Having moved my worldly possessions to a shed in Laos while awaiting my house to be built I have been restrained from attempting any Astrophotography. But now that the house is closer to completion, and I now have an Astro observing deck built at roof level with a reinforced concrete pier in situ, I have started dragging out some of my stored equipment.
The mount I am playing with now is the HEQ6 pro, and with the mechanical issues sorted, I thought I'd have a look at polar alignment.
The HEQ6 has an inbuilt polar scopewith reticle for both hemispheres. Ok I thought. Looking through the murky skies if Vientiane last night I could just make out Polaris, but not the Big Dipper or Cassiopea. Looking at my Sky Safari app, I could note the relative positions of these two, and rotate the RA for approximate position. Then I could make the necessary adjustments to put Polaris in the dot of the reticle. All good I thought. Should be able to set up when the clouds disappear in the window of November to end of January.
However! On later inspection of the Sky Safari app, I note that the location of Polaris is shown between the North Celestial Pole and Cassiopea stars Navi or Sheddar,rather than between the NCP and Big Dipper as shown in the HEQ6 reticle.
Other apps and maps confirm the Sky Safari position, so clearly the polar reticle must be wrong. Surely I'm not the first to notice this?
