HEQ5 Polar Alignment

[zerovalve]

Hi guys im new here and new to astronomy.

I recently got the Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro mount and I am trying to polar align it. From watching tutorials I see people with polar scopes with the big dipper on the reticle but my scope only has octans and it does not have a circle for where polaris should go. It only has crosshairs with 0,3,6, and 9 on it with 3 circles. I read somewhere that this year polaris should be in the middle of the 3 circles. So I do the following:

    1. Have the mount pointing roughly north and level the tripod. Then attach the mount head.

    2.  Once the head is mounted I then tilt my dec so I can see out the polar scope and use the bolts to get polaris roughly in the circles .

    3. Turn the RA so 0 on the polar reticle is pointing up.

    4. According to my synscan it says polaris should be at 10.17.

       So I position Polaris on my polar scope to roughly 10 and a little bit more to make up for the 17 mins.

    5. Then do a 2 star alignment.

       First star is way off and second star is also way off. Once I find and center the stars and complete alignment I try to slew to an object. The object is way off again.

 

What am I doing wrong. Do the setting circles on my mount have to be aligned also?? Is it because my polar alignment is terrible?? How do I improve it??

 

Thanks in advance. Spent all night out and still no improvement.

 

[wimvb]

Most important is that you make certain that you really allign on Polaris. Then, after your first polar alignment and 2 star goto alignment, use the polar alignment feature in the handset. Then do a new 2 star alignment. Repeat if needed.

This all-star polar alignment should give enough accuracy to keep a target in your fov for a considerable time.

[bottletopburly]

Also helpful is ps polar scope align app  info here https://astro.ecuadors.net/polar-scope-align/

at least this should help you align Polaris in the reticule , you can change the reticule pattern to what ever you need in settings .

Edited June 11, 2019 by bottletopburly

[wxsatuser]

Check the above post re reticle.
Just because Polaris is on the circle does'nt mean it's rotating round it.

[newbie alert]

2 hours ago, zerovalve said:

Hi guys im new here and new to astronomy.

I recently got the Skywatcher HEQ5 Pro mount and I am trying to polar align it. From watching tutorials I see people with polar scopes with the big dipper on the reticle but my scope only has octans and it does not have a circle for where polaris should go. It only has crosshairs with 0,3,6, and 9 on it with 3 circles. I read somewhere that this year polaris should be in the middle of the 3 circles. So I do the following:

    1. Have the mount pointing roughly north and level the tripod. Then attach the mount head.

    2.  Once the head is mounted I then tilt my dec so I can see out the polar scope and use the bolts to get polaris roughly in the circles .

    3. Turn the RA so 0 on the polar reticle is pointing up.

    4. According to my synscan it says polaris should be at 10.17.

       So I position Polaris on my polar scope to roughly 10 and a little bit more to make up for the 17 mins.

    5. Then do a 2 star alignment.

       First star is way off and second star is also way off. Once I find and center the stars and complete alignment I try to slew to an object. The object is way off again.

 

What am I doing wrong. Do the setting circles on my mount have to be aligned also?? Is it because my polar alignment is terrible?? How do I improve it??

 

Thanks in advance. Spent all night out and still no improvement.

 

First of all star alignment and polar alignment are completely different things.. star alignment is for your pointing accuracy,  the first star is always out as you not told the mount where it is yet..perfectly normal.. Are you sort of putting the star in the center of the eyepeice? A cross haired reticle will be more precise..

Getting back to polar alignment, your polar scope may need collimating..most do ..not too sure on what it's showing as Octans is for southern hemisphere....most have both thou..  as is shown here

[teoria_del_big_bang]

Hi,

I only became involved with astronomy 18 months ago and also had real problems with alignment to begin with. The problem I think is that you need to understand exactly what you are doing and why rather than just following a set of instructions. And this can take time for the penny to drop but stick with it eventually everything will become clear and alignment will be second nature and quick.

One thing I found useful for me was that after polar alignment I left the mount where it was in tracking mode (sidereal) and maybe left for an hour or so to ensure polaris was still in the same spot on the polar scope. I know this wastes valuable viewing time and you will feel desperate to get on rather than waiting but doing this until I had got to grips with alignment gave me real confidence I was going in the correct direction.

One other important point is to ensure the polar scope is correctly aligned with the mount itself and thankfully this can be done in daylight very easily, just follow instructions on this website.#

Polar Scope Calibration

 

Steve

 

[Cornelius Varley]

After polar alignment are you returning the mount to its home position (counterweight pointing straight down, telescope pointing at north celestial pole) ?

[zerovalve]

4 hours ago, Cornelius Varley said:

After polar alignment are you returning the mount to its home position (counterweight pointing straight down, telescope pointing at north celestial pole) ?

I am but after sleeping on it I may not have set the home position right. It was cold out last night

 

Thanks everyone else who commented also. I will try a polar calibration today to see if this helps.

[Erling G-P]

I would also recommend the Synscaninit 2.1 app that newbie alert has posted a screenshot from.  It gives you a graphical representation of what you should see in the polar scope, and I've found that emulating that instead of guesstimating where on the circles Polaris should be placed, based on the time given by the hand control, has given me more accurate polar alignments.

[zerovalve]

Got the Synscanit app and have calibrated my polar scope. So next clear night lets hope I can get it.