polar alignment help

[astrokat]

there should be a thread were every one can put there own ways of getting good alignment as so many people seam to struggle so any advice on ways to do this would be good

at the moment i am just finding polaris in my polar scope then roughly match the diagrams of the plough and cassi in the same way they are in the sky and then place polaris in the circle around ncp, and hope for the best.

i understand drift alignment is the best for spot on alignment though im finding very hard to get to grips with.

from what i understand with skyscan (skywatcher) when setting date and time ect at the end of this it tells you where polaris is in transit so for example it says 9 45 so you place polaris at 9 45 in the polar scope would this mean that you counter weights are to point stright down ?

hope some of this makes sence and other can and their ways of polar alignment making it easyer for others

thanks toby

[TopHouse]

This is REALLY easy. Download a program called "polarfinder" You tell it a few details, time, position etc, and a few simple settings. Then, just click 'print' and it prints a group of circles on a page, I use 4 circles 5 minutes apart, the circles show where polaris should be at the times shown. All you do is look through your polar scope and match up what you see on the printout, I'll find a link to polarfinder and post it here.

[TopHouse]

Here you go, it has a link but also shows polarfinder and explains it better than i have, but it's DEAD simple!

http://arnholm.org/astro/polar_alignment/index.html

[astrokat]

ive got polar finder so does the counter weights have to be set at the bottom or would it not matter would this be good enough for astro photography if im guiding

[Astro_Baby]

Your getting confused. The mount head points north. The weight bar is at whatever angle is required to bring POlaris to the target circle in the polar scope.

Put simply the weight bar is part of the RA movement of the mount and the RA is moved to get polar alignment so the weight bar moves round like a clock hand to whatever position is required to align Polaris with the target circle in the polarscope.

Remember POlar alignmnet is about aligning the mount to polaris not the scope itself. Once POlaris is alsigned the weight bar goes under the scope to start Synscan alignment.

[astrokat]

sorry i understand it has to face north though when using polar finder the dot where polaris shoud be do i have to swing the mount round so the little circle in the polar finder is in the same position or does it not matter and i just put polaris in the same area as polar finder says to sorry if im beening a pain lol

[TopHouse]

Ignore the weight bar, in your polar scope you see a circle with a cross inside it. look at the polarfinder printout, look in your polar scope, make the printed picture and your polar scope the same, ie polaris is on the circle in the same spot as your printout. Just use your altitude and azimuth adjustments to make it the same. for azimuth, I just nudge the tripod round a bit.

[Astro_Baby]

Ignore the weight bar, in your polar scope you see a circle with a cross inside it. look at the polarfinder printout, look in your polar scope, make the printed picture and your polar scope the same (by rotating the RA axis) , ie polaris is on the circle in the same spot as your printout. Just use your altitude and azimuth adjustments to make it the same. for azimuth, I just nudge the tripod round a bit.

JUst added a bit which may make Tophouses post a bit more helpful - hope TH dont mind.

[TopHouse]

Not at all, I didn't feel a thing Mel