Quote:
Originally Posted by White Rabbit
Hi
I have a ETX125 and the tracking on it leaves a lot to be desired. So I'd like to do a polar alignment but have never really bothered with it because the south pole is obscured by trees and a house.
I have a compass but that only tells me where south is that enough for polar alignment after I set the wedge to the right degree for latitude?
Thanks
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With my Goto mount, when I can't see Octans (all the time in my backyard), I set the mount up with a compass as mentioned, enter latitude, longitude, time and do an alignment without using actual stars - let the mount's computer determine the location of stellar objects.
I then pick a southern star that I can see (Rigil Kentaurus, Acrux, etc) send the scope to it, turn on my laser which is on the scope and adjust the azimuth and altitude until the laser is on the star. The mount is then polar aligned.
You can fine tune with drift alignment for imaging, if required. I then do a full 2 star alignment with calibration stars so that the mount's computer knows where it is.