Struggling with Polaris..

[rob7]

I've been struggling with the polar aligning my cg5 eq mount, so I can accurately use its tracking and goto functions. I'm probably doing something daft or not doing as the case may be, but I cant see the wood for the trees. If I've got this right you...

Set the RA/DEC to there index marks.

Roughly point the mounts pole finder north towords Polaris.

Lattitude adjustment is preset to 53 degrees.

Turn ota to look through the pole finder and adjust azimuth adjustments to put Polaris in the small circle on the cross hairs.

Set the ota back to its index marks.

Check through an eyepiece in the ota that Polaris is centred.

Trouble is, even though its hard aligning Polaris to where it should be through the pole finder [can hardly see the cross hairs]. I'm not getting the alignment close enough..[Polaris where it should be in pole finder, but quite a bit off centre when viewed through the ota eyepiece].

I would love to start using the scopes potential, but I keep falling at the first hurdle. Can someone cure my fustration and advise me where I might be going wrong?

Regards, Rob.

[James]

Rob - do you have a polarscope in your CG5 mount? Its not essential, in fact for visual use its not necessary.

Its generally easier to polar align without the OTA and weights on the mount.

Firstly make sure the mount is reasonably level - the bubble levels on the mounts are notoriously inaccurate but its better than nothing!

Secondly, turn the dec axis sufficiently so that you can see through the polar finder (or the hole that the polar finder sits in). Obviously remove the caps... (forget that myself sometimes!).

If you can see Polaris through the polarscope or through the whole and its reasonably centred then for visual purposes you're OK and ready to go. If not then you'll need to tweak the azimuth knobs and/or the latitude setting (another one thats often a little wrong!).

Once Polaris is visible in the hole/polar finder you're set.

Its not necessary to line up the index marks until the mount is on and you are about to start alignment and when set up correctly it is normal for the OTA to be pointing somewhat off to one side of Polaris - the alignment routine allows for this 'offset' when doing a three star align (or a two star with calibration stars)

HTH

James

[steppenwolf]

Rob, for Polar alignment, you are not interested in the position of Polaris in the main telescope's EP, just in the polarscope.

Shining a red light across the front of the Polarscope will allow you to see the crosshair.

This article on my website will explain how to Polar align the EQ6 and the HEQ5 BUT the instructions for the HEQ5 apply to your mount as well:-

http://home.btconnect.com/astro-site/polar_alignment.htm

[rob7]

For casual visual use I normally just place the whole scope pointing roughly north and thats enough for basic tracking for a while. From what you say James all I have to do is concentrate on the polar finder alignment alone for more accurate tracking and goto. By the way, my polar finder is just the crosshairs with a small circle to the left of centre type, [no star patterns or alike]. Thanks James for your steadiness!!

Thanks Steve for the link, I'm sure it will help [saved to favourites], the setting circles and how to use them were going to be another question for the future!

I will endeavour to do a better alignment on the next clear night...

Regards, Rob.