How easy should Polaris be to find through Polarscope?

[Yearofthegoat]

Set up last night at dusk (thanks to a top tip on here) rather than in the dark - much easier, as Polaris was the only star visible in the polarscope.  Got it in the circle, rotated RA back and forth and it stayed on the circle right the way around. Awesome!  Awesome enough for visual anyway.

[synscan 2-star alignment was another matter though. Started with Dubhe - easy enough thought I - but then I couldn't be certain I'd got the right star because the finder scope showed loads of stars, and combined with it being almost upside down (I was at 45 degrees to the tube) I just got really confused.

Didn't really matter that much though, had a nice spell just looking around the sky and managed to see the bands on Jupiter with a 3.2mm in my 150PDS.  The fine focussing knob really came into its own for that.]

[Tinker1947]

Set up last night at dusk (thanks to a top tip on here) rather than in the dark - much easier, as Polaris was the only star visible in the polarscope.  Got it in the circle, rotated RA back and forth and it stayed on the circle right the way around. Awesome!  Awesome enough for visual anyway.

[synscan 2-star alignment was another matter though. Started with Dubhe - easy enough thought I - but then I couldn't be certain I'd got the right star because the finder scope showed loads of stars, and combined with it being almost upside down (I was at 45 degrees to the tube) I just got really confused.

Didn't really matter that much though, had a nice spell just looking around the sky and managed to see the bands on Jupiter with a 3.2mm in my 150PDS.  The fine focussing knob really came into its own for that.]

This is why you need a Telrad, you can see what your slewing to....

[Yearofthegoat]

Yep, just about to order one!

Then I can target with the Telrad, +/- confirm with the finderscope, then check in the eyepiece.

Now, if someone can just cause a massive powercut in the south east for a few hours on Weds night...

[Tinker1947]

With the Telrad aligned (less than a minute to do) you won't want to use the Finder scope the centre circle of the Telrad is accurate even when the unit is remove and replace if your set-up is not permanent...

[Astro_Baby]

Generally the star align procedure will target the brightest star n that area - its usually pretty obvious what the target is (unless you are under pristine skies but even then its generally the brightest thing to your eyeballs). if you have a straight through finder have  a practice keeping both eyes open - that way you can get a split view between the two eyeballs - the finder view and your own eye and it makes it a bit easier.  Tip here is get your eye into the finder and then open the other eye. 

I used to keep a red dot finder handy because under a very pristine sky it can be a bit baffling but these days I am generally ok at getting the finder on to target.

[DannyHarvey]

If you haven't got a laser pointer to put in the shoe use a Telrad if you have one. Should get you in the right ball park for the polar scope.

r

Danny

[Astrosurf]

I use a red dot finder as I find it less cumbersome than a Telrad, which I sold off.

I'm glad you're up and running!

[gnomus]

Thanks - have got PolarFinder going for Polaris itself, but putting Cassiopeia and Ursa major in the right places helps me find Polaris - and then get it into the circle etc.

I use an iPad App called Polar Align.  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/polaralign/id372966709?mt=8  This shows where Polaris should be on the circle.  I adjust the mount until Polaris is intersecting the circle at the same position as shown on the App.  I ignore the etchings on the scope (circle, dipper and cassiopeia), since a circle is a circle, after all.   I have no idea if this is correct or not.  I have, however, had a couple of times when I have not needed to make any adjustments when I have tried drift-aligning (and I haven't been doing this very long).

[Yearofthegoat]

Generally the star align procedure will target the brightest star n that area - its usually pretty obvious what the target is (unless you are under pristine skies but even then its generally the brightest thing to your eyeballs)

That's what I thought and I was trying to line up on Dubhe which was practically poking me in the eye.

So, I could see it fine with the Mark 1s, but through the finderscope it disappeared into a blizzard of stars - well enough of similar brightness to my untrained eyes to confuse.

I did try opening both eyes to look through the finderscope, but then when I moved the rig it all went pear shaped with one eye going one way and the other the other! I was laughing at myself and when my wife came out to see how I was doing I had to restore some pride so slewed over to Jupiter....

Have ordered a Telrad so hopefully that will improve things.

At least I nailed polar alignment! (Collimation shortly - will be using your excellent guide AstroBaby so yeah, more dumb questions on their way no doubt.)

Lastly, genuine heartfelt thanks for all the help from folks on here.  And apols to T0ny for borrowing his thread so much.

[Yearofthegoat]

I adjust the mount until Polaris is intersecting the circle at the same position as shown on the App.  I ignore the etchings on the scope (circle, dipper and cassiopeia), since a circle is a circle, after all.   I have no idea if this is correct or not.  I have, however, had a couple of times when I have not needed to make any adjustments when I have tried drift-aligning (and I haven't been doing this very long

Yeah, that's what I did and then turned it all the way round and back to check it didn't drift away from the circle - then I left it in the little circle but had to rotate the mount to balance the scope. As you say, a circle is a circle. Probably matters if you're going to use the setting circles on a mount?