Polar alignment question

[Michael1971]

Hi fellow stargazers,

I was pondering a question.

If you put the polar star into the cross-hairs of the polar scope, and your mounts is perfectly leveled, should you see the polar star also in the middle of the eye piece? It seems logical but so far it was never the case..

Since I got my new mount, I leveled from scratch and now I can see the polar star at least from the view finder, but I am wondering if it should be dead in the middle.

thanks

Mike

[nmoushon]

Polaris shouldn't be in the cross hairs of your polar scope. It should be in the the little bubble in the circle that's around the cross hairs.

[Michael1971]

of course, I know that for polar aligning..but if polaris is in the bubble then I assume its not in the middle of the eye piece,

[nmoushon]

yes that is correct. Since polaris isnt the actual part of the sky we are trying to align (center) on polaris wont be in the center of the eyepiece

[steppenwolf]

If you forget about the mount being polar aligned for a moment and you arrange for Polaris to sit on the polarscope's crosshairs then if your counterbalance bar is pointing exactly downwards and your telescope is pointing exactly upwards, Polaris will be in the centre of the telescope's eyepiece. If it isn't then either one of the above criteria has not been met or you have some cone error.

Sent from my iPhone from somewhere dark .....

[Michael1971]

Thanks Steppenwolf, that was my question. Now I know what to do

[Michael1971]

off topic: By the way Steve, I finished your book, bought it several weeks ago. Very informative, good read.