polar alignment

[Keiran]

Hi all just a quick one, i am polar aligning my HEQ5, looking through the polar scope you have an x and a circle around it with a smaller circle intersecting the bigger circle with polaris written next to it, does polaris go in the circle or the x???

thanks keiran

[Psychobilly]

Astro Babys HEQ5 Polar Alignment

[Keiran]

brilliant thanks i am doing it right then

[Dreek]

Hi Keiran,

I've just polar-aligned my EQ3-2 mount, which is pretty similar to the EQ5 from this respect. I used the Astro Baby guide as suggested by Psychobilly and it's the best thing available on the web for this. Go with that and you'll be good.

[Astro_Baby]

In the circle marked Polaris That remind me I must get round to updating that guide.

[ZOG]

Mel, does the same routine work with the CG5 GT ?

[PhilD]

I was about to ask the same question Zog.

[Breakintheclouds]

A little tip: because Polaris is quite a bit smaller than the circle you need to put it into, it can be hard to tell if you've got it exactly central in the circle. So after you've aligned, rotate the RA axis back to its home position and have a quick glance back through the polar scope. Polaris will now be covered by the line of the big circle, and you can see with considerable accuracy whether it is exactly on the line and make azimuth tiny adjustments if necessary .

[Keiran]

Could you not defocus the star until it is the same size as the little circle?

[yesyes]

Mel, does the same routine work with the CG5 GT ?

Yes, if you have the optional polar scope for the CG5-GT.

[Astro_Baby]

Kieran you can really defocus the polarscope easily without also defocisung the reticule. The polar scopes focus is through a helical focuser thats on the inside bit of the mount.

If you unscrew the polarscope form the mount you'll see there are some small grub screws which losk the helical focuser for the main scope focusing in place. Its not really practical to do this just for polaris. To be honest I dont bother. I get it as close to the centre of the mall circle as I can and let it go at that. Thats plenty accurate enough for observing.