2 hours wasted

[Ant F]

yano what, i wonderd what them bolts were on the bottom pmsl  WHAT A NOOB 

[allcart]

We've all been there Ant, and in a lot of respects I still am.

[Ant F]

i think maybe you lot were right yano, it was cold and i wasnt thinking straight. i went out a sec ago and redone what i did last night and what i thought was right was completely WRONG! i had both index's lined up and yep i thought i could see my torch and it was blocking the sky out. i had to turn the dec 90 deg to be able to view polaris lmao  WOT A WORLD CLASS NUMPTY i am 

[Ant F]

UPDATE: finally got polaris in my finder scope. WOOP WOOP  but i decided im selling all my gear, i cant be bothered sitting in the cold to find my stars are miles off. the first one i used was altar which wasnt far off much tbg. the second one i chose was dubhe that was miles off so i centred it after slew took 10 mins to actually move ( must be a setting somewhere to speed up the star search to centre ) locked it in and i was done it said sucess etc. that was 2 stars done. i then thought id look at the moon, so it slewed towards the moon but was MILES off the moon. i mean you could put a 30cm ruler on the top of the telescope and look up and the moon would be that far off. its polar aligned ok as i made sure its on the little circle in the finder scope.  am i missing something here. 

[Gonzo]

It took me quite a lot of attempts before I could polar align my eq3-2. Don't give up.

Now it's a doodle, just a few minutes really.

Next learning phase is drift align.....

[allcart]

Check your time in the handset ant. you should be on standard time and universal time. Not summertime or daylight saving..

Press the motor speed button on the handset after the star align and set it to a higher number.

Did you download Polarfinder, so that you can put polaris in the right place on the circle.

[RikM]

You need to enter the date as month/day/year rather than the correct way round. You can change the slewing speed by pressing the 'rate' button, then 1 - 9 and then enter, 9 being the fastest. I think it defaults to 2 during alignment, I normally set it to about 5 for the first star as it's usually way off, then drop to 2 again to fine tune it into the centre. You need to either calibrate your date circle to known transit of polaris, or download polarfinder to see where to put the little circle to put polaris in.

[Ant F]

Check your time in the handset ant. you should be on standard time and universal time. Not summertime or daylight saving..

Press the motor speed button on the handset after the star align and set it to a higher number.

Did you download Polarfinder, so that you can put polaris in the right place on the circle.

yep its normal time no daylight savings, i know the date goes month, date, year. i have a android phone and got an app called polarfinder which was pretty cool. i set that up right i think. 

its ok with one star align but 2 its miles off. 

[Ant F]

ok heres a question for you all. i did notice that after i polar aligned to what i think i did right. when all the indexs were lines up and i looked thought my telescope, i could see polaris in the bottom left, is that normal?

[RikM]

It may be depending on the time. You are aligning to the North Celestial pole rather than Polaris. Polaris sits about 0.75° off the pole, so near the edge of the field of view of mid/low power eyepiece would be about right. Bottom-left or top-right ect. depends on where Polaris is in its rotation round the pole.

[todd8137]

UPDATE: finally got polaris in my finder scope. WOOP WOOP but i decided im selling all my gear, i cant be bothered sitting in the cold to find my stars are miles off. the first one i used was altar which wasnt far off much tbg. the second one i chose was dubhe that was miles off so i centred it after slew took 10 mins to actually move ( must be a setting somewhere to speed up the star search to centre ) locked it in and i was done it said sucess etc. that was 2 stars done. i then thought id look at the moon, so it slewed towards the moon but was MILES off the moon. i mean you could put a 30cm ruler on the top of the telescope and look up and the moon would be that far off. its polar aligned ok as i made sure its on the little circle in the finder scope. am i missing something here.

I think that you have not set the time to standard time I have a c gem it's bang on change it to change that That's why it's of

I suspect driver error (you;) do not give up yet the polar scope does need aligning to the mount which can be a pain in the butt,there a polar align feature on the handset a small routine it does sort the polar align out and checks how far of you are

Pat I can do you a video on all this if needs be let me no

[Pig]

Ant,

I can see by your signature you have a couple of cameras is AP your main reason for buying a scope ?

If not maybe a fork mount with GoTo alignment will be a better option. I used to hate standing around in the cold trying to get the alignment right  

[carastro]

It sounds like you're getting there slowly, and learning from your mistakes - we've all been there. 

I do hope you don't give up, but as you say you are selling your kit then if you buy another I would suggest you get a Skywatcher mount, HEQ5 or NEQ6 as the polarscope is lit in these and it's much easier to see polaris and the polaris ring (I used to own a CG5 GT so I know how difficult it is without a lit reticule).

You also need to sort out your slewing speed. 

Carole

[Gina]

I found using a polar scope with the mount on a tripod out on the lawn on cold dewey nights a real pain.  It persuaded me to build an observatory with a fixed pier - that was certainly an extreme measure - many months of hard or very hard work and a considerable cost, but it was worth it   Now I'm contemplating a second imaging setup not in the obsy because there's no room - BUT I won't be using a polar scope and the tripod will be replaced with a permanent pier and polar alignment will be done on a computer using images.

[malc-c]

Ant,

Polar alignment really needs to be done each time you set up, unless you have a cope permanently mounted in an observatory, however having some form of reference such as marks on the patio for the tripod legs will help the process each time.  Browse / search the forum for similar posts as polar alignment, next to collimation is in the top 5 subjects people post about.  These things also help you to get to know your scope and what each bolt and screws do, and don't go by the RA and DEC setting circles.  On these sort of scopes they are practically useless.  Above all, keep at it... one day it will all fall into place and you'll have a very memorable session.

[Ant F]

nah im not giving up, i was just cold and a bit peed off i stood in the frost and was numb all over. i bought the sky at night magazine today and i saw someone built an observatory in it. im going to attempt this and get myself a nice little bar heater in there to bring the temp up slightly when im in it. 

at the min for markers i got my tripod and put lotsof weight onto it where i had it aligned up, soo next time i go it will slot into the holes. it was all level all over. as for the align thing i think i messed up so user error there. not many videos on aligning the scope up for a cg-5gt on youtube, there all eq5 eq6 etc.  then when you find a video they arnt really in the night time live there in there living rooms which makes it hard to understand. 

i got polar finder for android so im guessing i copy whats on the app and make it look the same in the polarfinder.   the downside is i dont have a viewfinder on my scope coz it broke off which makes it a right pain in the butt. im looking at buying a telrad as i have heard good things about them.  just something to help me find the targets easier. 

[spudlet]

HI Ant, If possible go for as many alignment stars as possible. 2-star align with 3 or 4 calibration stars. In my experience of the CG5-GT relying on its 2-star alignment isn't good enough.

[Ant F]

be ok if there were videos about on how to do it in the dark. most are in there living rooms which are not the same.  im also limited to what stars i can align with. capella and vega never seem to show up to align there always stars that are dim and i dont know.

[todd8137]

I can do a vid on the garden ,this brings me to my next point ,knowledge is power some one once said ,Knowing the constellation might seem a bit blah blah but even with the best mounts and scopes the simple thing such as not knowing them pays in the end ,down load the manual as in the back it gives you pics of the align stars

Does no one here on Sgl live close to you. Next clear night I shall do a vid and send you a link via a pm

Pat

[Ant F]

cheers pat, i think tues nights the best night all week. ill deff be out and ill give it another go. i got google sky on my android but when i search for half the stars my handset says it cant find them.  might take my laptop out but the cold kills it fast and the battery dies in a hour.

[spudlet]

This may be useful if you struggle with the list of stars it is tryign to align against - By default I think the alignment will encourage you to use a particular side of the meridian - probably the side it thinks has the most visible start when you're trying to align. When you're trying to cycle through the list of stars it may have an E or W (If I remember correctly) on the display, this means it is filtering the stars on one side or the other. Press the MENU button to clear the W or E off to get it to give you the full list of stars it can use at the time, either side. You may find a better set of stars you're able to recognise to align with.

[Alien 13]

I found using a polar scope with the mount on a tripod out on the lawn on cold dewey nights a real pain.  It persuaded me to build an observatory with a fixed pier - that was certainly an extreme measure - many months of hard or very hard work and a considerable cost, but it was worth it   Now I'm contemplating a second imaging setup not in the obsy because there's no room - BUT I won't be using a polar scope and the tripod will be replaced with a permanent pier and polar alignment will be done on a computer using images.

 

I allways found polar alignment a real pain (literally my poor back) but during those long cloudy sessions i came up with this polarscope illuminator so i could see the polar reticule

and use a right angled viewfinder held against the polar eyepiece which the goes on my camera to assist with finding the target.

No more bad back..

[todd8137]

Stick at it if you push button 3 you can select stars in the east or west I shall do a video next clear night

Pat

[Ant F]

right heres my dilemma, im aiming north and i can see stars in the north, Ne, NW, S only, cant see west due to trees and houses and cant see nowt to the east as the same. so im limited.

[todd8137]

If the hand set chooses them in the west press the menu button or button number 3 and you can toggle between East and west ,once ya do that do the 2 star align

Next select calibration stars same again it will slew west press any direction button to stop it and select 3or menu to change a just not remember which one it is , do all 3 calib

Next it will say mount ready ect press the align button scroll to polar align ,select yes and follow what the handset says ,now once done you should be polar aligned

Switch the mount of I do

Go through two star then 3 calib again and you will be surprised I will post some images up in a minute. From the book

Pat