|
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
|