silly question

[astrokat]

if my polar alignment is not spot on will this effect my goto

thanks

toby

[Cornelius Varley]

It depends on your definition of not spot on. Obviously the more accurate the polar alignment is the more accurate the gotos will be. The handbox will make some adjustments for misalignment. What mount are you using ?

Peter

[dark knight]

Toby, if your only doing visual it's not so important as you can train the mount with the PAE function (this is in the utilities menu on the hand controller). however if your imaging the more accurate the better as tracking is much more important.

Carl

[gary1968]

Toby, for visual I dont think it matters much as long as you are 'nearly' there. I have a CG5GT and for visual I generally just plonk it down facing North and then sight Polaris through the finder, the altitude is set from previous sessions. The goto's are always bang on. I have heard though that the Celestron software is more forgiving in this rescpect than other manufacturers, but this may be wrong.

Gary

[astrokat]

thanks guys this help

toby

[SteveP]

Toby

That's not a silly question and it is easy to be confused between the two quite different aspects of mount alignment.

An accurate POLAR Alignment is important, no critical, for the most accurate tracking. This is particularly so when imaging to avoid star trailing. It is not important for accurate GoTo

What is important for accurate GoTo is an accurate STAR Alignment. You will not be able to achieve consistently accurate Goto's without an accurate initial star alignment - the more stars the better

Steve

[Vega]

If your polar alignment is quite far out out, the goto's pointing accuracy will seem to work ok immediately after your star align process. However, this accuracy will gradually deteriorate over time as the goto's 'virtual map' of the sky moves further and further away from the true sky movement.

Matt

[astrokat]

thanks guys