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Old 30-07-2021, 07:46 AM
AdamJL
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AdamJL is offline
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 2,100
Hi Deepansh

When I started (last October), I used Stellarium on my laptop. It's also available for mobile.

What you're essentially looking for, is a distinctive shape with four stars.
In Stellarium, you're able to input your camera and focal length into the "Oculars" plugin to see what the sky will look like for your setup.

Here it is using the PoleMaster (what I use to Polar Align). This is for 8:46am. In 12 hours, the Stars will have rotated clockwise 180 degrees.

I've highlighted the stars in the pattern. The one with a crosshair is Sigma Octantis, the Southern Pole Star.

Note this is a faint group of stars that you won't see with the naked eye in Sydney (or you might, but it's quite hard), so you'll have to align via your camera (best option anyway).

Also remember that the best way to roughly align to south is to use the Southern Cross and the two Pointers as a guide

1. Draw a line from the "top" of the Southern Cross to the "bottom" and extend this line about 2.5 that distance.
2. Draw another line perpendicular to the two Pointers.

Where these two lines meet is the rough area of South. Aim there and you'll polar align faster.

And the more you do this, the quicker you'll get at it in future. It took me a few goes to recognise the stars around the Pole. Here in the southern hemisphere, they're quite faint. But I can polar align fairly quickly now if I'm pointing roughly in the right direction.
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