Lowering mount after Polar Alignment

[THEGREAT]

Polar alignment:
to Polar align my telescope mount I had to raise the mount around two feet to surpass an inevitable obstruction in order to see Polaris, but then to be able to do visual observations I have to, on occasions, use an small steps ladder.
I was wondering if after Polar Alignment I could lower the mount (maintaining equitative distance between the triangle touching the ground) without losing polar alignment. I am not a trigonometric expert so I was planing on using a yard stick to do the measurements.
I have used PS Align Pro app and it is good but not perfectly good when compared to visual alignment using the polar alignment scope.
Thank you in advance for your advice.

[Physopto]

Sorry to say this but,  once polar aligned there is virtually no chance that you would still be aligned correctly if you lower/move  the mount afterwards.

[scotty38]

I would remove the "virtually" from the above statement and replace with "absolutely"..... You can see this once you look at the micro adjustments made when going through the process.....

[Owmuchonomy]

What mount/software have you got?  If it's only visual you are doing you can use other methods and avoid polar alignment on Polaris completely.

[Cosmic Geoff]

For visual use, polar alignment is not at all critical.  If you attain a usable polar alignment (by whatever method), then you could mark out the ground so that next time you set up the mount you just have to place the tripod legs in pre-marked positions.

If you are aligning for imaging, there are various methods you can use that don't require Polaris to be visible.

[THEGREAT]

On 06/04/2022 at 12:27, Owmuchonomy said:

What mount/software have you got?  If it's only visual you are doing you can use other methods and avoid polar alignment on Polaris completely.

 

Sorry I did not specify the equipment that i am using. I have a Celestron AVX mount and an 8”SCT with wifi module and the StarSense camera. I am trying to perform this alignment because when I GoTo an xxx star it is not centered on the eyepiece. For visual observation I have no problems but I am preparing for short exposure Astro photography with a Nikon D5300. But I am not there yet.

[THEGREAT]

1 hour ago, Cosmic Geoff said:

For visual use, polar alignment is not at all critical.  If you attain a usable polar alignment (by whatever method), then you could mark out the ground so that next time you set up the mount you just have to place the tripod legs in pre-marked positions.

If you are aligning for imaging, there are various methods you can use that don't require Polaris to be visible.

 

Thanks for the information Cosmic. 

[Same old newbie alert]

On 07/04/2022 at 17:53, THEGREAT said:

 

Sorry I did not specify the equipment that i am using. I have a Celestron AVX mount and an 8”SCT with wifi module and the StarSense camera. I am trying to perform this alignment because when I GoTo an xxx star it is not centered on the eyepiece. For visual observation I have no problems but I am preparing for short exposure Astro photography with a Nikon D5300. But I am not there yet.

In the handset of the avx you have ASPA( on the starsence also) ,which from a photography side of things isn't the most accurate but at least it's a start, if you want to get a highly accurate PA you could drift align. But ...

This has nothing to do with your pointing accuracy, that's what star alignment is for ..

[Cosmic Geoff]

On 07/04/2022 at 17:53, THEGREAT said:

I am trying to perform this alignment because when I GoTo an xxx star it is not centered on the eyepiece.

Perhaps you are just expecting too much. I have been using Celestron Nexstar mounts for years and have found that the sought object generally lands somewhere in the field of a 25mm eyepiece.  It's rare for it to land in the exact centre of field, or in the field of an 8mm eyepiece.

With a Starsense + AVX, I doubt that the GoTo accuracy relies on an accurate polar alignment.  My alt-az Starsense works with no polar alignment at all.

If you are imaging there are other things you can do to refine the aim, e.g plate-solve & resync.

 

Edited April 9, 2022 by Cosmic Geoff

[AstroMuni]

On 07/04/2022 at 17:53, THEGREAT said:

Sorry I did not specify the equipment that i am using. I have a Celestron AVX mount and an 8”SCT with wifi module and the StarSense camera. I am trying to perform this alignment because when I GoTo an xxx star it is not centered on the eyepiece

As you are using Starsense, I would expect it to do a platesolve and align quite well, if not at the first go then atleast after a few star alignments. Polar alignment would help with tracking but it should not impact Go-to capability much.