An idea for rough polar alignment?

[Rhino1980 (Ryan)]

Been toying with the idea of having a brass insert made up that will slot into the place of the (useless) polar alignment scope in the eq6. The insert would be milled to allow me to slip a 20mw laser into to assist with initial rough polar alignment. What do you think? Any obvious pitfalls or things to consider?

[sheeny (Al)]

The most significant thing I can think of would be misalignment of the laser beam to the body of the laser. It's easy to check if this will be a problem - lay the laser in a V block of some sort, and rotate it with the beam on. If the beam stays in the one place, its colinear, but if it swings around in a cone, then it may not be good enough.

It depends how rough you want your alignment to be.

Al.

[Moon (James)]

What are you going to point the laser at? From my backyard, there isn't any clear 'south star' equivalent to Polaris.
I have placed 3 small marks on the ground that I use to make sure the tripod goes in the exact same place every time. This gets me close enough to start drift aligning.
The laser is better off aligned with your scope, and use it as a finder.

[Rhino1980 (Ryan)]

Thanks guys. It was just an idea. I would be better off biting the bullet and learning how to Drift.
Cheers

[RobF (Rob)]

I find with marks on the tiled patio out the back of the house I don't need to level/polar align at all. Just a one star alignment on a saved calibration gets me going good enough to image with autoguiding. That is, unless I've just been off to a dark site and fiddled with azimuth or altitude - then it needs to be realigned for a while....
Perhaps give it a try - you might be pleasantly surprised.

[AstroTourist (Terry)]

I regularly take my Losmandy mount to different observing sites and find using a laser pointer valuable for quick, easy and accurate polar alignment. I have found a plastic irrigation fitting that after a little bit of modification is perfect for the job. The fitting is intended to be used to reduce the size of a pipe so has a big end and a small end.
The big end fits snugly over the rear (eyepiece) end of the polar scope and the small end is just the right size (after slight enlarging) for the laser pointer to be inserted into and as it slides in, the on button is activated. This shines the laser pointer up the polar scope aligned with the axis of the polar scope. I use binos to observe where the beam is pointing and adjust the mount in altitude and azimuth to align that exactly on the pole. Of course we have no Polaris but with a bit of practice it is easy to recognise and be familiar with the exact point in the sky for the SCP using the equilateral triangle with Sigma Octans at the apex as a guide to home in. After that only a final very minor tweak to align the guide stars in the polar scope is necessary.
Prior to using this method I was always frustrated trying to recognise the star pattern in the polar scope. Now it is dead easy the alignment stars are bang in the right place. It could not be easier.