Polar aligning a GOTO mount

[NotSoSuperNova]

I've been going for a while now using a very crude polar alignment, thinking that the collimation will take care of the rest. Tracking seems fine so I'm not overly worried but I was wondering if I'm missing out on anything by not aligning properly? Apart from giving up on hunting after around 15 mins (that's when my will-power drops off a cliff and the lure of seeing what I'm looking for kicks in) I can't think of any reason why I would do anything different. I thought I'd check out the consensus.

Much obliged,

Ryan

[ronin]

I cannot make out if you have a problem or not.

I assume that you do not mean "collimation" but "field of view".

You do not say if you actually do the goto alignment for the scope/mount, therefore I cannot make out if the scope will goto an object when/if selected.

If you just say "Yes" at each alignment star then use it to move round, then I think that the scope cannot, after moving round via the handset, then be used as a goto. I think the scope will have no real idea where it is pointing so will go to somewhere undefined based on a presumption.

Would I be right to say that you search round for about half an hour then give up ?

Two reasons make me say this:- you appear to be saying it, and the number of things seen is not great for what is (I think) a 10" goto SCT.

The approximate alignment is OK if you want to locate yourself and have the scope do some reasonable tracking.

Really what is it you want to do?

If you want to get down to seeing things up there (basically rack the score up for the objects seen) then you will have to use the goto and that means performing the alignment process, with a fair degree of accuracy. Then you need "a plan". You cannot go outside, stand there and expect the name of objects to view to rush into your mind, I have tried it and failed more then a little miserably, or else I just end up looking at the same things over and over again.

Oddly the hard part is not the aligning, it is the plan.

[Digz]

Polar alignment is there for tracking mounts to ensure they track an objects apparent motion across the night sky. For visual, a rough alignment is fine.

If you have a goto mount your next step, after polar aligning, would be to perform a star alignment. This lets the mount know where it is and allows you to select an object for the mount to find.

I am finding it difficult to ascertain what your issue is. Are you struggling with the mount not finding a selected object? Are you struggling seeing anything with your scope?

For reference, collimation is to do with how well aligned the scopes mirrors are (for a reflector for example) and thus how clean and sharp a focussed image will appear. Don't forget other factors can come into play that will affect a view such as seeing, very thin high level cloud or even light pollution.