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polar alignment


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Hi all,

maybe a dumb question, once you have polar aligned the mount ie polaris in small circle of reticle, do you leave the mount in that position and then begin the star alignment for tracking or return the mount to the home position prior to star alignment, I returned it to the home position but thinking this may be wrong as the scope was not going to the names stars chosen for the 3 star alignment. My mount is an eq5 with synscan mods done to it.

Jamie

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PA is conducted to align the axis of your EQ mount with the celestial pole. Currently this lies approximately 41 arc min from Polaris. So you need to account for the time of night by adjusting your RA with one eye looking at Mizar and the other eye watching the reticle long line to point at Mizar roughly. Then you adjust the RA and Az bolts to get Polaris in your small circle. When you are happy you then return RA to home position and make sure Dec is also at home. I just sight along the OTA and Polaris should be pretty much in line. Then you run your star alignments. If you Synscan is not hitting the target then check your settings, Lat, Long, Date (US style), Time and Daylight Saving to OFF.

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Yes, when you polar align, you use the Alt-Az ajustments only, so when you are done, you don't touch those again. Moving everything to the home position then gives the mount a starting point to do the star alignments, which make use of the Dec-RA controls only.

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After your PA and your back at the Home Position, select 2 or 3 star alignment when the mount slews to the first star and stops, manual move the scope by undoing the clutches so the star is centred in your high powered EP, the electronics on the mount won't know about this so for the first star your putting it where it wants to go, tighten up the clutches and allow it to slew to the second star change the EP to low power  and this should be close and use the handset to align then back to the high power EP to get it centred, if its a  mile out some of your location or time data has been input wrongly....

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