Dave,
Trying to polar align using a polar scope is pain in the butt and I found I get much better results from using the Synscan polar alignment routine
1/ Using the polar scope your either bent over or on your knees squinting into the scope trying to align this tiny asterism and keep your head still ( a neck breaker )
2/ The south celestial pole for most people is between 30 degrees and 40 degrees ( quite low in the night sky ) so accuracy is dependent on atmospheric seeing conditions and the quality of your eye sight
3/ I have no line of sight to the SCP at one of my locations , the other location I have line of sight but still choose the Synscan PA routine. The more you do it the better you get at it ( like everything in this hobby )
3/ With Synscan you choose you polar star and alignment stars ( usually higher in Altitude ) and at a comfortable viewing position either with a refractor or newt reflector
4/ You could spend money and buy a Pole Master to replace your polar scope connected to a laptop but why not use the free program in your Synscan hand controller using a centering eye piece which provides enough accuracy
5/ I progressed 3 years ago from using a centering eye piece ( which was great for a year ) to using my imaging DSLR on the telescope connected to my imaging program BYEOS and sitting at my outdoor workstation. I can polar align using Synscan and BYEOS to under an arc minute within 10 minutes
The Synscan routine has not let me down in nearly 4 years of Astronomy. In some cases the accuracy has been so tight I can take a 90 sec exposure with pin point stars and I image at 1000mm focal length with 200mm of aperture (definitely not widefield !! )
Of course I use PHD2 guiding when doing long exposure Astrophotography
That certainly does answer my question and I'm pleased to hear that I don't need to learn how to use the polar scope at this point in time. I found it a bit daunting for a newbie.
I've had ok success with the Synscan PA routine (for visual) so far averaging about a degree of error. I'm going to invest in a reticle eyepiece this week and hope to further improve on that.
Dave
I recommend the Orion 20mm 70 degree illuminated reticle eye piece for many reasons
1/ It has excellent eye relief ( 15mm )
2/ It has wide apparent field of view
3/ The Illuminator has a dimmer so you can adjust the red cross hair brightness
4/ The optics are quite good , no aberration or light scatter
Because I now use my imaging DSLR on live view in BYEOS on the lappy to polar align with Synscan , my Orion illuminated reticle eye piece didn’t go to waste , I now use it to align my Skywatcher 12” Goto dob for visual astronomy , once again this big dob is aligned in less than 10 minutes
Has anyone ever had any issues while setting their home position with the RA clock ring? when i get to the stage of screwing the RA clock ring tight, it doesn't seem to move the numbers when I unlock the clutch and swing it clockwise/anticlockwise.
Jay
Regarding setting home position
You have to loosen the green RA and DEC clock rings 2 or 3 turns out in order for them to rotate with the RA and DEC axis
My HEQ5 is getting a bit old and weathered now so sometimes I have to loosen them and hold them with my thumb against the mount so they rotate with the movement of the mount axis thereby getting an accurate clock angle
Does that make sense ?
Jay
Regarding setting home position
You have to loosen the green RA and DEC clock rings 2 or 3 turns out in order for them to rotate with the RA and DEC axis
My HEQ5 is getting a bit old and weathered now so sometimes I have to loosen them and hold them with my thumb against the mount so they rotate with the movement of the mount axis thereby getting an accurate clock angle
Does that make sense ?
Yeah i turn the RA clock ring do the whole home setup procedure. put it zero and screw it tight and then when i turn the mount it just doesnt move. It stays on zero. The dec clock works fine. but i think maybe something is broken with the RA clock?
If you loosen the RA clock ring screws out a fair bit and unlock the RA axis can you rotate the clock ring and the RA axis together whilst holding the RA clock ring with your thumb across the clock ring and mount axis
If so you can set your home position
The clock ring is only a marker for setting home position against the pointer on the mount
I coloured my DEC and RA raised cast pointer marks on the mount with black permanent marker to make them easier to see and align to
Another question , is your mount brand new or second hand ?
If brand new I would contact your supplier and ask for a warranty repair if you can solve this issue
If you understand the concept of setting home position on your mount , I’m sure you can resolve this issue
Well I recently received my gear and was reading up how to set up my (Saxon) HEQ5 Pro mount.
Thank you so much for this! Saved me some time wondering about the procedure/order of doing things. There was a few things I knew (aligning the "N" to True South, how to Home, how to balance, etc) but I was just unsure about the process. This has helped me a lot to have a bit more confidence.
I was thinking of giving polar alignment using the polar scope a go - but reading about having to ensure the polar scope is properly aligned first (which it may not be so involves some fiddling with those little screws to ensure it rotates properly), finding a star (or a point if done during the day) in the Southern Hemisphere, potentially fiddling around with the clocks (those silver dials which I'm assuming are also called clocks) around the polar scope as well, etc etc - I'm thinking I might give this a miss for now.
I do intend on trying it out at some point - though.
Well I recently received my gear and was reading up how to set up my (Saxon) HEQ5 Pro mount.
Thank you so much for this! Saved me some time wondering about the procedure/order of doing things. There was a few things I knew (aligning the "N" to True South, how to Home, how to balance, etc) but I was just unsure about the process. This has helped me a lot to have a bit more confidence.
I was thinking of giving polar alignment using the polar scope a go - but reading about having to ensure the polar scope is properly aligned first (which it may not be so involves some fiddling with those little screws to ensure it rotates properly), finding a star (or a point if done during the day) in the Southern Hemisphere, potentially fiddling around with the clocks (those silver dials which I'm assuming are also called clocks) around the polar scope as well, etc etc - I'm thinking I might give this a miss for now.
I do intend on trying it out at some point - though.
Forget the polar scope , is a neck breaking way of polar alignment , just use my Synscan procedure if you want as you already have the Synscan handcontroller
You have to align the tripod , level the tripod , set the mount , find Home position, balance etc ... regardless of which polar alignment method you choose, but Synscan method does not need a clear view of the South Celestial Pole.
You will have to Polar Align the mount even if only doing visual astronomy, for Astrophotography you will have to Polar Align below 1 arc minute
Cheers
Thanks for the great explanation in this post!
I have a skywatcher NEQ6 pro mount and I do some astro photography with it (not very well though ) I have problems with polar alignment, the altitude movements are too stiff...its very hard to get an accurate polar alignment because of it. Would some kind of silicone grease help?
My load is a GSO 8 inch F4 Newtonian (which is very good BTW), I have to have both counter weights attached near the end 3/4th of the counterweight bar.
Thanks for the great explanation in this post!
I have a skywatcher NEQ6 pro mount and I do some astro photography with it (not very well though ) I have problems with polar alignment, the altitude movements are too stiff...its very hard to get an accurate polar alignment because of it. Would some kind of silicone grease help?
My load is a GSO 8 inch F4 Newtonian (which is very good BTW), I have to have both counter weights attached near the end 3/4th of the counterweight bar.
Grease of any sort is better than the metal to metal state it arrives in. I used grease early on and have never looked back.
Thanks for the great explanation in this post!
I have a skywatcher NEQ6 pro mount and I do some astro photography with it (not very well though ) I have problems with polar alignment, the altitude movements are too stiff...its very hard to get an accurate polar alignment because of it. Would some kind of silicone grease help?
My load is a GSO 8 inch F4 Newtonian (which is very good BTW), I have to have both counter weights attached near the end 3/4th of the counterweight bar.
Lithium grease or synthetic chain grease applied to the threads of the Az and Alt bolts will help with your PA adjustments
I have 2 off EQ6-R mounts at different locations and PA adjustments in Alt are definitely tighter than adjusting the Az bolts. To get below 1 arc minute PA error sometimes I’m just applying only squeeze tension ( hardly even moving the bolt ) to the Alt and Az bolts during Star centering procedures.
Cheers
Martin
Lithium grease or synthetic chain grease applied to the threads of the Az and Alt bolts will help with your PA adjustments
I have 2 off EQ6-R mounts at different locations and PA adjustments in Alt are definitely tighter than adjusting the Az bolts. To get below 1 arc minute PA error sometimes I’m just applying only squeeze tension ( hardly even moving the bolt ) to the Alt and Az bolts during Star centering procedures.
Cheers
Martin
If you have a android phone, download a free app called solar polar align.
You can find true south any time of day. Just have a vertical object like a can so you can use its shadow with the app on flat surface.
The long sides of your phone will point to true south and the top and bottom of phone will be 90 degrees to south so you can get a long spirit level or plank to put 2 mount legs against.
If you have a android phone, download a free app called solar polar align.
You can find true south any time of day. Just have a vertical object like a can so you can use its shadow with the app on flat surface.
The long sides of your phone will point to true south and the top and bottom of phone will be 90 degrees to south so you can get a long spirit level or plank to put 2 mount legs against.
Regards
Kon
Interesting method but I’d question its accuracy ( not the app’s accuracy within the phone but the resultant shadows accuracy with respect to the pole
I’m still using a stick and the sun at solar noon , never fails and gets me to within a few degrees of the pole ready for a polar alignment routine to get below an arc minute anywhere.
Thanks for posting
Forget the polar scope , is a neck breaking way of polar alignment , just use my Synscan procedure if you want as you already have the Synscan handcontroller
You have to align the tripod , level the tripod , set the mount , find Home position, balance etc ... regardless of which polar alignment method you choose, but Synscan method does not need a clear view of the South Celestial Pole.
You will have to Polar Align the mount even if only doing visual astronomy, for Astrophotography you will have to Polar Align below 1 arc minute
Cheers
Thanks Martin!
Just a follow up question (I have a bit of newbie confusion): I don't have a guide scope (or guide camera). I have a Celestron 8" SCT which came with a 25mm eyepiece, 6x30 finder scope and bracket, 1.25” visual back and star diagonal.
I also have the following camera gear for my ZWO camera: SCT T-Adapter, ZWO ASI294MC Pro, an f/6.3 reducer, and IR Cut Filter.
Should I do the star align and polar align with my camera gear attached and connected to my laptop (running either ASI Studio or SharpCap)?
Or would I be able to do it with the 25mm eyepiece (could I use the f/6.3 reducer with this?) and/or finder scope?
I'm leaning towards the former (i.e. with the camera gear) rather than the latter as, from what I've read, I'm assuming the latter would not be great for accuracy/time taken.
Apologies if I'm asking questions that should be obvious. I'm just ...confused.
Star alignment and subsequent polar alignment will always be more accurate using your main camera and capture software with its polar alignment tool rather than an eye piece.
Your eyes have limitations and so does the eye piece , the camera is so much much more efficient in terms of sensitivity and resolution etc... and most capture software usually have a zoom in feature for tighter accuracy when centering stars
Atmospheric conditions can also affect the accuracy of your polar alignment to some degree as well.
Cheers
Martin, can't say how much I have appreciated all these posts and the PDFs you sent me. My rig is slowly coming together based on your recommendations, and I am very excited.
EQ6-R pro & BT200 f/5 both are estimated to arrive in December. Guide cam acquired. 60mm double helical guide scope coming in November. Cables either received or on their way. 2-inch Optolong L-Extreme filter on its way.
My only question, what OSC camera should I get? No rush, can first practice with my (non-modified) DSLR.
Stephane,
There are a few ZWO and QHY OSC cooled cameras with APS-C sized sensors available to suit your new rig
To be honest I’d get some experience out of your DSLR first and worry about OSC later. But if your eager to use a OSC within the next year or so , I’d start saving for the ZWOASI2600MC now which is what is I use.The QHY 268C is a similar camera too
Get some imaging experience first with your DSLR
I used my Canon 600D for 3 years before I went cooled OSC and the transition to get the OSC up and running was fairly straight forward, learning the OSC cameras capabilities and performance is ongoing. I’m still learning stuff after 14 months. You never stop learning in this hobby
Cheers
Martin
) I have problems with polar alignment, the altitude movements are too stiff...its very hard to get an accurate polar alignment because of it. Would some kind of silicone grease help?
