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
Polar Align without rotating the mount
Re: Polar Align without rotating the mount
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
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
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- setting-up-for-manual-guide-tadpole-nebula-3.jpg (292.78 KiB) Viewed 2055 times
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- setting-up-for-manual-guide-tadpole-nebula-2.jpg (399.16 KiB) Viewed 2055 times
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- setting-up-for-manual-guide-tadpole-nebula-1.jpg (292.09 KiB) Viewed 2055 times
Re: Polar Align without rotating the mount
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.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
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.
Re: Polar Align without rotating the mount
Thanks guys, good idea starting at 11 o'clock to 2 o'clock. will try this.
Thanks Again
Charles
Thanks Again
Charles