A Question about Alignment

[creatureofhabit]

Let me start by saying i'm Very new at this. I think i finally rapped my brain around aligning to The North Star (or Polaris witch ever you prefer). But once i have it aligned say i want to look at something in the southern sky? Do i turn the base or do i turn the whole tripod south. After i do so will i have to realign it?

Thank you Creatureofhabit

I'm using a Celestron Powerseeker 127EQ with a Equatorial Mount

[steppenwolf]

You MUST leave the tripod where it is - the Polar alignment is good (and necessary) for the whole sky. You release the two clutches and swing the 'moving' parts of the mount around until you locate your object then tighten up the clutches and enjoy the view whilst making small adjustments to follow the movement of your object across the sky.

[creatureofhabit]

So your say i shouldn't align with The North Star if i want to look in the southern sky ... That hurts man, I just spent the last 2 hrs reading up on how to do that. All well i guess i have some more reading to do

[John]

So your say i shouldn't align with The North Star if i want to look in the southern sky ... That hurts man, I just spent the last 2 hrs reading up on how to do that. All well i guess i have some more reading to do

Once you have aligned your mount with Polaris you leave it like that whatever part of the sky you want to observe. If you move the mount so that it is aligned with something else the mount will not be able to track objects just by moving the RA (right ascension) axis which is how it should work.

John

[creatureofhabit]

You see the thing is i have a clear view of both the north and southern sky. But i have a tree between it so to look south I'll have to move the telescope.i think thats why i'm so confused right now

[John]

You see the thing is i have a clear view of both the north and southern sky. But i have a tree between it so to look south I'll have to move the telescope.i think thats why i'm so confused right now

Ahh - you can move the scope and then re-align it with polaris when you get it into it's new position.

John

[adamsp123]

Wherever you place the tripod/mount, do your polar alignment of the mount, and for visual it does not need to be super accurate, once this is done you can swing the scope around all you want to find objects, but remember if you are using an equatorial mount (GEM) you may need some to pratice in finding objects as the way the telescope behaves on these mounts can seem a bit strange at first, you can try it out in daytime using different distant objects to locate in the telescope.

The telescope moves in 2 perpendicular axis, these have clamps on each so once you find an object you clamp the DEC axis and then you can move the scope in the RA axis and it should track the object nicely.

[steppenwolf]

So your say i shouldn't align with The North Star if i want to look in the southern sky ...

No, I am NOT saying that at all - what I am saying is that you DO a polar alignment and then that stays fixed for the whole session no matter where in the sky you want to look!

If there is physically no way that you can see Polaris to carry out a polar alignment and yet still be able to view to the South then you will need to carry out a different kind of polar alignment that excludes Polaris from the equation - this is called Drift Alignment and a search on the Internet will give you plenty of information on doing this.

However, if you are doing visual work only, you could do your Polar alignment North of your tree having ensured that the top of your tripod is absolutely level by using a spirit level to confirm. Then use a compass and determine in which direction the North pointing or South pointing leg is facing (again do this very accurately) and then you can move the system to the South of the tree, point the chosen leg in the right direction with reference to the compass and finally get it level by adjusting the leg length (NOT the altitude adjustment) until the bubble is right.

This will give you a good enough polar alignment for visual use but not for imaging.

[Dr Dixon]

New to this myself and after reading alot of aticles on aligment..i have yet to find one that begins with "Fun and Easy ....."

If you havent looked at the link in the primers and tutorials already then Setting Up an Equatorial Mount - McWiki provides a great guide to setting up an EQ mount, polar alignment and the last section finding and tracking objects shows how to rotate the Dec and RA axis of the EQ mount to point anywhere in the sky without moving the tripod

My view is restiricted to a certain extent in all directions which means that depending on what I want to view i have to set up in different locations, and/or wait until things are high enough to clear the hedges/trees/houses etc. so i use Winstars (planetarium Program) to plan ahead.

Check your view to the south and see what area of sky you can and cant see against a Planetarium program like TheSKY, WinStars etc. (plenty of free ones on the web.)

you can then use the Planetarium (all of them let you adjust the date and time ) to see where the objects you want to see will be in your field of view or hidden behind the tree and you can plan accordingly.

You can then set up your scope in your usual spot north of the tree and polar align as normal, and wait until the object isnt behind the tree to view it.

If you do have to move south of the tree when you observing then as mentioned before you can set up your scope in your north spot, do a polar alignment, observe objects you want to view in the North East and West, then move to the south spot and use a compass to get a rough alignment North back.

YOu can do it roughly on if you want better alignment then you can do it a bit more acurate First the north spot take the compass best to use one that used for maps with a rotating bezel, and check the alignment of your Tripods north leg against the magnetic north ( true north is slightly different) see image. Note the difference on the compass bezel in degrees between magnetic north and your tripods north leg. Lift up your scope and tripod and set up in the south. Point the north leg roughly north and get out the compass and adjust the north leg of your tripod so that it points to the same value in degrees as it did in your north spot.

This should be pretty good, for visual observations, e.g. you should be able to center the object in your eye piece by rotating RA and Dec axis as shown in the guide link above, and then you will be able to track the object as it moves across the sky by just adjusting the RA axis of the mount

[Capricorn]

When you have performed the alignment you cannot move the scope/tripod from its position on the ground without doing the alignment again.

The alignment is effectively only for that one place.

Also if you can see anything southwards then drive the scope there with the handset as the software will determine where the scope is pointing from the the motors. If you move the tube by releasing anything and turning by hand then the position is lost.

If you cannot see polaris from the southern view position then I can only suggest a compass, or a chainsaw.

[Astro_Baby]

YOu could take a look here Astro Babys Simple Polar Alignment for Beginners

In a nutshell you align to Polaris with the Altitude and Azimuth ( thats up and down and left and right) knobs.

Once the mount is aligned you move the scope about using the Right Ascension (RA) and Declination (DEC) controls.

The Alt/Azi adjustmente sra eusually on the very base of the mount head.