Polar alignment

[dreamcatcher]

I have a Sky Watcher Star Discovery 150mm synscan goto. I wondered if it is necessary to carry out a polar alignment with a goto setup?

[Cornelius Varley]

Alt-az mounts don't require polar alignment, just make sure that the tripod is correctly levelled.

[cjdawson]

The alignment for an Alt Az is a case of level the tripod, using a bubble level.  Then do a star alignment with the goto software are you are done.     Polar alignment is the same process but for Equatorial mounts.    It can also be a more precise process depending on the accuracy that's required.

[dreamcatcher]

14 minutes ago, Cornelius Varley said:

Alt-az mounts don't require polar alignment, just make sure that the tripod is correctly levelled.

Thanks Cornelius.

[dreamcatcher]

2 minutes ago, cjdawson said:

The alignment for an Alt Az is a case of level the tripod, using a bubble level.  Then do a star alignment with the goto software are you are done.     Polar alignment is the same process but for Equatorial mounts.    It can also be a more precise process depending on the accuracy that's required.

 

2 minutes ago, cjdawson said:

The alignment for an Alt Az is a case of level the tripod, using a bubble level.  Then do a star alignment with the goto software are you are done.     Polar alignment is the same process but for Equatorial mounts.    It can also be a more precise process depending on the accuracy that's required.

Thank you.

[Lonestar70]

13 minutes ago, Cornelius Varley said:

Alt-az mounts don't require polar alignment, just make sure that the tripod is correctly levelled.

I would also add to what Peter has stated... you should also set your scope tube horizontal and point it, and the tripod, North (a compass is useful).

After this has been done the Synscan system will require to know where you are on the planet, so you will need to enter your Longitude and Latitude and also the time and date... be careful how you enter the date... it is normal for this to be in American format MM.DD.YY.

Enter these on the handset as requested and then proceed to the star alignment routine to get the Goto setup.

Good luck with your new scope.

Sandy.

 

[Cornelius Varley]

2 minutes ago, Lonestar70 said:

I would also add to what Peter has stated... you should also set your scope tube horizontal and point it, and the tripod, North (a compass is useful).

After this has been done the Synscan system will require to know where you are on the planet, so you will need to enter your Longitude and Latitude and also the time and date... be careful how you enter the date... it is normal for this to be in American format MM.DD.YY.

Enter these on the handset as requested and then proceed to the star alignment routine to get the Goto setup.

Good luck with your new scope.

Sandy.

 

The Synscan alt az goto mounts don't require the telescope being level and pointing north before alignment.  The initial alignment only starts after the first star has been manually aligned, The handset then slews to the second alignment star, so it doesn't matter where the telescope or mount are pointing beforehand. All that is required is that the tripod is levelled before adding the mount.

[Lonestar70]

Sorry to disagree Peter, Extract from the User manual for this scope...

 

Quote

Initial setup

For users in Northern Hemisphere

For the initial setup we need to “tell” to the Star

Discovery mount how it is oriented.

Level the tripod

top by adjusting the tripod leg.

At this point the

compass will come handy to find the north.

1.

Aim the main tube at North horizontally

http://www.skywatcher.com/downloads/Star_Discovery_Manual_SL26032014_V1.pdf

 

It would appear to differ, depending on the version of handset supplied.

I hope this does not cause any confusion for the OP.

Sandy.

[Cornelius Varley]

4 hours ago, Lonestar70 said:

Sorry to disagree Peter, Extract from the User manual for this scope...

 

http://www.skywatcher.com/downloads/Star_Discovery_Manual_SL26032014_V1.pdf

 

It would appear to differ, depending on the version of handset supplied.

I hope this does not cause any confusion for the OP.

Sandy.

 

The level and north requirement is only for the basic handset, the same one used on the old Supatrak mount. The Supatrak mount, not the AZ GOTO version, needs to know where level and north is to aid tracking.  The tracking for the Supatrak can also be improved by setting the latitude on the mount (basically a simple polar alignment). The old AZ GOTO and  the new Star Discovery mount don't require to be pointing north or the telescope level before the star alignment begins.
The mount before the first star alignment doesn't know where it is pointing, it doesn't need to. The first star aligned on is the starting point, unlike EQ mounts which need a "home" position, once the handset knows where it is pointing it can then find the second alignment star and automatically slew to that star.

The Star Discovery mount can be supplied with the non-goto handset but, in this case, we are discussing the Synscan version so the tripod only requires to be levelled.

An early version of the AZ-GOTO firmware did require the mount to be level and north but this has been dropped.