AZ GTI in Eq mode Polar Align without mini PC

[ShiroHagen]

Hi so I took my new Az Gti out last night for a quick test and with just basic go-to observing seems to work fine. However I've got the eq adapter and firmware and was attempting to get a polar alignment with it with a view to some longer exposures. I already have a big rig for deep sky and am familiar with polar aligning that with it's polar scope, but this is the first time I've mounted a DSLR and gone for a smaller portable setup.

The basic setup looks like this:

Ignoring the somewhat poor tripod mounting to a camera tripod which doesn't have decent enough coupling to the base of the eq adapter for now...

Having levelled the tripod what I found that when I dialed in 52 degs latitude and faced the mount north just using a compass was that polaris was way off, like at least 10 degs. It wasn't until later that I realised why, I think, but am looking for confirmation of my error....

I had thought that the 'front' of the mount was as pictured with the camera facing north since it should be pointing up as well as North, but I since noticed that people using the similar Sky Adventurer mount seem to use the eq adaptor the other way round along with a 'descention bracket' to mount the camera the other way so that in my picture the camera would be facing right and towards the ground, but the additional descention bracket effectively adds a 90deg shift for the camera so that then points right and up in the picture and it is then parallel to the plane of the NCP when in the home position.

This would explain things, because what I was actually dialling in I think was 90-52 i.e. 38 degs latitude and hence why my finder was pointing much lower than Polaris, purely due to the primitive way my camera was mounted.

So I guess my question would be, as I can't quite get my head around it, can I just simply dial in 38 degs of latitude instead of 52 that it should be, then follow the normal polar alignment process followed by a syncscan 3 star and will this then be correct, or do I need to go down the route of using the descention bracket like those that comes with the sky adventurer kit.

All this is with a view to getting some wide field longer exposures on a portable setup they can also take a SW 72 ED or my camera with 200mm lense for wider field.

Thanks in advance!

Edited January 15 by ShiroHagen

[AstroNebulee]

Could you attach a picture of your set up, the file can't be opened by myself. 

Lee

[ShiroHagen]

Hi sorry, should work now

[AstroNebulee]

You have yours set up and facing the right direction though it looks a bit low on declination to me. Reading on many threads it says to set it at 90 degrees - your location. This is only a rough measurement and will need refining to get polaris in your fov as the scale on the wedge isn't that accurate.

This thread may help 

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/362178-az-gti-in-eq-mode-accuracy/

Lee 

 

Edited January 15 by AstroNebulee

[ShiroHagen]

Ok thanks for the reply Lee. That makes more sense.

I think what confused me is that I watched some videos where they just say 'just set the declination to whatever your location is' suggesting if it's 52 set dial to 52, but 90 - location instead for this mount in this orientation would tie up, and when I did that then it was fairly close to Polaris from the get go so I thought I must have something wrong

[Elp]

For some unknown reason some EQ wedges or mounts have the altitude scale "backwards", but you'll know just by looking at the poles and where the setup is pointing which way it's meant to be.

[ShiroHagen]

Yep will do and I've just read through the thread above and seems others have found the same 'issue' but that completely explains it and I don't feel quite so dumb. Others have said values of 38deg was correct for a 52 lat, which is what I was finding last night.

Thanks again!