We purchased our EQ6 Pro with Synscan V3 from Bintel Melbourne last week.
We have a Skywatcher 8" f5 Newtonian mounted
Spent time getting our magnetic deviation and settings OK. Tried for a 3 star alignment on Thursday night and failed then the clouds rolled in again. Did a few more adjustments and then had cloud every night since.
Tonight was our first time to try again. Unfortunately we couldn't do a polarscope alignment because of the moonlight
Did a 3 star alignment and "alignment successful" Spent a bit of time doing goto's and targets were almost in the centre.
So now we have to wait for a moonless night so we can see Octans and align with the polarscope
Very impressed with the mount it's very sturdy and moves effortlessly and is remarkably quiet.
Hi Barb and David,
Great to see the acquisition of the new mount.
Personally, I would ignore the polar scope and go straight to learning to drift align.
Reason is that quite often the polar scope is not aligned with the axis of the mount. This can cause frustration, trust me...
Secondly, the altitude scale is only a sticker, may not be accurate.
Drift aligning sounds hard, but once you have done it a few times, it is like falling out of bed, and the results will speak volumes.
Hope this helps.
CS
Thanks for the advice
We have done some basic daytime tests and the polar scope seems to be aligned okay, only time will tell when we get out on a clear dark night to test it.
I agree that the altitude scale can only be used as a guide only as it is not always accurate.
We know of others using the polar scope very successfully and would still like to test out this means of aligning. But if need be we will drift align as you have mentioned.
I have only been using the polar scope to align. It is remarkably accurate. I have only had very slow drift north, something like 1/2 to 1 arcsec/min. I could improve this with a drift align but it easily guides out. I now have 3 divots in my lawn where the scope goes each night and the alignment only needs tweaking each time I use it. Having said that my lawn is currently under water so I'm not too sure about the life of my current divots.
Since I put my mount permanently into it's cubby observatory, I have only Polar aligned it once. And that was when I first put it in there. My Polar scope is spot-on.
I check it occasionally and it hasn't moved
I still get dead accurate GoTo's.
I have never drift aligned it as I haven't needed to. But if it was packed away each night I could see why it may need to be done.
Great to hear you've got it up and running straight out of the box Barb and Dave. Really looking forward to some Looooong exposure stuff from you now
Polar scope or drift align. It is the eternal question. I love to drift align. It looks so impressive to newbies when you are drift aligning using a laptop. "This is real astronomy" Plus it gets me out of doing the dishes if I have to drift align first, even if I don't need it
Oh and I wouldn't know the first thing about using a polar alignment scope.
One thing we are not sure about regarding the polar scope, after following all the instructions every thing is okay until we get to page 13 in the instruction book.
Preliminary Step : Determining the Zero Point on the Longitude Scale.
This is meant to put the reticle into proper orientation.
Do we have to do this procedure or is it only for the Northern Hemisphere?
Some say YES and others say NO .
When we look in to the reticle the overlay for Octans at the moment is completely upside down.
We don't want to touch the polar scope unless it is necessary.
Did you have to do this originally with your polar scope ?
No, I ignore the Latitude and Azimuth scales as they aren't extremely accurate anyway. The Polarscope is though.
Once you have turned the mount in R.A. and can see the stars line up with the markers, just tweak both R.A. and dec until the stars and the marker circles perfectly overlay each other. Then you are done
Tried that Ken and it doesn't work, the Octans overlay in the reticle is completely upside down it looks like we have to orientate the reticle in the polar scope first. Then we can do adjustments in ra or dec to align Octans into the circles on the overlay
Tried that Ken and it doesn't work, the Octans overlay in the reticle is completely upside down it looks like we have to orientate the reticle in the polar scope first. Then we can do adjustments in ra or dec to align Octans into the circles on the overlay
NOOOOOO don't move the polarscope.
Turn the R.A. around until they match.
If you move the polarscope it might go out of alignment.
Depending on the time, and month, sometimes the R.A. is completely rotated upside down until they match.
Polar scope or drift align. It is the eternal question. I love to drift align. It looks so impressive to newbies when you are drift aligning using a laptop. "This is real astronomy" Plus it gets me out of doing the dishes if I have to drift align first, even if I don't need it
Does that mean if I use the polar scope I have to do the dishes
Spent a bit of time doing goto's and targets were almost in the centre.
![[1ponders]'s Avatar](../vbiis/customavatars/avatar45_9.gif){kind=avatar}
Really looking forward to some Looooong exposure stuff from you now 
"This is real astronomy" 
don't move the polarscope.
Yes 
