polar align mount power and uk weather

[spillage]

Hi all,

 

After spending a good couple hours last night fiddling with drift alignment and getting my times to do this down to a minimum only to see the mist roll in I packed up and wondered off back inside to warm up.

I got thinking that although I could not afford a full obs it would me nice to make a permanent or semi permanent pier and either cover it with a waterproof covering or some type of shed that can be removed.

This brought up a couple questions that I seem to have been unable to answer from using google. 

I have a eq5 so once I have polar aligned as this is a mechanical setting turning off the mount and leaving it will ensure it is always aligned (occasionally needing checking realigning).

If I leave it powered up over several days can I safely remove the scope without upsetting the mount.

If you throw a covering over the scope do you need to remove the scope and weight bar or can you stop the scope from tracking and damaging the cover. Can you just place it in park and not turn it off when asked (will this stop tracking) or would it be best to turn off the mount.

If I decided to leave it outside on just the tripod how will the mount and tripod  stand up against the great British weather.

 

Cheers

Spill.

[wimvb]

At the end of a session you would park the scope. Next session you would only need a 2 star alignment.

Personally I would remove scope and counterweights from the parked scope and reattach next session. Then 2 star alignment. Also power down between sessions.  I wouldn't be comfortable with a heavy cover hanging over optical equipment, and weighing it down.

Of course, if you have a shed, you could leave the scope in place between sessions. That would be the equivalent of an observatory.

During weekends and holidays, I have left my mount covered outside, but during week days I would never do that. The risk for theft is just too real.

Just my opinion,

[k9wis]

Can you just make some alignment marks or guides on the post or pad and the mount and then take the mount head in? Just leaving the post outside?

Brian K9WIS

[Owmuchonomy]

Regarding alignment, remember polar alignment and GoTo mapping are different things.  Once your mount is polar aligned it remains so unless it is moved for some reason.  Regarding GoTo and pointing accuracy as long as you park the scope using the PARK function on the handset before switching off then you don't need to align it again unless you nudge the setup for example.  You just switch on, put in the usual date and time settings and select START FROM PARK> YES.  No re-alignment should be needed.  that's why when using a permanent set up it takes seconds to get going on observing. 

[MattJenko]

I have safely thrown a cover over my whole setup for a couple of days before, the only thing being done was to park and power off beforehand and I took my laptop inside. I still needed to do a quick platesolve - or star alignment on reslew to my target on the consecutive nights, but no physical setup, wiring or polar alignment required. The theft threat is something tangible to consider though.