Stumped (Polaris)

[Earl]

Clear Sky here tonight so I decided to get the scope out.

Using the Polar scope I aligned the Mount to Polaris.

I did a rotate of the RA axis and Polaris stayed on the ring of the Reticle give or take a very small amount.

Next step I wanted to do was make a visual observation of Polaris with the view of taking a long exposure to show its rotation around the Pole.

Much to my surprise with my 32mm eyepiece and my 8inch SCT, Polaris was not in the FOV, I double checked the Polar scope and there was Polaris, back to the SCT and no it was not there :|

I took the SCT off and replaced it with my ST80 and again used a 32mm, there was polaris...

Triple check the Polar scope, and yep all good.

I put my SCT back on and once again no Polaris.

Im stumped. Does anyone have any ideas?

[martin_h]

Its probably cone error, the st80 having a wider FOV caught it, the 8" with its narrower FOV missed..

[yeti monster]

End cap still on?

Axial offset of SCT greater than ST80?

[Earl]

I have just played with the Occular plugin on Stellarium... and Polaris would not be visable if I had a good polar alignment.

DOH !!