aligning the polarscope reticule

[philip57]

Hello,

I have NEQ6 mount and have oriented the polarscope reticule correctly.

However when i put the mount in park position (north/south alignment ), the circle with Polaris in is not at the bottom of the reticule, it is a few degrees to one side. I dont think this matters when i polar align,as long as polaris is in the circle before i do polar alignment.

Is this right, because i remember with my heq5 mount when mount was in north south park position, the circle was at the bottom of the reticule.

There must be a way of turning the polarscope in its mount to put the circle at the bottom but i have no idea how you do it.

Any help much apppreciated

Philip

[reddoss]

Steve Richards website Chanctonbury Observatory has a very good guide for polar alignment of EQ5 and EQ6 mounts. If you go to the home page, on the left hand side there is a menu, just click on 'Technical note' and you will find well explained and comprehensive instructions - much better than the ones that SW send with the mount.

[Glider]

I use the program PolarFinder. It shows you on your PC screen what you should see through your polarscope. Rotate RA to get the target circle at the right 'o'clock' then use alt/azi until Polaris is in the circle.

It does assume your polarscope is aligned in the mount.

Make sure you enter your longitude and tick the box to show image as seen in polarscope. Then it just takes minutes to do.

[themos]

You can rotate the reticule independent of the polarscope (use the tiny grub screws that hold the reticule in place to release it, be very careful not to overtighten) or you could just define a new park position with Polaris circle at the bottom.

But I wouldn't worry about it. I use EQMOD's polar alignment procedure and I always start by putting Polaris on the + in the middle (by mount alt/az bolts) and then move mount's altitude until Polaris drops down to the circle. It always looks like it's not going "straight down" but off to the right somewhat. Then rotate in RA until Polaris circle comes to Polaris and set that as "polarscope home - 6 o'clock" in EQMOD. Then hit "align polarscope" which rotates in RA and moves the Polaris circle to the correct position. Then az/alt bolts to put Polaris in the Polaris circle again.