Aligning my EQ5 GOTO with Polaris

[TheWelshMagician]

I'm trying to aligning my scope with Polaris but finding it difficult due to the fact that it's always blumming cloudy, raining or when it's clear I'm either working or to busy. Now my question is, due to the fact my scope is in a south facing bedroom and I've read that Polaris is North facing at more or less 40 degrees, is there an easier way of aligning my GOTO or do I wait till clear sky's

[Tinker1947]

You could if its just for viewing set the 53' degrees thats Runcorn's lat and use a compass to get a rough idea of North, this will be good enough for viewing, if it Astro/P then its got to be a lot more accurate.....The upgrade takes a GPS this would i think sort it out....Thinking about it the GPS will tell you where you are but i don't think it will sort out the alignment...

[oldpink]

you won't be able to polar align from a south facing window
also you really need to be outside with your scope, everything should be at ambient temperature

[TheWelshMagician]

I'm not saying I will do it from my south facing window, I'm asking if I take my scope out the front (north) and just put it to 40ish degrees will it work (sorry if I didn't word it properly before)

[oldpink]

for viewing you don't need to be very accurate
but best to try and get a decent polar alignment, it does save a lot of hassle
then you can use your goto to do a star align to get really accurate tracking

[Cornelius Varley]

I'm not saying I will do it from my south facing window, I'm asking if I take my scope out the front (north) and just put it to 40ish degrees will it work (sorry if I didn't word it properly before)

As someone else pointed out Runcorn is about 53° North. If you set the latitude on the mount to 40° you will not be polar aligned and your GOTOs and tracking will be way off.

[proflight2000]

One way you could do an easy alignment is to follow the ideal of finding north which has been mentioned and then using polaris to clarify your latitude for your mount. Your latitude is defined by the angle of polaris in the sky from where you are standing, so in effect again just set your mount to that degree setting and you have as good a polar alignment as you will need for viewing.

Sorry just to clarify that, if you are stood still then 90 degrees is directly above your head, it is called the zenith, in between the horizon and the zenith sits polaris so the angle of polaris is basically where it is between your feet and the zenith, for me it is 51 degrees, if you set your mount for 40 degrees you would in effect be living the latitude that covers places to the south like sardinia. :-)

[TheWelshMagician]

Thankyou for all your comments, basically I can't cheat and I will align my scope properly, I will be doing astro/p so I'll just have to hope for a clear sky in the next 3 days as I'm not working. My luck can't be that bad...can it? ;-)

[Tinker1947]

For AP the PA needs to be pretty well spot on, and its better if the mount is a permanent type, but if its not then marking the spot where it sits will get you back to close so its just  adjusting the alignment every time, can you connect a PC/Laptop and get  a regulated power supply to the mount...

[oldpink]

For AP the PA needs to be pretty well spot on, and its better if the mount is a permanent type, but if its not then marking the spot where it sits will get you back to close so its just  adjusting the alignment every time, can you connect a PC/Laptop and get  a regulated power supply to the mount...

my mount mostly lives outside but I have markers to allow a very quick setup

I'm hoping I have Astro tortilla refine my PA and sort any tracking errors out as I can't get Align master to work

due to the star pairs it offers