Precise Polar Alignment NEQ6 Pro

[Cosmic]

Hi all,

Straight up ill admit I have sat here for hours trying to work out what I need to achieve ....but with no luck. Just plan confused :( I have done all the other procedures Preparing the mount...Orienting the Polar Scope Reticule and Aligning the Polar Scope Reticule :) yay its just this dam Precise Polar Alignment that has me stuck. I may just not be reading it right but im just not sure how to go about determining the zero point on the longitude scale.

I calculated the longitude of our central meridian come up with 135E for Darwin. Then in the instructions it gives an example that throws me off. What is it where trying to do here, if I make any since lol its late.

Please shine some light on this for me :thumbsup:

Thanks in advice!!

Dan

[gbeal]

Hi Dan,
depends how accurate you want. And it is difficult to know what you want to achieve too.
In my case, I image, so alignment needs to be decent, but not to the point of making this unenjoyable.
On many occasions I have simply walked the mount out, roughly looked along the side of the mount at a tree in the distance which is close to south and banged away. So unless there is some reason for having it perfect, why not just enjoy the mount for a while.
Goto will be better if it is perfect, for sure, but many mounts (not sure about the EQ6) are forgiving of less than perfect polar alignment.
Enjoy it, and as you get more proficient, it will just happen on it's own.
Gary

[sheeny]

Daniel...

It's not a longitude scale, it's a latitude scale.:)

Hope this helps.

Al.

[RobF]

Don't panick Daniel, there are plenty of people here to get you going. I think Al has just sorted your first and biggest issue though.....

Probably worth putting some marks on the ground if you can once you get it as a starting point for future sessions. Even for imaging you can get pretty good reproducibility and save a bucket load of time doing this.

[Cosmic]

Thanks Gary and Al for your thoughts and inputs, truth be known I only got the setup yesterday lol. I have probably dived in the deep end a bit as far as a first time ts gos. I plan to do imaging when I can afford to ..down the track, but for now just visual.

Sorry to be a pain in the a$$, but now the ts is prepared what are the steps to lining it up roughly...so to speak. As you said Gary line it up with south ? compass you reckon? I mean the big dipper, octans and cassiopeia are to low on the horizon to go off them.

But I guess not to worry...which im probably doing to much of haha. Ill give it a crack tonight and see how I go :)

[Cosmic]

Cheers Rob, I know Al cleared up that point haha. Marking the ground, what a simple and great idea!! Since im only doing backyard observing sounds like a great plan!

[batema]

Hi Daniel,

I agree with the above and would also suggest that if you can get to an astronomy club and take your gear with you that would help as well. I remember early on I would turn up with my Eq6 Pro and scope and be pretty confident I had it all worked out when someone would say 'Why are you doing that" and the suggestions from people have helped enormously. What other gear do you have?

Mark

[OzRob]

If you want quick accurate algnments and you are able to connect a PC to the mount you could try Alignmaster (http://www.alignmaster.de/index.html). It costs about $20.

[Cosmic]

That's most definitely on the cards Mark, I can just imagine the positive criticism ill get :P. Here in Darwin they don't get back into it till March due to the wet session, but I guess there's no harm in seeing what I can come up with :D. I ended up buying Bintel N200 EQ6 Pro to get me started.

I mite end up looking into that if I dont have much luck by myself. Thanks Rob!

[allan gould]

Use alignmaster as it's the only really reliable and simple program that's out there. Two iterations and you are good to guide for astrophotography while a simple polar alignment/drift alignment using PhDguiding will have it nailed perfectly. All done in 30 mins tops.

[Cosmic]

Thanks Allan for your input as well. I have currently requested a trial key for the 30 day free trial. I'll let you know how I go using this software :thumbsup: as I will need this kind of thing for my long exposures for astrophotography down the track.

[Cosmic]

Just an update guys. Skys don't look like there going to give me even one hour at this rate :( ... but we need the rain. Not to worry I think I have finally put all the pieces of puzzle together and done the research, to know whats needed for both rough and precise alignment :thumbsup:. Having said that I would like to thank you all for your wealth information that you have provide me with!! ( including all the older posts from 2006 lol)

Now I just cant wait to start enjoying what this setup has to offer!!