polar alignment. scope/spotter not aligned to mount

[leenewtoastro]

can i still get polar alignment with a setup that the scope and/or spotter is not aligned to the mount?

if not what can/should you do to align scope to mount?

[Carbon Brush]

The polar scope should aligned to the mount. It should have adjustment screws. If not, you have a problem!

Point the mount & polar scope to an object on the horizon. Do this either by setting the latitude on the mount, or supporting it on something. Like a workbench.

Rotate the mount RA and the selected horizon object will move around the fov. Move the mount till it describes a circle around the centre of fov. Then twiddle the adjustment screws till you make the circle smaller. Eventually the object is exactly centred in the polar scope regards of RA rotation.

The mount and polar scope are now aligned. Return the mount to it's usual latitude (approximately) and you can do the usual polar alignment.

Hope this is useful.

David.

[leenewtoastro]

may have missed when searching do most polar alignment guides not mention to do scope/spot align to mount first?

[The Bat]

If you're just doing visual observing you don't need accurate polar alignment. Having the polar axis pointing roughly at Polaris is good enough. If you're going to get into imaging that requires serious polar alignment, then your polar scope does need to be properly aligned with the scope mount.

Rachel