Quick question on polar aligning...or maybe not

[Keithp]

Hello All,

Got the scope out ready for tonight, 3rd one in a row...sorry for all you guys under cloud. Anyway the set up is this. Done some very nice lunars and Jupiter (got to sort out the canon mov file format though, god that is annoying). But I'd like to tackle something a bit more ambitious tonight....maybe a galaxy...maybe nebulas might be out of scope so to speak until I go guided. Maybe galaxies too..

I've got an eq6 syntrek, roughly polar aligned, SW 250px and canon eos 500d.

Now to start with, polarfinder is telling me that tonight polaris will be at roughly 10 to 12 on the scale (polar scope) at 22:00hrs tonight (imagine its a clock), so if I swing the scope round and make the necessary ajustments on the sideways and up and down scales (keep it simple please) and place the North Star in the circle I will have a fair degree of alignment. Should this then be enough for a couple of minutes exposure, and if so whats the best first target from here.

I can go prime focus, or prime with barlow (2x) or projection with 17mm Hyperion (with integrated barlow) or Hyp plus external barlow. All of which worked very well last night.

Regards

All

Keithp

[Lord F]

I do my alignment in exactly the same way as you, and i can get about 3-4 minutes at prime focus using a sony alpha, although my scope has a focal length of 750mm. i guess the focal length on your scope is about double that, so two minutes sounds reasonable without the barlows. Make sure you collimate the polar scope though! I forgot to, and it took me ages to work out why i couldn't get more than 30 seconds without trails :/ . M13 or the dumbell nebula are good targets.

[steppenwolf]

You've basically got it right and I confirm the position of Polaris in an inverted (i.e.through the Polarscope view). You will be reasonably polar aligned assuming that you have carried out the calibration to CENTRE the crosshair in the polarscope EP already.

Prime focus would be easiest for now and I would recommend that you try M57 in Lyra. Align on Vega first and then star hop to M57.

Good Luck!

[Keithp]

Many thanks for the replys, Hi Steven, yep the polar scope is centred, one of the first things I did thanks to speaking to you earlier many moons ago.

Here goes, first dso....