daytime alignment for solar viewing and imaging

[Philip601]

Hi

I have a solar telescope delivering this week

I have a skywatcher az-eq6 pro and use ascom. What would be the best way to polar align my mount  in the daytime. 

Can anyone help on this one please.

Philip

[jambouk]

Polar align at night, and mark the position of the feet of the tripod, then don’t adjust the alt or az settings and just plonk it in the same spot during the day light and your polar alignment will be roughly ok. Else leave it out at night if it won't get stolen. 

[david_taurus83]

Use hand controller and setup in Alt-Az mode. No need to polar align then.

[Dragon_Astro]

Failing that, position your scope until it’s casting its smallest shadow on the ground. Should get you pretty close to pointing at the Sun.

[Robindonne]

Or buy “ps align pro”. €3 and has a smart polaralignment tool.  Just place your phone on your mount and it tells you how to align your mount

Edited May 13, 2020 by Robindonne

[Philip601]

thanks for the info.

ps align pro sounds the best bet

Its very difficult for me to line up at night because of trees alla round and specially hiding polaris. I do have a gap in the trees for a couple of hours of full sun  thats why i have given up astrophotography at night and going in to solar imaging etc

philip

ps where on the mount do you put your phone

 

I have just found out that app is not on my android phone. Does anyone use a different app

There is an app on my android phone Polar Aligner Pro which looks similar to the ps align pro.. but there is a review on there that it is not as good as the IOS version.. Anyone use it for daytime alignment

Edited May 13, 2020 by Philip601

[Robindonne]

Oh sorry didn’t know it was just for ios.   But the idea is that your phone is aligned with the saddle or scope in home position

[Carbon Brush]

Hi Philip.

I know this means more money, but have you considered the Skywatcher solar mount?

https://www.firstlightoptics.com/skywatcher-mounts/sky-watcher-solarquest-solar-go-to-tracking-mount.html

Like you I looked at trying to sort out something with one of my existing mounts, but spent on a solarquest in the end.

They are extremely easy to use. Just place level-ish and pointing just left of the sun.
Switch on and fetch your scope. While you are gathering stuff in a couple of minutes the mounts aligns and tracks all day.

Weight wise it handles my LS60 with accessories. You need to pay attention to balance of course.

When the sun moves behind trees, houses, etc, then you up sticks and plant the mount in a different place.
Just repeat the self align and you are running again in a couple of minutes.

For me the ease of setup more than makes up for spending £250 (£300 with tripod) on a single application piece of equipment.

Oh and don't forget it weighs much less than an EQ6!

HTH, David.

 

[michael8554]

Hi Philip

I don't believe you've told us what solar scope you have bought ?

My PST was on a wobbly EQ1 mount with an erratic clock drive vaguely set up pointing north.

I imaged with a webcam no problem.

Of course if you have a much longer FL solar scope then PA might need to be a bit better  🙂

You might try getting PA good at night with a leveled tripod, then daytime setup level and pointing northish and see what happens ?

Michael