Polar alignment help?

[Brian1983]

I have an EQ5 mount with polar scope but i am unsure were to get the polar star this is the view i have when i look? Can anyone help please

 

Regards

Brian

[Starlight 1]

If no one do a post I do one after tea , is your eq5 a goto, Do you have a laptop,  a hand set with your mount,  I am looking for the easy way out I hate doing long posts.

[Brian1983]

Thanks for the post it's not a go-to I do have a laptop but no handset 

Really appreciate any help

 

Brian

[Alien 13]

Download the polar finder app onto a phone or tablet and choose the SW graticule, then its a simple task of matching your view with the app by rotating the RA axis.

Alan

[bottletopburly]

 this thread may be useful Brian https://www.eastmidlandsstargazers.org.uk/topic/11097-heq5-pro-polar-alignment-with-synscan/

[ollypenrice]

Google 'Polaris finder' and find the one which best suits your IT system.

Olly

[almcl]

If you down load the Polar finder app (http://myastroimages.com/Polar_FinderScope_by_Jason_Dale/polar204.zip)

and substitute the reticule image in the distribution folder with this one reticule.bmp

you should be able to work out where to put Polaris.

 

[Luna-tic]

Firstly, your polar scope reticle is for the Southern hemisphere (Octans). For a northern hemisphere reticle it would have either/both Cassiopeia  or Big Dipper portion of Ursa Major etched. These are used to orient the small circle in the appropriate spot to allow for the 5* offset between Polaris and CN. The center bullseye would have an offset circle on its border to center Polaris (5* off CN). You can possibly use that reticle for a northern polar alignment, though. Polaris would "fit" somewhere along the center bullseye border. At my location,~ 35*N Lat and 81*W Long, its on the left (western) side of the circle at about 9:30 clock position. Not sure exactly where it would properly locate for you

[kens]

2 hours ago, Luna-tic said:

Firstly, your polar scope reticle is for the Southern hemisphere (Octans). For a northern hemisphere reticle it would have either/both Cassiopeia  or Big Dipper portion of Ursa Major etched. These are used to orient the small circle in the appropriate spot to allow for the 5* offset between Polaris and CN. The center bullseye would have an offset circle on its border to center Polaris (5* off CN). You can possibly use that reticle for a northern polar alignment, though. Polaris would "fit" somewhere along the center bullseye border. At my location,~ 35*N Lat and 81*W Long, its on the left (western) side of the circle at about 9:30 clock position. Not sure exactly where it would properly locate for you

Sorry but that is not correct. The reticle is for both Northern and southern hemispheres. The inner circle labelled 0,3,6,9 is the northern hemisphere part and is a clockface. The 0 is oriented to point directly upwards by rotating the mount in RA. Then the handset or an application is used to provide the "o'clock" position of Polaris which is then placed in that postion on the clockface by adjusting the alt and az knobs. The circle is actually three concentric cicles and the graphic to the right shows where Polaris should be placed in relation to those circles depending on the year.

[Luna-tic]

2 hours ago, kens said:

Sorry but that is not correct. The reticle is for both Northern and southern hemispheres. The inner circle labelled 0,3,6,9 is the northern hemisphere part and is a clockface. The 0 is oriented to point directly upwards by rotating the mount in RA. Then the handset or an application is used to provide the "o'clock" position of Polaris which is then placed in that postion on the clockface by adjusting the alt and az knobs. The circle is actually three concentric cicles and the graphic to the right shows where Polaris should be placed in relation to those circles depending on the year.

Okay, I see it now. My Bad. My Astroview PA scope has Cass and BD for orientation, along with a 5* circle and a smaller circle on that one at the correct Polaris location. The CG5 PA scope on my AVX has that same layout, plus Octans, so it can be used for either northern or southern hemisphere alignment

[sophiecentaur]

On the topic of using polar scope reticles. I have an NEQ6 and i have been using the 'quick' method of polar alignment which involves rotating the RA control until the Dipper image on the reticle is as near as I can get it to the angle of the constellation and then putting polaris right in the tiny bubble on the circle. That has been working fairly well for shortish exposures. It does require fair viz of the dipper as well as of polaris. I have a Ioptron Skytracker which has a different reticle but there is an App to do the sums for you and that gives a picture of the placement of polaris on 'that' circle. That method hangs on accurate levelling of the platform more than the NEQ6 method but is it far more convenient. I tried this last night and the results were not good - star trails were a lot worse over 2 minutes. 

Rather than try over and over again, I thought I would ask for opinions about whether the ioptron app is actually suitable. It does depend on the two polar scopes both being regular astronomical telescopes (inverting) and, whilst it's obvious that the ioptron scope inverts as I can point it anywhere to check, I don't want to disturb my mount enough to look at a terrestrial object in the day (and my neck doesn't like daytime yoga if it isn't necessary). Can anyone reassure me that the NEQ6 scope is also inverting? If it isn't then that could account for the misalignment. If it is then I will just have to go back and check everything again.

PS The way polar alignment is described in some sources is very confusing. It took some while to get what they meant about using the picture and the real constellation and the more mathematical descriptions are even more difficult. It's obvious enough when you have actually 'got it' but those few friendly words which would help always seem to be missing.

The Drift method is harder to suss out but the instructions seem easier to follow. Am I just too old for new tricks?