Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Southby
No I dont even have a laptop so its pretty much all manual control apart from the Goto. Its astrophotography on a budget.
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It sure sounds like it Chris
, but here goes with a procedure that can at least confirm your polar alignment.
Aim your scope at a brightish star around 25 degrees above the horizon in the East or West on the Celestial equator (zero dec). With your slew speed set as slow as you can get it start a 65 second exposure (obviously in bulb mode on your DSLR). Pause for 5 seconds before slewing left for a count of 30 and then slew right for a count of 30. You will more than likely have a "V" shape with a bright star (this is your reference point), unless you have jagged your polar alignment in which case it will be a flat line. Make a mental note of where the bright star is, above or below the return line. You want to make the V a flat line. Make a big adjustment on your dec axis (leave RA alone I'll get to that shortly) and repeat the procedure until you have a flat line. The reason behind making a mental note is because if your bright star was above the return line and now it is below you have adjusted the right way but just gone too far, if the gap has widened obviously you are going the wrong way. Once you have a flat line for a 65 second count repeat it but this time go a minute or two in either direction with your 5 second pause at the start. The longer you go with a flat line the better your alignment is.
To adjust your RA axis repeat the procedure above except this time slew your scope to a brightish star on the Celestial Equator near the meridian and repeat all the steps. Of course this time you are adjusting in RA and leaving the dec axis alone.
Once you have your RA axis dialled in it would be a good idea to just drop back down again and check your dec axis. Just as you would if you are using a reticle.
You will also need to remember which knob you have tightened on both the RA and dec axis so you know whether to keep tightening North or start tightening South etc.
No guarentees that this will get you perfectly polar aligned but it will be a start.
Save those pennies and get the reticle and then keep saving for that laptop and then there is the mount upgrade and then there is aperture fever then you will want that cooled one shot color camera then you will want that premium mono cooled camera like the SBIG STL11000 and a full set of color and narrow band filters and then you will need an observatory and then finally a property with dark skies to put it on. And all of that without even shopping around for a Tak
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Good luck with it all and I hope my contribution above is of help to you.
Wayne