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I always start with Beta Hydri which is a bright star next to the SMC. You can certainly find it with the naked eye and put it in the polarscope. Use Achernar if needed as a reference.
From Beta Hydri you move to 3 stars with the shape of a little arrow and they point to the octans trapezium. (see the attachment map)
Please remember that the location of the 3 stars relative to Beta Hydri changes as they rotate around the celestial pole but you can always get both Beta Hydri and the 3 stars in the polarscope field of view so you know where to go. The arrow always points to the trapezium.
Once you have the trapezium located use a small red led light to illuminate the polarscope and place the trapezium exactly in the position indicated by the reticle. Then just enjoy, the polarie is really precise.[/QUOTE]
Hey Luigi,
Thanks a million for posting this. I had given up on using the Polar scope but I used this on the weekend and it was really easy at my dark site. I could get the unit really well aligned in about 8 minutes. No trailing at 90 seconds and 180mm.
I need to put some tape or something over my torch as the main difficulty I had was my torch was overwhelmingly bright when illuminating the reticule.
The instructions about the polar scope regarding the date, hour, level etc are exceedingly sparse and hard to understand. Then I realised you don't even need any of that. You simply find the trapezium and then rotate the reticule to match it. Not sure why they put all that other date/hour stuff on it.
Greg.
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