Polar alignment without Polaris

[Luis]

Dear Robin,

A simple and relatively fast way of polar aligning when Polaris/NCP is obstructed would be quite useful.

Going through the archived messages, I realize that a similar feature has been discussed in the past but not implemented.

Regards,

Luis

[akjudge]

I'm one of those that have an SCT so the camera train won't go between the forks, thus I have no ability to Polar Align using SharpCap. NINA has a Polar alignment procedure for people like me, but I hate to switch from SharpCap. I will remain optimistic that Robin can one day provide a similar Polar alignment procedure for us SCT users ( and those who don't have a view of Polaris).

Jim

[Paulinho]

Hi, Luis.
I may be off the mark with your question, but I use SharpCap (exlusively now) for polar alignment (under Tools>Polar Align). It works a treat and is simple and convenient.

Where I am from (Australia) we have no view of Polaris and yet somehow we make do . I presume SharpCap makes use of way more stars than just Polaris (it certainly does in the Southern Hemisphere), although I'm not sure how obstructed the NCP region needs to be before SharpCap runs out of suitable stars.

With a refractor (e.g. Esprit 120) I use the scope itself. When using my SCT (Edge HD 8") I use a guide scope (200mm as it happens) to get a wider field of view. (I now use an OAG, so simply borrow my guide camera from my OAG for the alignment).

I gather akjudge has an Alt/Az mount, given the mention of forks. My mount is EQ, so not sure what the challenge with image train and forks are.

If I am missing an important point here, please let me know as there is always more to learn.

Hope that helps.
Cheers.
Paul

[admin]

Hi Paul,

I think people sometimes forget about the southern hemisphere when they post this sort of issue, and just think in terms of the northern skies...

The problem in this case is the inability to see the sky around the celestial pole - which means no view of polaris in the NH. Probably trees or buildings in the way from the normal observing location. Without that view of the pole, SharpCap's polar alignment routine can't work, but other polar alignment techniques can.

cheers,

Robin

[Luis]

Hi Paulinho,

Robin just explained my point. I actually use SharpCap's tool for polar alignment almost exclusively when observing in the countryside, as I have a clear view of the NCP region. It works great. However, I have a difficult time getting a quick and accurate polar alignment from home (city) as buildings block the NCP. This would increase my observing time, since it is not always feasible to make the long drive to darker skies.

Regards,

Luís

[turfpit]

Luis

What mount do you have?

Dave

[Paulinho]

Hi, Luis.
Apologies for not quite understanding, and consequently telling you what you already knew, probably better than me.
I hope you find a solution.
Cheers.
Paul

[Luis]

Hi Dave,

AZ-EQ5 and EQ6-R.

Regards,

Luis

[Luis]

Hi Paulinho,

No need for apologies

Thank you for taking an interest in my message and generously trying to help!

Regards,

Luís

[turfpit]

Luis

I think those mounts have a Synscan hand controller? If that is the case have a look at
https://inter-static.skywatcher.com/dow ... 8V1-EN.pdf
for the manual download.

See 11.3 Polar Alignment without Polar Scope for how to use any star to perform a polar alignment.

I have a Celestron AVX mount which has a similar function All Star Polar Align (ASPA). I use it at the end of the mount alignment process to verify the polar align error. Shows the error like this:

ASPA-result.JPG (33.01 KiB) Viewed 1092 times

This https://perfectastronomy.com/stargazing ... t-polaris/ talks about polar alignment apps and also the drift alignment method.

Good luck with this.

Dave