How Do I Polar Align??

[TheMan]

I am a very incompetent astrophotographer. I own the Az-Gti mount and it is currently on the star watcher star adventurer eq wedge turning it into an EQ mount. I have no polar scope and my only way to polar align is to use my phone. I have looked into a few polar alignment techniques with an autoguider but I do not understand it one bit. I do not own or intend to buy sharpcap pro in the near future. does anyone have any advice for a reasonably easy way to polar align without the polar scope?

[Wiu-Wiu]

You will have to drift align then. Still, without a polar scope it will be a long process. 

You don't need any software for it (but it is highly recommended to guide - thus you will need some software anyway - PHD2 is freeware and has a polar align procedure as I have heard), but you will need a crosshair eyepiece and a good understanding of the procedure (I gave up and bought a polar master - so I'm more of a lazy astrophotographer myself  )

 

[kens]

The simplest method is Polar Drift Alignment using PHD2. Tutorial video can be reached from https://openphdguiding.org/polar-alignment-tool-video-tutorials/

Make sure the mount is tracking when you use it. You will need a camera that can connect to PHD2. What sort of camera are you using?

[TheMan]

I am using a Zbony astronomy camera and i have hooked it up to phd2 before and my mount.

[vernmid]

1 hour ago, TheMan said:

I do not own or intend to buy sharpcap pro in the near future. does anyone have any advice for a reasonably easy way to polar align without the polar scope?

I don't believe you need the Pro version. I have found the free Sharpcap and  a basic guidescope camera work really very well. 

[RolandKol]

1 hour ago, TheMan said:

I am a very incompetent astrophotographer. I own the Az-Gti mount and it is currently on the star watcher star adventurer eq wedge turning it into an EQ mount. I have no polar scope and my only way to polar align is to use my phone. I have looked into a few polar alignment techniques with an autoguider but I do not understand it one bit. I do not own or intend to buy sharpcap pro in the near future. does anyone have any advice for a reasonably easy way to polar align without the polar scope?

While moon is still ON, target moon from your handset or software you use. If your Polar Alignment (PA) is really bad, scope will miss it, so you simply center it by adjusting ALT and AZ bolts.

You will need your finder or guide scope aligned with the main scope to make this task easier.

Once centered on the moon using bolts, you will be more or less closer to PA, but not enough for Long Exposures.

(You can try to repeat the procedure on the star, but only if your Guide/Finder scope is aligned perfectly, otherwise you will not find it)

You will need to do PHD2 drift alignment procedure to bring it closer to perfect PA anyway.

Before doing PHD drift alignment, you need to calibrate PHD (Shift + click on Target Icon).

Once Drift Alignment is done as best as you can, Calibrate PHD again and if you have patience, run drift again... recalibrate after

Finally, 

Once you more or less happy with PA, run Guiding Assistant on PHD (usually, I image with 300sec exposures, so I give Guiding Assistant to collect not less than 300s data)

Guiding Assistant may take around 10min in total.

and... Once you are happy with PA and guiding... I would not suggest to move the rig from it's place... You will probably waste 3 hours in setting this thing up, so get some cover in advance...

PA is real pain to run daily...

P.S.

If it will not help, - SharpCap is NOT expensive at all in comparison to any other AP soft and etc...  
 

 

[michael8554]

Ken's polar alignments in phd2 are a boon for you southerners without a convenient pole star.

Those and the phd2 drift align routine are initially tricky to understand, so I understand your difficulty.

But if you're setting up every session there's really no free alternative but to master these routines IMO.

Michael 

[RolandKol]

9 minutes ago, vernmid said:

I don't believe you need the Pro version. I have found the free Sharpcap and  a basic guidescope camera work really very well. 

Yep, I just checked it at work. SharpCap Polar Alignment tool is free.