Beginners Alignment time saver & aid

[Dave S]

Hi All

As I now have built full remote capability and can use my kitchen as an observatory I have commenced relocating my setup to a different part of the garden to improve my views of the sky.

Because of this it has prompted me to share a little time saver that I use to speed up setup time.

I only have a skywatcher Alt/Az goto mount and a skywatcher EQ2 mount at the moment but I can get pretty decent beginners images using my kit and my canon 550d.

Because of the shifts I work I have limited nighttime opportunities and a quick setup is vital.

To aid me I came up with the idea of using washers glued to the patio as alignment markers for the mount.

I find it a little frustrating having to try to line up on my 1st alignment star particularly when using the dslr with my favourite 55-200m Tamron lens.  Even using Liveview and BackyardEOS it can be difficult to get that 1st star in the frame to commence alignment.

Initially I used a bit of spray paint to indicate where to position the feet of the tripod to provide a consistent placement of the tripod so I can start from the mounts home position.  This worked okish but I refined it to use three washers bonded to the ground so the the mount can be quickly brought out and setup.

The way I did it was to get three washers about 25mm diameter with 5mm holes.  I then placed the tripod where I usually view/image from then applied epoxy to one side of the washers and lifted the tripod legs one by one and slipped them under the feet of the tripod with the pointy bits located in the hole of the washer.

After the epoxy had thoroughly set during the day I brought out the mount and located the feet of the tripod into the washer holes and performed alignment as usual.  At the end of the session I park the scope in it's home position and pack up.  At the next session all I have to do is start the mount from home and from the object database select named star and goto that object.  So now the star is pretty much centre of frame and I can go straight into 2 star alignment without hunting for the star and trying to get it in frame.  After alignment I complete the session and at the end park the mount.

After several sessions I found that the alignment fine tuned itself and in a lot of cases wasn't even necessary (especially for widefield stuff).  Because of this consistent setup of the mount I was able to train the goto system for pointing accurracy enhancement (PAE) and periodic error correction (PEC).  The mount now locates objects and tracks pretty accurately and I'm now able to consistently take 90sec exposures at 200mm without noticeable trails or eggy stars.

I really find this method useful when I'm chasing gaps in the clouds and the alignment stars aren't always easily visible, and all for the cost of three washers and a bit of glue.

Currently I'm experimenting with building a wedge for the goto mount and have set a target of 120sec exposures.

Hopefully this period of cloudy nights will pass by the time I've built it.

I know this was a long winded way of saying "mark where the tripod should go" but I thought an explanation of why I do this might be beneficial to someone starting out and finding difficulty getting their mounts aligned.  No-one wants to spent half of their session time setting up.

 

I know I don't!!!!  

Clear skies and good hunting.

 

Dave...

[oobydooby]

That's a better idea than a splash of paint.  Excellent post thanks

[Dave S]

20 minutes ago, oobydooby said:

That's a better idea than a splash of paint.  Excellent post thanks

The paint seemed a good idea at the time.  Live and learn. :-)

[RayD]

Great idea.  Sometimes the best ones are the simple ones.

[Stridor]

Sounds good to me; I may try it?

 

[iapa]

I glued 5p coins under the feet which did me well for a year or so

[spillage]

That is a really good tip but I could not get the image of the tripod accidentally being stuck to the patio till its dying day. Or having to take it back in the house +3 paving slabs. Sorry I really am a child.

[Dave S]

16 hours ago, spillage said:

That is a really good tip but I could not get the image of the tripod accidentally being stuck to the patio till its dying day. Or having to take it back in the house +3 paving slabs. Sorry I really am a child.

Of course a bit of care with the glue is in order.  Having a tripod with 3 paving slabs bonded to it would make it a very stable tripod if not exactly grab and go anymore.

[Louis D]

Along the lines of your washer idea, I vaguely remember reading about someone digging holes in their backyard and creating 3 small poured concrete pads in them with divots for the tripod feet so they become self-centering upon each re-setup.  The concrete pads could be kept small and below the level of the grass to avoid a tripping hazard for when the yard wasn't being used for observing.  This also had the advantage of avoiding observing over a large heat sink like a concrete patio.  Most of the observing area remained in grass.

[Dave S]

I'm just about to do that with my lawn. ?

[adder001]

Thats a good idea, I have used nail varnish on the patio flags to mark where the tripod feet should go but washers are a more precise way to locaate the feet. Thanks for sharing

[skfboiler]

The washers is a great idea for my Orion Astroview mount. I see myself doing this particularly for solar viewing in the daytime. At night I can set the tripod in my spot and then get a good polar alignment. Then set the washers under the feet.  

[donkclarke]

Love it, thanks for sharing. 

[Neil K Sharpe]

Thanks for this. I have done the same with great results.

Neil

[CrashEd]

Great idea - I was planning on drilling some small locating holes in the patio, but might try the washer trick first.