Greg, I'd appreciate your further guidance on using the Polar Scope on the Polarie. I found it less intuitive than you obviously did. Is there are site you can think of that talks you through it? Is the time scale UT or local, for example? I'm getting old and dense I fear and the obvious takes a little longer to sink in these days.
Peter[/QUOTE]
You need a dark sky site as I am not so sure these stars are visible otherwise.
Manual is here and around page 17 describes aligning it in the southern hemisphere.
http://www.vixenoptics.com/PDF/POLARIE%20Manual.pdf
Look towards the LMC. The nearby bright star is Beta Hydrus then move away from that a little bit and you'll see 3 stars forming an arrow. They point towards the Octanes trapezium. Its a little way along from the 3 arrow stars. Now lineup the reticle pattern using a dim torch with the trapezium stars and you are all set. You will need to rotate the reticle to match the pattern of the trapezium stars before aligning them exactly.
Once you are used to this it is surprisingly easy. That first star is the only bright star near the LMC so its not hard to get started and oriented.
Greg.