Polar Align without rotating the mount

Using SharpCap's Polar Alignment feature
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carlosgib
Posts: 14
Joined: Sat Jun 01, 2019 11:10 pm

Polar Align without rotating the mount

#1

Post by carlosgib »

Hi Group, I have the telescope in a dome and looking at the instruction when polar alignment It says to rotate the mount to 90 degrees as part of the steps to polar align, unfortunately I can go as low as 90 degrees , maximum 60 degrees. I suppose this is fine given the distances of the polar star to us.

Thanks
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oopfan
Posts: 1321
Joined: Sat Jul 08, 2017 2:37 pm
Location: New York
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Re: Polar Align without rotating the mount

#2

Post by oopfan »

Hi,

Just to be clear "rotate 90 degrees" asks you to unlock the Right Ascension axis and rotate 6 hours.

I've attached four snapshots of my telescope as I prepare it for polar alignment using SharpCap. I begin by unlocking the mount's azimuth and pointing the polar axis roughly in the direction of Polaris. Then I unlock the declination axis and rotate it until the declination setting circle reads 90 degrees. Finally I unlock the right ascension axis and rotate the telescope until the declination axis is horizontal as seen in the photos. You may have noticed that I have an aluminum bar attached to the back of the polar axis. That is temporary since I don't have azimuth adjustment bolts. In these photos the bar is vertical. It will become horizontal after the command to "rotate 90 degrees". I use the bar to gently nudge the mount to achieve alignment.

Brian
Attachments
setting-up-for-manual-guide-tadpole-nebula-3.jpg
setting-up-for-manual-guide-tadpole-nebula-3.jpg (292.78 KiB) Viewed 2055 times
setting-up-for-manual-guide-tadpole-nebula-2.jpg
setting-up-for-manual-guide-tadpole-nebula-2.jpg (399.16 KiB) Viewed 2055 times
setting-up-for-manual-guide-tadpole-nebula-1.jpg
setting-up-for-manual-guide-tadpole-nebula-1.jpg (292.09 KiB) Viewed 2055 times
chongo228
Posts: 204
Joined: Fri Nov 24, 2017 3:34 am

Re: Polar Align without rotating the mount

#3

Post by chongo228 »

carlosgib wrote: Sun Mar 01, 2020 10:32 am Hi Group, I have the telescope in a dome and looking at the instruction when polar alignment It says to rotate the mount to 90 degrees as part of the steps to polar align, unfortunately I can go as low as 90 degrees , maximum 60 degrees. I suppose this is fine given the distances of the polar star to us.

Thanks
Can you go 60 degrees both ways? Instead of going from the 12 o'clock position to the 3 o'clock position you would go from 11o'clock to the 2 o'clock positioin. That would give you 90 degrees of travel.

I usually start mine with the scope rotated down at 3 o'clock and then rotate it up to 12'. I find this makes it easier for me to reach around the mount and move the RA and Dec adjusting knobs.
carlosgib
Posts: 14
Joined: Sat Jun 01, 2019 11:10 pm

Re: Polar Align without rotating the mount

#4

Post by carlosgib »

Thanks guys, good idea starting at 11 o'clock to 2 o'clock. will try this.

Thanks Again

Charles
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