Polar Alignment Query

[PandoraA]

Hi , Any useful tips for polar alignment with below equipment:

1/ iOptron Sky Tracker with polar scope
3/ Skywatcher Tripod & Ball Head
2/ Canon 650D
3/ Lens 18-135 3.5 - 5.6

Class 6 Bortle

Gave it a try last night with clear skies without any success

Stars were trailing for 25 sec exposures

I have read enough online around the sigma octantis and different flows to locate it and understand it will be challenging.

[AstroViking]

Hi Alex,

Yeah, doing a PA via a polar scope is not easy. The first step is getting your mount pointed true south - not magnetic south. In Melbourne there's about an 11 degree difference to account for.

Don't trust the compass on your mobile phone - I can never, ever get mine to agree with reality.

I suggest following steps 1 and 2 of the attached document by IIS member 'StarTrek'. It's a bit of work, but guaranteed to give an accurate southerly alignment.

Then make sure your mount is set to about 38 degrees elevation.

The 4 stars that make up the Octantis (Octans?) asterism might be in your polar scope's field of view if you're lucky. Otherwise you'll have to slowly search for them by carefully panning the mount head from side to side and then changing the elevation and trying again.

Don't sweat if you can't find them. It's frustrating as anything to align this way.

You can also try taking an image of the sky at a reasonable zoom and then searching the image for the stars and move the mount to suit.

Be aware that the polar scope may present you with an inverted image (either upside down or flipped left-to-right) when compared to the image on the camera.

Keep trying - you'll get there!!

No doubt other members will be along to give more advice.

Cheers,
V

[Marko of Oz]

2 tips,
Knee pads
Patience

Cheers

Mark

[AdamJL]

If you've got a laptop, it might make sense to install NINA and run their polar alignment routine.

You'll just need to connect your camera and mount to the PC, install the necessary drivers, install the polar alignment plugin and NINA will do the rest.

The first setup (i.e. installing everything) will take the longest time, but then it will take 5 minutes to polar align every time you setup. Small investment for big long term gains :)

[kon1966]

I use ioptron ipolar, its soooo good.

[Rod-AR127]

Have a read of this......

https://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=196957

In particular Martin's post about solar noon and a stick in the dirt.
I did this, it takes no time to set up and gives you an exact direction to point your tripod. I then hung a plumb bob from the tripod to get it exactly over the line and put the front tripod leg in the other end of the line and marked the three point on my concrete where the lags are. I put my tripod here and every time l am very very close to PA. I too cannot see/recognise Octans.
You will need to do more for photography to work out
I bought a goto mount, problem solved.

[xelasnave]

In daylight make sure your main scope with your camera is in line with your polar scope in home pos.
As night point your rig in general direction of where you think CSP is..take a time exposure with your main camera with your mount not tracking and note the star trails will suggest where the CSP can by found adjust your mount to centre there, take a second and third time exposure until the stars appear to rotate around the centre of your camera screen...These days I use Polemaster but still use that approach to get close before Polemaster to bring Octans into my screen...although I now have Asiair plus and its system seems ok so Polemaster is probably now a thing of the past...and work towards a rig built with Asiair plus in mind..It is brilliant..autoguiding auto focus meridian flip plate solving target acquisition and centre... and all hair pulling things now easy ...it's worth the money just for focusing.

Alex

[varshnei]

I tried a lot of methods with my initial SKywatcher and some worked and some worked sometimes but the thing that always works is the AsiAir. Hard to go wrong with it

[denodan]

Fir me I use ipolar, by Ioptron, faster than polemaster and very easy. It's as easy as setting up an optical finder during the day