any advice with polar alignment?

[Andromeda]

ive had my new scope for a few days now getting some awsome detail in the moon but i still need to polar alighn it :crybaby: any suggestions

[MikeP]

Andromeda,

I just used the forum's search facility with "polar align" and got 11 pages of threads. Worth looking through them first I think.

Mike

[Andromeda]

thanks for the info mike

[GazOC]

Don't worry about accuracy too much, for visual use a rough alignment is good enough.

[ottUp]

You probably found it by now using the search recommended above, but here's one article with advice.

- Richard

[Astro_Baby]

Depends how much you want to go to - ie just a rough fix or a precise alignment.

Take a look HERE for the easy method - rough slignemnet only or

HERE for a full alignment using a polar scope. Not sure if your EQ5 has a polarscope.

The mounts in use here are the EQ2 and the HEQ5 but the principle is the same.

[Andromeda]

thanks for all your help hmm looks like the clouds are clearing :hello1: might be able to do some astromay tonight

[dark knight]

Let us know how your first outing goes. this hobby can be as simple or as difficult as you want, but you will always find good advice here no matter what.

[Andromeda]

ive looked at the manual and the links you guys put up and they mention somthing about a scope you can permantly attach to your mount to help you find polaris dose this scope come with the main scope e.g. my 8" reflector or do you need to buy it?

[ottUp]

It's called a "polar alignment scope". it's a feature of your mount (tripod), not of your telescope. It comes standard with some mounts and is optional on others. If your mount has a hole through the polar axis, chances are you can get a polar alignment scope for it. They're not very expensive, and are a good investment.

- Richard

[Astro_Baby]

It fits in the hole along the RA axis of the scopes mount. If you dont have one dont panic - for visual observing you can use the hole in the mount as a kind fo sight tube which will be good enough to use as a rough guide.

[mattlane]

Just to check so i'm sure, i've got the TS pointing roughly north (will try to find polaris once its dark to make certain).

Oh and see my signature below for equipment i'm using.

If i then look through the red dot, or scope, i should only be adjusting the alt, az axis to centre it not Dec or RA. (Kinda answered that bit myself i think).

Now i'm pretty sure looking at the scope that I'll be inline for polaris should find something over the top of the house (i hope) now once i've got polaris centered how should i go about doing an about face with the scope and get it looking south?

Do i just unscrew the AZ knob and twist/turn the mount (not tripod, this is fixed in position) left/right to point it the correct direction? not touching the Alt whatsoever, but simply spinning the scope on the spot?

Or do i just loosen RA/DEC and then spin to find the target, knowing i may have to rotate the tube or stand on my head...

Once i've got this sorted i think i can get the RA drive plugged in, and possibly begin to understand how that works.

[Astro_Baby]

Once the mount is aligned to polaris you just use thge RA and DEC to move the scope around. The Alt and Az settings stay as they are.

It does mean the scope goes into some strange angles when using the RA and DEC - thats just refelectors I'm afraid. You can loosen the tube rings and twist the scope so the eyepiecs is in a better postion.

[mattlane]

Aha, thats been the problem then, and why tracking just isn't working (well not tracking but the eq2 motor drive wasn't doing anything sensible). With your comment in mind turning the scope to point south i should expect some to se it in a wield position,

Fingers crossed the sky clears tonight so i can correctly align and see if we can actually track saturn easily on my higher power eyepiece.

Thanks.

M

[mattlane]

Success!

Astro_Baby, your guide saved the day totally, i rough aligned in the house on sunday, then took scope out tonight, was roughly pointing at a brightish star (i left scope trained on it for about half an hour to be certain it was polaris) mucked about with the Alt/Az and bosh, aligned, took the time to check red dot alignment as well, and sorted that out (now its about 500% more accurate).

Then the fun began, found saturn, was able to track it easily with the fine tune knobs, no heart ache there, and then the best bit, plugged in my motor drive and it worked, i was stunned, tracked Saturn without needing to do anything apart from the odd Dec adjustment, but they were seriously minor. What made this more exciting was the fact i could swap eyepieces, adjust the image, and even went through all my new filters trying each one out in turn, and Saturn barely moved while i was fumbling with them all.

This was soooo cool, thanks Astro, best guide, sensibly written.

I am dying for the Moon now, and of course the elusive DSOs.

[Astro_Baby]

No worries - heres a small tip for you. If your not sure if your looking at Polaris ( beginners often have this problem) then centre what you think is Polaris with the widest EP you have (25mm is good) and then rotate the telescope around its RA axis ( what your doing is speeding up time in effect as the RA is a kind of clock ). If the star stays more or less centre and stars move around it - its Polaris - if they dont,then it aint

I had a 130PM as well and with a half decent alignment it worked a treat with just the odd 'bump' on the slo-mo controls. I was amazed myself that such a low cost scope tracked so well and the views were sooooooooo good.