Polar aligning

[robneath]

i understand the principle for an EQ3-2 mount, but I have a problem - the northern sky from my viewing site suffers from LP so Polaris tends to get 'washed out' most of the time. would drift alignment , which I understand , but not tried yet , be the best way forward?

[Whippy]

Drift aligning is a very accurate way of getting your mount polar aligned but it can be time consuming. If all you're doing is visual observation then close is close enough if you get my meaning. When I am observing, all I do is 'eyeball' polaris and get the mount aligned that way. I can normally keep an object in the eyepiece for an hour or so while the mount tracks at a fairly high power doing it that way.

HTH

Tony..

[Vega]

I'm surprised that Polaris is not visible through your scope (even if the LP is really bad). If its not visible through the finderscope, its worth using a compass to point the mount North as best you can and make sure that the alt is set to your latitude. Then perservere and try to get polaris in the scopes Field of View (with your widest, lowest power eyepeice). Trust me it will be much less painful than the drift alignment procedure!

Cheers

Matt

[Aza]

If you cant see Polaris maybe you should take your scope to a darker site.

I cant imagine the views would be that good in such a light polluted area.

[robneath]

Right I'll clarify - its getting polaris into the view of the polar axis that defeats me as its faint . Views East are great its just the north is a bit iffy. Used rough alignmanet and it works as im totally manual , but be nice to get it more accurate .

[John]

I just align the RA axis of my mount with Polaris (I don't use a polar scope). That seems to be good enough for visual work - I can keep Jupiter more or less in the centre of the FoV by nudging with the drives now and then.

I've assumed that precise polar alignment is more important for imaging, especially dso imaging.

John