Illuminating Polarscope Reticle?

[AndyUK]

Hi there - I recently bought a CG5 mount (and EQ5 goto upgrade, which I finally got working thanks to Johnrt whom I'll be forever indebted!)

As I want to image with it, I also bought a polarscope - One of those where the reticle has a central ring with a smaller ring on it and Big dipper, Cassiopeia and Octans constellations.

I located it in the mount (fine) and, in daylight, collimated it (also fine). I did notice though that I needed to rotate the focuser a fair bit in order for me to see the reticle markings (but I do wear specs...)

When I go out at night, the first thing I do is roughly align by simply getting Polaris roughly in the centre of the polarscope (using alt and az adjustments), but when I try to accurately align (using charts printed from polarfinder), the reticule's virtually invisible, even after playing with the focuser, so I can't see how I can place Polaris within the little circle on the inner central circle?

I know that I'll still need to drift-align for truly accurate alignment (not tried this yet!), but am I missing something here? At the moment, it seems pretty much useless - I could have roughly centred Polaris simply looking up the empty tube!

I've noticed that the HEQ5 and EQ6 mounts have a "polarscope illuminator" (as do their respective Goto upgrade kits) - Do I need to shine a red light up the polarscope to get the reticle to show?

[steppenwolf]

You can shine a red torch across the Polarscope aperture or make a permanent internal light source. This page on my website shows how to do it

[AndyUK]

Thanks Steve! This was beginning to frustrate me almost as much as the cloud cover (and the 2 streetlights and horse chestnut tree that hangs over from next door's garden!). Although I've got your book (MOST excellent by the way - I only hope I'm up to following your instructions / recommendations), I regret (and am embarrassed) to say I'd never fully explored your website (sorry).

I see your link states that shining a torch across requires one to be a contortionist, but I'll see how I get on with that first. Even though I can't spell DIY, that looks to be one of the simpler modifications that even I might be able to make (although I know I'll be nervous about using epoxy resin on the mount!). Thanks again...

[steppenwolf]

My pleasure, Andy.