App to locate South Pole Star

[igoforthebest]

Hi All,

Newbie here, been trying to get into astro for a while now and with this lockdown in Sydney I finally now have some time to read up on astrophotography.
I did buy a Star tracker few months ago but I am struggling to align this to south celestial pole for taking milky way shots and deep sky using 200mm lens.

Is there any phone app that I could use as a guide to accurately align the tracker?

[Malcolm]

Polar Align Pro for iOs, a paid app, nothing on Android afaik.

[AdamJL]

Hi Deepansh

When I started (last October), I used Stellarium on my laptop. It's also available for mobile.

What you're essentially looking for, is a distinctive shape with four stars.
In Stellarium, you're able to input your camera and focal length into the "Oculars" plugin to see what the sky will look like for your setup.

Here it is using the PoleMaster (what I use to Polar Align). This is for 8:46am. In 12 hours, the Stars will have rotated clockwise 180 degrees.

I've highlighted the stars in the pattern. The one with a crosshair is Sigma Octantis, the Southern Pole Star.

Note this is a faint group of stars that you won't see with the naked eye in Sydney (or you might, but it's quite hard), so you'll have to align via your camera (best option anyway).

Also remember that the best way to roughly align to south is to use the Southern Cross and the two Pointers as a guide

1. Draw a line from the "top" of the Southern Cross to the "bottom" and extend this line about 2.5 that distance.
2. Draw another line perpendicular to the two Pointers.

Where these two lines meet is the rough area of South. Aim there and you'll polar align faster.

And the more you do this, the quicker you'll get at it in future. It took me a few goes to recognise the stars around the Pole. Here in the southern hemisphere, they're quite faint. But I can polar align fairly quickly now if I'm pointing roughly in the right direction.

[igoforthebest]

Thanks Malcolm, forgot to mention I have android phone :P

[igoforthebest]

Thanks Adam, really helpful!! Will try this weekend if the sky is clear

[RAJAH235]

Hi Deepansh,
I'll add my 2 cents worth as well..
May help a bit.

[igoforthebest]

Cheers mate :)

[Rigel003]

Here's a little annotated guide to finding SPC that I created a few years ago.Might be useful to you. I live in inner suburbs of Adelaide and not all the
relevant stars can be seen naked eye, but the method works well with small binoculars or through the polar finder of star trackers.

[igoforthebest]

Wow, This is excellent! Although same is for me. I cant see the stars from my suburb but your document alongwith others have give me a good idea where to point the tracker. Just need clear skies now.

[skiap]

I was struggling with this for a whole year until I bought a polemaster, it was a life changing experience :) I can not recommend it enough. Now it only takes me 2-3 mins to polar align.