HEQ5 polar alignment

[thing]

As I was setting up the polar align last night, by the book, I noticed that the Plough and Cas in the polar scope were nowhere near where they really were. I tried adjusting the scope so that the real life picture and what I saw through the polar scope matched. I then found I could get 90 seconds camera exposure (I didn't try any longer but I will tonight) without any star trailing at all. I spoke to FLO about this earlier on and they put me on the track of this excellent little program that shows you where the reticle should be without having to faff around with setting circles etc. It's here href_zip("polar202.zip"); polar202.zip.

Slowly the HEQ5 gives up it's secrets..........

[daz]

That's idea, Thing.

Rotate the mount in RA until the reticule "stars" matches the sky stars, then adjust the mount to put polaris on the same point on the clock face as polar202 gives you.

IIRC people claim to get around 2 minutes with this method. Let us know how you get on....

[Starflyer]

I've had success up to 2 minutes using this method, which is great when you consider it takes about 30 seconds to do the alignment

It also makes for a very close starting point for drift alignment.

Ian

[Ant]

I used that Method at Kelling, then used WCS to fine tune - it was very close already - so I think that 90 - 120 seconds should be acheivable.

Ant

[SteveL]

I`ve had 300s subs using polefinder application, although I will be investigating PoleAlignMax when the clouds clear.

[Astro_Baby]

its on my guide - using polarview to fix a transit time of polaris so you can 'program' the setting circles.

Have to say at Salisbury - my set-up worked absolutely smack on even though the circles had been set about 2 months previously. Well happy with that considering how relatively crude the circles are.

[rusirius]

On the polar finder of my HEQ5Pro, the point on the clock face is marked by a small circle set into the edge of the main polar circle. The idea is as Daz says, that you match the reticule stars to the position of the actual constellations in the sky, but then place polaris into this small circle. Unless I'm missing something, this places polaris accurately as it would appear when using the clock circle. Looking at my attempt to align tonight and the result in PolarFinder 2.04, the position was identical for the time I was setting up.

thing, does your polar finder not have this small circle?

[thing]

Yes, but rather than line up the constellations on the 'clock face' and then put Polaris in the circle, i would imagine it would be more accurate to know where to put the circle in terms of angular displacement. You could be 10 degrees out or so just lining it up with the constellations, which is a bit of a hit or miss affair, you might put it in a different place to me, but if I said put the circle in the 10 o clock position and then put Polaris in it we would be pretty close to bang on. The other thing is the Plough or Cass might be obscured by clouds when you are setting up.

[Kai]

I just use a combination of the two to set up , really easy

[Astro_Baby]

I use polarfinder to fix a transit time then program the setting circles for that. Once thats done you can use the circles to find the position of Polaris in its track at any date/time.

I was a bit dubious about this and wondered how accurate it would be and also what frequency to realign the circles until Salisbury but it seem very accurate then.

[Starflyer]

Doesn't your handset give you the polaris clock position? I've only had mine a month or two and upgraded the firmware straight away, so I don't know any different, (using fw 3.23 btw). But when I start it up and tell it the date and time it displays the clock position.

Ian

[greenkat]

All very well if you can see polaris, which I cant :crybaby:

[thing]

Doesn't your handset give you the polaris clock position? I've only had mine a month or two and upgraded the firmware straight away, so I don't know any different, (using fw 3.23 btw). But when I start it up and tell it the date and time it displays the clock position.

Ian

is that a Synscan? I was wondering what the 'Polaris clock' thing was!!!!!!! All is becoming clear. By the way, does it give you the clock position as you se it through the finder IE reversed or do you have to reverse it yourself?

[Starflyer]

Yes, that's with the Synscan hand controller. I'd never used Synscan before I got mine and so didn't know if it was a new thing in the new firmware, or whether they all come like that, I don't think Dogfish's HEQ5 Pro had it and that was older firmware :?

It gives you the correct position as viewed through the polarscope. I only realised what it was for after using polarfinder when setting up, and seeing that it had the same clock position 'time' as the handset was displaying.

Ian

[rusirius]

Mine comes up with it too. I just never realised what it was for. Thanks for enlightening us Starflyer.