1st attempt at polar aligning

[tingting44]

well got the chance to use my EQ5 for the 1st time on saturday night, i did not even attempt to try to use any setting circles as they were doing my head in a bit, both the polar setting circles and the RA & DEC setting circles i was moving earlier so not sure how to get them to read correctly lol.

Any way i pointed my mount to Polaris, then noticed straight away i could not even see any part of the polar scopes recticle so precise alignment was out of the window......(do these do the job? or is there a cheaper one i could get?)

http://www.365astronomy.com/polar-scope-illuminator-for-various-telescope-mounts-p-3609.html

finally got it in the FOV of my polar scope, i then looked up the position of where polaris should be with the ipod app called polar align and tried to match its position best i could and then i simply switched on the RA motor and i was away, i was getting about 90sec subs before star trailing became apparent, not sure if this was a 1st time fluke but it seemed rather good! i was happy as my longest sub before the EQ5 was about 25 sec subs, so happy there. im not even going to think about guiding as of yet till i properly get my head around using an EQ mount, but will eventually be using my SPC900 to guide with the SW finder (the blue one) how come FLO do not stock these any more by the way?

so for a 1st outing with the EQ5 all was good, if anything just to get my head around things and i even got some lights/darks/bias but i was too tired to do the flats lol

[Alien 13]

Its good when a plan comes together ive got a little tip that might improve PA a bit more.

1. In the daytime hang a piece of string with a weight to a fence or something to provide an acurate vertical refrence.

2. Set your mount up level it and move the RA axis so its parallel to the ground then aim for the string with the polarscope.

3. Rotate the RA axis until the polarscope has the circle with polaris at the very top aligned with the string, now lock the axis.

3. The small dial can be rotated so that a convinient index mark is at the top (this is where you put polaris) now lock the dial.

4. Move the RA axis back to its correct latitude.

What this does is gives an acurate position of polaris on the small scale (no guesswork) so that when you use in my case polarfinder its just a matter of moving the index point (polaris position) to correspond with the time on the big dial (this is a 24hr clock face)

This has allowed me quite long subs for my setup.

Alan

[NoSiriusly]

That sounds like a pretty good alignment to me. I need to get my aligmnments more accurate as I hooked up a camera the other day and got star trailing within 30 secs. The youtube video I've seen uses the setting circle based on the last time polaris was in transit so I'll give that a go.

I struggle to see the reticule in dark conditions. Some people have mounted a small red LED to illuminate it.

[jonathan]

This all just gives me a headache.

[tingting44]

Its good when a plan comes together ive got a little tip that might improve PA a bit more.

1. In the daytime hang a piece of string with a weight to a fence or something to provide an acurate vertical refrence.

2. Set your mount up level it and move the RA axis so its parallel to the ground then aim for the string with the polarscope.

3. Rotate the RA axis until the polarscope has the circle with polaris at the very top aligned with the string, now lock the axis.

3. The small dial can be rotated so that a convinient index mark is at the top (this is where you put polaris) now lock the dial.

4. Move the RA axis back to its correct latitude.

What this does is gives an acurate position of polaris on the small scale (no guesswork) so that when you use in my case polarfinder its just a matter of moving the index point (polaris position) to correspond with the time on the big dial (this is a 24hr clock face)

This has allowed me quite long subs for my setup.

Alan

Hi Alan

thanks a lot for them tips, i will indeed give them a go some time this week

btw whats your average length of subs?

That sounds like a pretty good alignment to me. I need to get my aligmnments more accurate as I hooked up a camera the other day and got star trailing within 30 secs. The youtube video I've seen uses the setting circle based on the last time polaris was in transit so I'll give that a go.

I struggle to see the reticule in dark conditions. Some people have mounted a small red LED to illuminate it.

Thanks bud, yes i was pleasantly surprised as i was not expecting it to be that accurate for my 1st attempt yes its annoying where you cant see the polaris recticle isnt it, its a lot of money for the polar scope illuminator i linked above, i might try and jerry rig some kind of light to do thejob

This all just gives me a headache.

yes it does give you a lot of head aches but the results are worth it, i remember when i 1st got my AZ mount couple years ago i was getting so annoyed trying to figure everything out, but for my 1st outing i think im getting the hang of it, just hope its clear this saturday as i only get 1 night a week to view the sky due to work

whats up with you...are you having headaches with polar aligning too? 

couple of good threads ive been reading this evening

http://perfectastronomy.com/polar-align-eq-mount/

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/117341-9x50-finder-scope-guider/

http://stargazerslounge.com/topic/133187-guiding-conversion-project-for-200p-and-eq5/page-3

[Alien 13]

Hi Tingting i normally run 90 second subs at 400mm focal length and can do 2 miniute ones but light polution kicks in so i dont know the true limit.

Alan

[NoSiriusly]

I feel sure I've seen a simple LED attached to a battery and held in place with sticky tape. Probably a little bit cheaper than £46!!!!

[Alien 13]

There was a recent thread about diy polarscopes i made this one from a pill bottle and leds from a £ shop rear cycle light.

I put the batteries in a seperate box with a pot to adjust brightness it doubles up as a red torch too when the polarscope led is unplugged.

You might find a RA camera viewfinder held against the polarscope usefull too.

[DannyHarvey]

Tingting,

They sell polar scopes but they dont actually work without any illumination do they! Im currently working on a simple illuminator made from an old hoover pipe and an LED tea light!

[DannyHarvey]

Here's a home made polar illuminator:

[tingting44]

i got  a little bike tyre light from the garage on the way to work this morning, i think i can mod it some how to show the recticle, but yes you would think they would make these illuminated as standard.....considering.....lol