Polar Alignment

[ck93]

JESUS! I think i have asked the same question but im having serious trouble aligning my mount. I have an EQ5 goto with an ED120 scope. I try align it the best i possibly can, i EVEN try to align it with sirius and then move my mount the get it in the middle of my scope and do the 3 star alignment and still i am off. Because after i do my 3 star alignment which is successful i put in orions belt and it is still way off. I have updated all the software. The only thing i can think of is that my polar scope is northern hemisphere. I don't know how to change it but if i do change it to the southern hemisphere will that be ok? Someone please help! I am almost willing to PAY someone one night to come and give me a lesson. I suck at this but i am so interested

[multiweb]

Goto and polar alignment although related are two different beasts. Try to do drift alignment which is fairly straight forward after a few trials. Then sort out the goto accuracy later.

[MuntiNZ]

Hey mate!
Dunno bout the Eq 5 but a guy near me had the EQ 6 and couldnt get a good goto for love nor money
Turns out that what it was is first his PA scope wasnt aligned with the RA properly and 2nd the latitude scale on the mount was bloody miles out.....like 3 or 4 degrees or somethng like that.
When he did the PA scope alignment trick in the manual and then set up his lat manually his 1st goto was spot on in the EP .
So may be try that.

[bojan]

It seems we are living close.. If you are still desperate after all the advice above, I can drop in and show you how to align some time next week.
PM me if you need help :-)

[batema]

Try this link for Polar alignment and I believe that once you have your ploar alignment down you should then be able to apply you star alignment for go to and have success.
http://www.andysshotglass.com/DriftAlignment.html

Good luck. I have an Eq6 pro and have only done a two star alignment and have success.

Mark

[bmitchell82]

PM me i have a guide specifically written for EQ series of mounts from synta. i wrote it myself it has pictures and explanations and currently its with mike selway for the projects and articles.

My setup will 100% give me accuracy with the 40d to land targets into the middle or at least on the ccd chip from one side of the sky to the other. and i don't use drift alignment. well i do but only as a check of the check...

[ck93]

Oh here is the thing, i have no idea about tech talk sometimes thats why i am so bad at it. I know the Polar scope and i think i have set my latitude right. I need to buy a southern hemisphere polar scope and change it but dont know how to change it. I want to thank everyone for thier advice it is awsome.....I really appreciate it. I just have no idea about setting all the nobs and stuff....hahahah now that is high tech talk right there....I am going through those manuals now and trying to get it going.

[Bassnut]

Its actually a confusing, impossible black art. Only roughly achievable by endless random stuffing around and sheer luck.

[telemarker]

You could try alignmaster. Work fine with me. :thumbsup:

Regards
Keith

[mithrandir]

The bubble level and latitude scales on most mounts can't be trusted. They get you in the ball park. I carry a couple of levels which I can flip end-to-end to eliminate errors in the level by averaging.

I get my mount (not an EQ) roughly aligned with a multistar align, then use the built-in any-star polar align to get it reasonably close.

Repeat the above steps to get closer.

Then I can use PHD's graphs to drift align.

You could use a reticle eyepiece to do the drift align if you don't have a CCD camera.

[M_Lewis]

I had the same trouble with my EQ5 mount, and I discovered, that the synscan handpiece does not have tracking enabled by default. So essentially you'd line up the star, bring it back to centre, repeat this until you ran out of adjustment.

To make a long story short, I found that when I enabled the tracking in the handpiece it quite literally had the polar alignment falling in my lap. Until that point it was one of the most frustrating things I have ever had to deal with.

This may not be your problem, but something you can double check just incase. If it is, I hope I have helped :)

[dcalleja]

Keith
How simple did you find alignmaster? Just curious - I seem to collect these polar alignment aids

[telemarker]

I find it simple to use. You basically sight in and centre the first star of a pair that you select from a list of possible pairs, then it will slew to the second star of the pair. Once this is centred using the handset it calculates the error in alt and az then slew the scope to where the star should be. You the centre the star by moving the mount for alt then the same for az. A couple of iterations will see you very close to polar alignment. You can download the program and trial it.

One problem I have with it is at times the number of star pairs used for alignment can be limiting because of trees an a house obstructing the sky. Other than that, I use it constantly. It talks to my Lxd75 mount via ascom through a RS232 to the handset. Also use the bullseye overlay in PHD to accurately centre the stars with the guide camera.

Regards
Keith

[poppasmurf]

Hi Brendon I would like to try your guide. PM sent
reagrds poppasmurf AKA Shane

[dcalleja]

Brendan
Same here - I will PM you

[Andy01]

Hi Brendon I would also like to try your guide. PM sent
Regards
Andy

[niko]

Brendan's guide is here

http://brendanmitchell.net/?page_id=213

[tuppence]

I do not find it as easy as it all sounds, but thats probably just me

[Poita]

Don't despair, it is one of those things everyone finds really difficult until it 'clicks'.

Get the mount balanced well first.
I'd use the solar noon method to get the mount pointing south accurately, and use an inclinometer to get the mount set correctly, the inbuilt guides are often off by quite a bit.

Do those two things and it will be pretty close.