I've had my first go at setting up and polar aligning a EQ6 pro.
I was surprised how well things seemed to go. However, the instructions in relation to polar scope alignment and preparing the mount seems, well, a little abstract!
I followed the instructions to the letter, I actually found the Octans asterism, cheated by using the 12 inch dob and a tad of illumination, got it in the polar scope, but for the life of me, I couldn't get the scope aligned on the stars. I figured I must have buggered up the original setup, do it again, same thing.
I've done a sleepy search during the night of the net, but found most of the specifics in relation to the northern hemisphere. If anyone knows a link to some local answers, I would appreciate it greatly
Darren
I was just playing with the mount, no OTA yet!!!!!!!!!!!
well if you had the asterism in the polar alginment scope then its a matter of fiddling with your head rotation to get the astrisim in the same orientation as the stars, then using your latitude and dec adjustment screws (the 2 black thumb screws moving it left and right, and the silver bolts back and front to move the scope up and down :S hehehe) Its actually quite easy once you get the hang of it.! Oh get a small stool.! save your neck.
I also struggled with polar scope a bit..
First you have to make sure the reticule is aligned properly.
You can do it during the day, on some terrestial object, not too far away (electric pole or roof or somebody's TV antenna).
It is a delicate business because you can very easily damage the reticule if you tighen it too much with screws.
I modified the reticle by placing inside the straight spring wire next to one of the three screws, so I can almost remove it and the spring is holding reticule in place.
Then, by adjusting the other two it is possible to move reticule in the dead centre of the RA shaft (you have to rotate the mount around polar shaft to check the centre.. 180° rotation does the trick). Then you can carefully tighten the third screw.
Forget about instructions, the only thing you really need to know is the orientation of Octans asterism, and this can be checked with CdC or any other planetarium software (be aware, the polar scope inverses the image). Then as Brendan advised, you adjust the RA shaft elevation with screws and bolts.
I noticed that Octans asterism on the reticule is not quite accurate, some stars are not quite where they should be. It is as if someone said at some point in time "South? What's that? Oh.. it seems someone is living down there.. lets do something quick about it"... that is why we have this silly reticle, which is quite useable on Northern hemisphere but not as easy here down under.
So, I posted couple of questions for southern only reticule on CN and elsewhere (I also asked Bintel people but they did not have a clue as to where to get one), but it seems it is not available...
Then, I attempted to erase all un-necessary constellations (Cassiopeia and Big Dipper) but it did not work neither with acid (from car battery) nor with NaOH.. the drawing is done by metal deposited in the vacuum, and it is not Al, more likely Chromium, ant this one is quite resistant to corrosives). Then I gave up.
If I had my photo-lab equipment here, I would place a piece of micrographic film in place of reticle and take a picture of Octans through the polar finder objective, then develop it and produced the new reticle this way. Unfortunately, I do not have microfilm today, neither I can develop it.
Another option is to print the new reticle on foil with laser printer from planetarium programme.. scale may be a bit of a problem to adjust but it is doable I think.
mmm well my polar alignment must be pretty darn close as if you go into my post on Deep sky in photography the pinwheel was done at 5 minutes un guided. i wasn't fussed by the other astrisims there, its not that hard to look past them. the problem for me for a start is i didn't realize you have to turn the whole mount head around to align it with the astrisim before accurately adjusting it with the dec and RA adjustments.!
alright, i have put up a picture with the steps to take to get it polar aligned with the scope. you have to go though and do the 2nd and 3rd iterations a few times, because as you move it around you need to adjust one to suite the other, soon enough though itll come into where it should have been. the other thing is though if your going for photography do a drift alignment with your CCD or Camera to double check your alignment. for visual this will be more than enough and if you have put the right co ordinants into your hand controller along with the time, your first star should be in the eye piece!
