type mounts.

Polar alignment shouldn't change if the pier's solid but there's no harm checking once in a while.

[Davey-T]

Is there an option to park the mount on the handcontroller

I can think of one reason why nobody replied- it's unsual to have a wedge on a pier I guess? Most people will have probably fitted equatorial type mounts.

Sorry forgot this should be renamed the Skywatcher forum

Dave

[Gaztronomer]

Many thanks

not sure what the problem is with a wedge on a pier is I've seen loads of people having this setup. Im new to all of this so all advice is taken on board.

Thanks for your help

gaz

[Davey-T]

Many thanks

not sure what the problem is with a wedge on a pier is I've seen loads of people having this setup. Im new to all of this so all advice is taken on board.

gaz

Astrophotography tends to be more difficult on a wedge, which is generally the only reason to have one.

Dave