polar alignment

[des anderson]

can anyone help, i have a 9.25 vx and having trouble with polar alignment as theres no polar scope for this scope.....so can i use a finder on the scope to point at Polaris and align this way?because they have the same axis.

[Adamar98]

It's the mount you want to align. What mount are you using?

[Geuse]

I am guessing this is my issue as well. 

I have the CG5 Mount, just had it out for the 2nd time tonight but the GOTO is well out and it takes ages to find anything.

[cosmological]

I have the CG5 GOTO mount and what I found out is that you need to do the two star alignment quick, if there's too long a delay between the 1st and 2nd alignment stars then the GOTO will be a long way out. Also, if it's the same version as mine then it has a polar alignment routine, you'll need to do the 2 alignment stars and then the 4 calibration stars before you can use the mounts polar alignment procedure.

It might be a could idea to do a trial run in the daytime, just set the time on the mount to the time you plan to observe, that way you'll know what stars are available. That's what I done when I first got my scope.

[majapala]

It might be a could idea to do a trial run in the daytime, just set the time on the mount to the time you plan to observe, that way you'll know what stars are available. That's what I done when I first got my scope.

I wish I'd thought of that when I was finding my feet! A word of caution to the OP though, make sure the cap is on before playing with the scope if the sun is out!

[Tinker1947]

I'm not sure if this idea will work, but do a 2 star align, when it slews to the first star what every way it misses line the mount(lift it and move it by hand, DO NOT SLEW the scope) up so the scope points at the star, this if my thinking  is right will line the mount up with Polaris, now forget about the second star, turn of the mount hand (undo the clutches) slew the scope back to its home position, turn on the power put in any info and do a 2 star align this should slew to the first star and be quite close, the do the second star....in my head this should work, this idea should line the mount up with Polaris.....Good Luck

[Wetsparks]

There is a program out there called Alignmaster. This is for polar alignment without a polar scope. It uses two stars for alignment but in selected pairs for the best result. Give it a try, the demo is fully functional and free for a short time.

[cosmological]

I have the CG5 GOTO mount and what I found out is that you need to do the two star alignment quick, if there's too long a delay between the 1st and 2nd alignment stars then the GOTO will be a long way out. Also, if it's the same version as mine then it has a polar alignment routine, you'll need to do the 2 alignment stars and then the 4 calibration stars before you can use the mounts polar alignment procedure.

It might be a could idea to do a trial run in the daytime, just set the time on the mount to the time you plan to observe, that way you'll know what stars are available. That's what I done when I first got my scope.

By the way what I forgot to add to that is that you can set it up in the living room or the kitchen or wherever, no need to take it outside. Turn on the computer and run Stellarium, set it to the time you plan to observe and set the time on the scope to the same time on Stellarium. If you turn the meridian line on in Stellarium or whatever software you are using, then stars that are in the western half of the sky are used as alignment stars and stars in the eastern half of the sky are used as calibration stars. You might find that stars approaching the meridian line in the north are unavailable for alignment even though they are in the western half of the sky but are available as calibration stars, and stars approaching the meridian line in the south are unavailable for calibration even though they are in the eastern half of the sky but are available as alignment stars.

Of course, all this takes a long time so might want to use Tinker1947's method, this works, I know I've tried it but you will need to adjust the height of the legs as well.

[Geuse]

Out of interest - the Celestron Starsense, does the negate the need for polar alignment or do you still need an accurate polar alignment then it does the star align afterwards?

[oldpink]

from what I have read Starsense requires no user input or setting up other than setting up the tripod
it does it all its self

[Christopher Davenport]

I think if I remember correctly polar alignment on the handset becomes available after a 3 star align.

The above advice on slewing to a first star will only work if the scope was polar aligned and 2 star aligned then parked.

If the clutches have been disengaged and rotated, they need to be placed back in the exact park position before powering on.

The long way to get very accurate polar alignment for astro-photography is to do drift alignment on the near horizon on the meridian (south) and near horizon in the east of west.

Hope this helps.

Edit - Star sense, still needs you to do polar alignment of the mount. (but I think it helps you?)