help needed: How to track the Sun??

[cartonn30gel]

I know this will sound weird but I need to track the sun using a telescope mount. There will be some other assembly on the mount, not a telescope. I basically want to track the sun throughout the day but can't figure out how.

I have a Celestron Advanced GT mount that has two automatically adjustable axes on it. (e.g. you can use the remote controller to change them) These two are declination and right ascension. I don't exactly understand that coordinate system to begin with anyways. I looked at sun positions in these two coordinates but only one position is given for a whole day. I don't get how Sun's coordinates don't change throughout the day. Also, to get the mount to work, do I have to adjust it with the north star? There is also a latitude adjustment but I'm not sure if that's supposed to be set to my current latitude or 90 minus that or something else. I'm so new to everything with this coordinate system and the telescope mount. This is very confusing

I would really appreciate if someone can give me a step by step procedure to track the Sun with this thing.

However, any help is highly appreciated.

Thank you.

[EA2007]

Hello,

Your mount's handset should have a feature that allows various tracking styles...a) sidereal, lunar and c) solar.

You need to opt for the solar tracking.

However you will need to align the mount with the North Celestial Pole (NCP) which is near enough Polaris. You will also need to input your time and date and location (in lat. & long.) and have the mount nice and level, also to have enough power to run your mount.

[themos]

I suggest you get a free copy of Stellarium (google it) and play with it until you understand how objects in the sky appear to move from a spinning, orbiting Earth.

[lukebl]

I looked at sun positions in these two coordinates but only one position is given for a whole day. I don't get how Sun's coordinates don't change throughout the day.

The sun's RA and DEC co-ordinates change constantly, but most ephmerides just give the the position once a day. Stellarium will show you its position at any given time.

[themos]

Equatorial mounts like yours need to be aligned to the North Celestial Pole (which is very near the star Polaris, the "North Star"). The axis that needs to point there is the axis around which the big weight swings. There is an "altitude" bolt (front and back) and gauge for the up-down position of the axis and "azimuth" adjustment knobs for the left-right position of the axis.

It's quite difficult getting a good polar alignment during the day. Maybe others have had to face this problem and can give you ideas.

Once you're aligned, your mount can keep distant stars fixed in the eyepiece by just rotating ever so slowly around this Polar axis (one revolution every day, roughly). This is called the sidereal rate.

The Sun however is not distant will appear to move when you track at sidereal rate. Its apparent motion is due to the Earth swinging past it in its orbit. On average, this is one complete revolution every year. This amounts to the Sun falling behind the distant stars by about 4 minutes per day. If you set your mount to solar rate then it adjusts for this lag so should keep the Sun centred in the eyepiece.

I hope you're using appropriate specialised filters for solar observation. Permanent blindness is the result of being sloppy in this.

[jgs001]

My HEQ5, when last used at night, was polar aligned. Which means the altitude setting is about right, but if you set the altitude scale to your latitude that should be close enough. I've used a compass from a little way back, check the needle is approx along the line of the polar axis (don't get too near the mount or the metal will affect the compass needle. That has sufficed for me to be able to construct a full lunar mosaic etc, so should be good enough for solar viewing, when the mount is set to track at solar rate.

[cartonn30gel]

Thank you so much guys, I figured out some of it after carefully reading the mount manual. I'll get back to you if i have any other questions.

I hope you're using appropriate specialised filters for solar observation. Permanent blindness is the result of being sloppy in this.

themos, thanks for your warning, I'll definitely keep that in mind. But, I'm not "observing" the Sun. There is some assembly on top of the mount that uses sunlight. I'm using the mount just to track the sun and get maximum intensity.

[themos]

I don't think you need to bother with "solar rate", then. You'd only be about 1/2 degree out over the day with sidereal.

[DemonicOmelette]

Remember, if you're trying to look at the sun through a telescope, you should always squint.