Eq5 polar scope

[West End Wendy]

Spent an hour this morning with astro baby's invaluable article on using a Skywatcher polar scope - a subject which, in common with many it seems, confused the hell out of me.

Anyway, by the end of it, despite the idiot-proof explanation, I was still confused. Why was I using the RA setting circle and the RA axis during the alignment? What does right ascension have to do with polar aligning the mount?

And then, the eureka moment. Right ascension has nothing to do with polar alignment, the axis is just used to turn the reticle and date circle together. And the RA setting circle effectively stops being an RA setting circle when it's locked at zero, and instead becomes a fixed hour scale. I think I was expecting something deeply complex from a procedure which is actually rather simple.

All very obvious to most forum users, I'm sure - but the cause of three or four hours of severe brain-ache for me.

However I still have one query. In order to set the reticle to the transit position for Polaris. It has to be placed "at the bottom". Considering the precision involved in the rest of the process, this seems hopelessly vague - from different angles, the reticle looks slightly different to me. How do I line up the reticle so Polaris really is pointing straight down? Maybe, as a visual observer only, I am becoming overly concerned with accuracy, but I would like my recently acquired clock drive to keep objects centred for as long as possible.

Thanks,

Tim

[Taff]

Hi Tim' on google type eq5 mount alinement, then on the videos on top there are clips which will help you.Mark

[dlp]

If you've got set up with EQMOD yet, you'll find there's an excellent polar alignment utility in there, with an equally excellent video on the Tube to explain its use. I've found it gives me spot on alignment, which makes tracking much easier.

David

[brantuk]

You really only need high levels of accuracy in polar alignment to eliminate star trailing if you're doing astro photography. AB's guide will do you proud for that.

But for observing it's usually enough to just point the mount north and set your latitude - then center up the pole star using the Alt and Az adjustments. You can then track in RA with minor tweaks in Dec just occasionally.

If you're computerised, an object will start to drift out of the ep after several mins, but you'll get bags of time to look at it. Your eye won't perceive star trails