Am I polar aligning correctly? Ioptron Sky-guider pro

[Astro Noodles]

I'm scratching my head with this as all my subs have star trails and just wonder if my PA is way off.

I am putting Polaris in the  outer band of the inner circle of the reticule.

It is  21:15 here at 53.78 North. So Polaris should be at the 1 O'clock position. Is that correct?

[Jamgood]

That is correct. You should see something like this.

Edited June 1, 2021 by Jamgood

[Astro Noodles]

Well that has ruled out incorrect PA as the problem then.

[Jamgood]

Have you calibrated your polar scope?

Many, if not all, are way off from the factory. 

[Astro Noodles]

I have not calibrated my polar scope. 😳

[michael8554]

14 hours ago, Astro Noodles said:

just wonder if my PA is way off.

Drift will be in Dec if PA is way off.

Drift in RA on an unguided mount will be Periodic Error.

Michael

[rickwayne]

Yep. I would add that you should point at the meridian, right about at the celestial equator, to do the test. If the camera is horizontal WRT the horizon, RA will be side-to-side, DEC up and down. Or you can leave the tracking off for part of a long exposure to make a nice trail oriented right in the RA direction, then turn tracking on to hopefully make a dot. If it's not a dot, comparing the elongation to the initial trail will tell you whether it's PE or DEC drift from polar misalignment.

[Grant93]

On 01/06/2021 at 21:40, Astro Noodles said:

I have not calibrated my polar scope. 😳

Neither have I! 🥶 My Skyguider starts to trail on my ZS61 at about 60-70 seconds, I didnt know if this was normal without guiding, or possibly poor polar allignment. I will be interested to know how to caliberate the scope to see if I can improve! 😆