Alinging a Vixen Polarie

[Hakka (Lincoln)]

Originally Posted by naskies

fitted a laser pointer to his AstroTrac to help with polar alignment.

I was thinking about trying that too but i cant find my laser pointer. I'm not sure if the one i have would be powerful enough.

[naskies (Dave)]

If it's green then it probably would be from a dark site. My 10 mW green laser is very visible in suburbia - almost blindingly bright from a dark site.

[Lester]

I align my polarie with phone apps, compass and inclinometer and have been able to take 1 minute exposures with 200mm lens okay.

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by Hakka

I was thinking about trying that too but i cant find my laser pointer. I'm not sure if the one i have would be powerful enough.

Green laser would be helpful except for the same problem of the SCP isn't really a visible location and Sigma Octans, at least for me, is impossible to locate visually with any certainty. If you know you way around visually then yeah I can see that being helpful.

If I couldn't get the polar scope to work (not sure how it would work in light polluted areas as some of those stars are still pretty dim)
then I'd get that accessory with the inclinometer and compass or as Lester pointed out using iphone apps. And then drift align it to improve on that result if you want to use a longer focal length lens. Drift aligning is simple if you get the inclination correct and then dont touch that. You are then only adjusting the east/west orientation and only 2 variables rather than 4.

Also weight comes into it. I was getting some flex in some angles with my D800E and a 180mm lens. I removed a rubber washer between the screw size adapter I had to use and it stopped it. I now carry a small pair of pliers when I use it to tighten all the tightening screws.


Greg.

[jjjnettie (Jeanette)]

I've a spare finder scope that I'm going to rig up as a polar scope. It almost, but not quite fits. Shouldn't be too hard to fix up.
My Polarie is coming with me to the States in May. Looking forward to getting some nice wide fields of the Northern skies and some time lapses over the Grand Canyon.

[gregbradley]

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

I've a spare finder scope that I'm going to rig up as a polar scope. It almost, but not quite fits. Shouldn't be too hard to fix up.
My Polarie is coming with me to the States in May. Looking forward to getting some nice wide fields of the Northern skies and some time lapses over the Grand Canyon.

Polarie should be really easy to align in the northern hemisphere with Polaris being a relatively bright star and easy to find visually.

A time lapse over the Grand Canyon would be great.

There is a road along the Grand Canyon that goes on for ages. There are plenty of really good views away from the regular ones which are crowded during the day with lots of buses etc. So that may help with setting up.

Greg.

[JB80 (Jarrod)]

Originally Posted by gregbradley

Polarie should be really easy to align in the northern hemisphere with Polaris being a relatively bright star and easy to find visually.

Greg.

Very much so, I have never had a problem although some say in really dark sky it can be hard to locate. Still it is easy peasy and I have taken note of the methods mentioned here for when I bring mine back South.

[luigi]

Originally Posted by gregbradley

Hey Luigi,

Thanks a million for posting this. I had given up on using the Polar scope but I used this on the weekend and it was really easy at my dark site. I could get the unit really well aligned in about 8 minutes. No trailing at 90 seconds and 180mm.

I need to put some tape or something over my torch as the main difficulty I had was my torch was overwhelmingly bright when illuminating the reticule.

The instructions about the polar scope regarding the date, hour, level etc are exceedingly sparse and hard to understand. Then I realised you don't even need any of that. You simply find the trapezium and then rotate the reticule to match it. Not sure why they put all that other date/hour stuff on it.

Greg.

YW Greg. Big fan of your images.
I use a red light and move it away from the polarscope end to make it dimmer a dimmable red led torch would be great.
The date/hour is for the North Hemisphere.
It's funny but it's actually easier to polar align in the south hemisphere if you have the trapezium in the reticle.

Originally Posted by seeker372011

Luigi and you, Greg, make a strong case to invest in the polar scope....or lfor a little more money just buy the Ioptron version which comes with a polar scope..

Last night I was all set up and still trying to polar align when the cloud came over...from the sound of it,you were away and imaging in a few minutes

Ioptron's Polar Scope doesn't have the trapezium in the reticle for reasons beyond my understanding.

So to align the Ioptron Sky-Tracker you have to know where to put Sigma Octantis in the polarscope. There's an Iphone/Ipad application for that but I don't have an Iphone or Ipad.

Rant-Starts:
Why oh why did Ioptron decide that it was a good idea for south hemisphere users to carry an iphone/ipad and check it instead of just drawing the trapezium in the reticle?
Rant-Ends:

Ok back to aligning.
Once the trapezium is found (See previous posts/map) then I use an asterism shaped like a J that points towards the South Celestial pole. The asterism points to a small star and then a pair and the SCP is just between them. Center the polarscope on that point and you should be really well aligned with the Ioptron.

If you can't see the "J"/Umbrella then you can just imagine a triangle using the two stars in the shorter side of the trapezium as in map 3 (green).

More tips: Unless your tripod head can rotate you need a panning base for the Ioptron sky-tracker. The Feisol panning base fist perfectly. The Sky-tracker has a latitude control but no azimuth (another design mistery).

Aligning well with the polarscopes takes about 5 minutes or less and you can do 4/5 minutes exposures or even more.

[Octane (Humayun)]

Thanks for your awesome suggestion with the three little stars, Luis.

I get mine tomorrow. Can't wait to play.

H

[Phil Hart]

I think you've got most of the advice you need from the rest of this thread.. I have the polar scope and you can certainly do accurate alignment with it from Bendigo skies, but it is over-priced for a polar scope.

Otherwise the combination of an inclinometer and sighting to where Sigma Octans is in the sky is quite accurate.. maybe not quite for 8 mins but with a wide angle lens it could be close.

My TiltBox inclinometer generally gets me within half a degree altitude and I find I can sight to within a degree or two for azimuth as well. Sometimes that's all I do, otherwise that puts Sigma Octans comfortably in the polar scope for final alignment.

Phil

[Hakka (Lincoln)]

I got my polar scope, just gave it a try in the middle of bendigo under heavy light pollution. It took about three minutes to get it spot on, without my inclinometer or compass.

To illuminate the scope I used a fenix LED torch with a red filter. I aimed it down the barrel of the scope but it was a bit fiddly as even on the low setting its very powerful. Is there a better way to illuminate the reticule?

[Rohan]

Quick note for an iOptron Skytracker users with android phones. Get the app called PolarFinder. It has an iOptron setting that will match the skytrackers polarscope. Makes accurate alignment much easier once you get the trapezium in the field of view.

As also noted a panning base is a must for the iOptron unless you want to be lifting the whole tripod and moving it.