Too impatient to Polar Align

[jah79]

I can't really be bothered, too impatient to see stuff! I do the following and then give up:

1 - face mount leg with N on north.

2 - set latitude

3 - get Polaris in the field of view

that's it. i don't get how you will only need to turn 1 slow-mo knob to track an object then as i constantly have to turn both. and are you supposed to change the latitude arm to move scope "up & down" once aligned or not?

[johnkirkpatrick]

Im the same. from my garden I can't find to polaris. and end up pointing it at orion. where most my viewing is. (saw the great nebula for first time last night through my 10mm although very faint and small) I just pick random spots and scan. I dont fully understand why i would start by doing the polar align?

[Astro_Baby]

Jah - that will do as a starter. For visual observing you dont need much more to be honest.

Once the scopes setup you just use the RA and DEC control. The Latitute control stays where it is.

The RA and DEC will reach every part of the sky. Heres a way to think about it. A conventional Alt/AZ mount gous up and down and left and right. SO it describes a patter like this +

An EQ mount actually does the same but the EQ part of the mount adds a wedge to tilt the mount at an angle. The RA and DEC controls make the cope go left and right and up and down BUT at an angle like this X

Hope that helps.

John you do polar alignment because the mount is then aimed at a part of the sky that doesnt move. This is the mount not the scope - the two are different. The mount is aimed using the altitude and azimuth control (left, right and up and down). The scope is aimed using the RA and DEC controls.

By having the mount polar aligned it means when you are viewing an object you only need to turn the RA control to track the object. In a nutshell it makes viewing easier.

Hope thats of some help

If you want a very simple guide to polar alignment take a look here http://www.astro-baby.com/simplepolar/simple_polar_alignment.htm

[johnkirkpatrick]

great thanks;)

[adamsp123]

A while ago I was in the situation where I wanted to image but couldn't see polaris so my method was to make sure the mount was level, (not so easy for me as my tripod was on a sloping concrete base), I would align to North using a compass allowing for magnetic deviation, I made an inclinometer out of cotton a washer and a protractor to set the latitude reasonably accurately - only need to do this once!

I then marked the position of the tripod legs on the ground to save a bit of time I still checked with the compass.

I was able to get reasonable images with 1 min exposures and on a good day nearly 2.

[jah79]

The mount is aimed using the altitude and azimuth control (left, right and up and down). The scope is aimed using the RA and DEC controls.

I can't find any other control on the mount than the latitude (up/down) controls??!

Thanks for all the other info!