HEQ5pro Alignment

[Keshdogga (Casey)]

Hello everyone,

I seem have run into a bit of trouble while attempting to set up my imaging gear for the first time. I've been having a look around the interwebs to find a method of aligning my heq5 but the majority are all telling me to use damned Polaris!! Grrrrr..... Stupid Northern Hemisphere =P But seriously, the other issue I run into is that all the Southern Hemisphere guides I've seen most probably arent ment for someone as new to amuter astronomy as I am, but I can't even get past the first steps on how to adjust my latitude according to the mount, align the R/A with the median and all the buisness in between! I know my latitude, but I have very little clue how to set the mount to it. I almost completely understand drift alignment exept for the small tweaks I have to make to the telescope to get the alignlment to an accurate enough level. It's just everything from balancing the telescope to starting drift alignment is quite hazy to me and I am very unsure about. So my question is, what is the procedure I would follow to get from the balancing stage to the drift alignment stage?

If this helps this is what I do to get to the balancing.
1. Set up the mount
2. telescope on mount
3. weights on mount
4. finderscope attatched
5. camera attatched
6. guide rings attatched to telescope
7. guide scope in rings
8. balance R/A and Declination
9. ????? that's as far as I get

I understand after the alignment that I'll have to focus (which will then require another declination balance right? correct me if i'm wrong), I'll have to adjust the guidescope so that it's aligned with guide star, and I'll set the guide camera up to, well, guide. I have very limited knowledge of the setup process at the moment so any help is very much appreciated

Cheers,
Casey

[Esseth (Alan)]

I'll pay attention to this as well, as it's the current stage i am at as well.

[apaulo (Paul)]

Hi Casey

Ok here is a easy way to get you started with polar alignment in the southern hemisphere.
1: Point the polarscope within the mount towards south (you can use a compass to find magnetic south) then rotate the mount and tripod roughy 11 degrees towards east to locate celestial south.
You will be pointing the mount towards the constellation of Octans.
Sigma Octans is the most southern star closest to celestial south.

2: If you look on the right hand side of your mount you will see a dial with degree increments from 0 to 90 degrees. Set your angle to 37 degrees by twisting the two long bolts (with handles) up or down.
Please remember as one bolt turns it will tighten the other so loosen that too.

3: Turn your mount on and rotate the top axis of the mount so you can see the red light shining through the polarscope. Look from the top of the polarscope not below, then lock the axis

4: When you look through the polarscope with the power on you will notice the word "Octans", and see four holes jointed with lines. You must align the four stars within the holes of that pattern to obtain polar alignment.

5: Look at the pattern of Octans, turn the power of, focus the polarscope and see if you can see that pattern in the night sky.
You may have to adjust the angle and the position of your mount to locate the Octans pattern That's the hard part. It took me four nights to figure this out Casey. Once you know what your looking for it falls into place.

6: Once you have found the pattern rotate the main axis of your mount to align the stars within the holes. The consellation of Octans rotates around the SCP, so the position of the pattern you are looking for will change throughout the year. To fine tune the alignment you can alter the DEC by adjusting the angle and RA by the two black knobs on the base of the mount.

7: Once alignment has been achieved return the mount in a home position manually and tighten knobs, bolts and the two axis.
Set your lat/long, time etc via the skyscan and then do your 1,2 or 3 star alignment

I hope that helps.
Regards Paul.

[adman (Adam)]

to get to the stage where you can drift align, you need to have the mount roughly (but the closer the better) oriented in the right direction.

so the process below is number 1 in your list

STEP 1: Take the equatorial head off the tripod.
STEP 2:Your tripod will have one leg that is marked differently to the other two. There will either be an "N" sticker, or a "S" sticker if you are lucky, or the leg will have a short upright peg above it on the top of the tripod that the equatorial head slots onto. Either way this is the leg that needs to point towards true (not magnetic) south. Does not have to be absolutely dead accurate, as there is some adjustment available once you get the equatorial head attached.

There are a couple of ways to determine true south - you can use a compass to find magnetic south then find out the magnetic deviation for your location to work out where true south is. My favourite method is to use a hanging piece of string with a weight attached, then mark the shadow of the string at SOLAR NOON. You will be able to find a solar noon calculator, and magnetic deviation charts with a quick google search.

STEP 3: Once you have got the tripod pointing true south, then it is time to level the tripod. Use a spirit level, and make sure that it is level in the direction of each tripod leg. Be careful not to move the tripod away from your true south orientation when doing this.

Step 4: Attach the equatorial head - try to make sure that your azimuth adjusting screws are somewhere near the middle of their adjusting range, so you have a good amount of adjustment in both directions - this will help you when you are drift aligning.

Step 5: Set the altitude scale (on the side of the mount at the bottom) to your latitude - again needs to be close, but not super accurate - drift aligning will sort out the last degree or two.

After the above, you will be roughly polar aligned. Ready to go through the rest of your steps. Item 9 in your post would be "Start Drift alignment"

Hope that helps
Adam

Oops - Paul beat me to it - although you will need to set your angle to nearer 27 degrees (your latitude near Brisbane), not 37....

[jenchris (Jennifer)]

Thanks for that!!

[niko]

I thought it should also be mentioned that the compass should be held away from the mount as the metal in the mount will affect the compass - ie. don't sit the compass on top of the mount when determining magentic south.

I really liked the wooden jig method mentioned here

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/63-499-0-0-1-0.html

Also there's some tips to setting up your mount here:


http://www.iceinspace.com.au/63-498-0-0-1-0.html

Actually there's also some pointers on drift alignment in the articles section too.

Good luck - practice makes perfect

niko (who still struggles with good alignment!)

[adman (Adam)]

Originally Posted by niko

I thought it should also be mentioned that the compass should be held away from the mount as the metal in the mount will affect the compass - ie. don't sit the compass on top of the mount when determining magentic south.

Yep - definitely! Thats why I like the solar noon method - less room for errors creeping in.

Adam

[Keshdogga (Casey)]

Wow thank you guys so much! That makes incredibly much more sense now. I had no clue what the two screws (latituded screws) or the nobs (altitude nobs) did before now, if that gives an indication or my current knowledge

That Wood method seems like something to look into, I happen to have a few pieces of wood lying around that I'm sure dad won't mind me commandeering cheers for that link niko.

But a big thanks Paul and Adam what you've listed was exactly what I was looking for and couldn't find on the net! I really appreciate the help =]

Thanks a heap,
Casey

[that_guy (Tony)]

when i polar align, terry told me this somewhat simple method... align your scope to the mount so it can act as a polar scope, roughly point it south. take exposures so the stars trail and where the centre of it is the Southern Pole.... adjust your Alt and Az on your mount until the centre of the pole is exactly in the middle of the pole, with this you can do 1 min exposure with the ed80 without any trailing... this is wayyyy easy to do..

[adman (Adam)]

Originally Posted by Keshdogga

But a big thanks Paul and Adam what you've listed was exactly what I was looking for and couldn't find on the net! I really appreciate the help =]

No worries. If you already have a guide camera, then there is a great method of polar aligning using PHD (the guiding software). Have a look at this thread on another forum - there are more out there if you google.

Probably best though to give it a go "manually' first, so you get a feel for the adjustments and why you are doing them, but doing it with a guide cam / PHD is much quicker.

Good luck
Adam