Quick and precise Polar Alignment without Polaris - updated image links

[Juicy6]

Hello! I had to write a new post due to problems linking images from Dropbox. Also a member wanted me to update post. So nothing new, laser still working...

When away from home I use QHY Polemaster for aligning. Works like a charm and one gets a little bit spoiled when PA is so quick and precise. But I missed a good way to align when doing balcony astronomy from home. I have good South view but can not see Polaris so Polemaster is useless. So I decided to create my own NCP, haha. I started by nailing 3 claw tee nuts into my floor, to have tripod at same place every time:

 

 

I used protective lid from Polemaster adapter and mounted a small laser in it:

Mounted to my HEQ5 it looks like this. I use a small 3 volt battry box for supplying power to the laser.

Then I used several hours to do a very precise drift aligning, using DARV procedure. After doing a few measurements and calculations, I printed a target table and glued it close to balcony ceiling. Looks like this with laser dot in the middle of the small center circle. Numbers are degrees off NCP.

Now I can carry out mount and tripod and with the aid from laser have a very good PA, often close to 0,1 degree. Also during full daylight. This idea can be used for every mount. The laser can be pointed to any surface, only important thing is it must be rock solid in respect to the mount.

Christer

[happy-kat]

That's a clever idea, I guess you could also use a red dot finder instead of the laser.

[Alien 13]

It does work, I have done similar with indents on the ground for tripod legs but had my laser mounted to the counterweight bar and pointing to a line I had marked on the ground. The line was drawn after the polar alignment was set up so any subsequent use just requires that the laser follows the line when the RA axis is rotated, it is certainly good enough for use with camera lenses.

Alan

[MarsG76]

Great idea with the laser.... I did a similar thing with my mount before I built the obsy... I had 3 concrete plates in the ground with the center drilled out for the mount pins to go into, this way I was very close to PA when I carried out the mount and plonked it into the holes on the concrete plates.